Sangsari language

Sangsari or Sangisari is an Iranian language spoken mainly in the Semnan and Tehran provinces of Iran, especially in the Sangesar (Mahdi Shehr) town and in several surrounding villages. There are around 50,000 Sangsari speakers.

Classification

Ethnologue classifies Sangsari in the Semnani group of Northwestern Iranian languages that also includes Lasgerdi, Semnani, and Sorkhei. Glottolog classifies the Sangsari language within the Komisenian subgroup of the Northwest Iranian branch of the Iranian languages. Glottolog's classification has also been adopted by Wiktionary. Whereas the Komisenian languages consist of Sangsari, Lasgerdi, Sorkhei and Aftari languages the Semnani languages consist of Semnani and Biyabuneki. Sangsari is also, linguistically, close to Zaza, spoken in Anatolia. Jost Gippert classifies Sangsari, Zaza and Balochi together within the Hyrcanian subgroup.

Phonology

The vowels of Sangsari are /a,aː,e,eː,i,o,oː,u,uː/. The consonants are the same as in Persian.

Grammar

Sangisari, similar to Semnani, Zaza and Tati, has a two-gender, case and ergative system. It distinguishes two numbers in pronouns, singular and plural, and marks two cases, the direct (nominative) and the oblique and distinguishes between masculine and feminine in the third person singular for both the direct and oblique case.

Pronouns

English	Sangsari	Semnani	Zaza	Tati	Tati	Tati	Tati	Tati
i	a	a	ez	az	az	az	az	az
you	tö	tö	tı	ta	ta	tö	ta	tə
he	nö	u	o	o	u	a	a	av
she	nā	una	a	oa	ua	ā	aya	ava
we	ham	hamā	mā	amā	ǰema	čama	amā	âmâ
you	xā	šemā	šımā	šomā	šemā	šəma	šömā	šâmâ
they	anun	uni	ê/inā	o	unehā	āhā	ay	avə

notes

Pierre Lecoq. 1989. "Les dialectes caspiens et les dialectes du nord-ouest de l'Iran," Compendium Linguarum Iranicarum. Ed. Rüdiger Schmitt. Wiesbaden: Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag. Pages 296–314.