Shabaki is an

Indo-Iranian language The Indo-Iranian languages (also Indo-Iranic languages or Aryan languages) constitute the largest and southeasternmost extant branch of the Indo-European language family (with over 400 languages), predominantly spoken in the geographical subre ...

and belongs to the subgroup Zaza-Gorani of the

Northwestern Iranian languages The Western Iranic languages are a branch of the Iranic languages, attested from the time of Old Persian (6th century BC) and Median. Languages The traditional Northwestern branch is a convention for non-Southwestern languages, rather than a g ...

. The Shabaki language is spoken by the Shabak people in the

Mosul Mosul ( ar, الموصل, al-Mawṣil, ku, مووسڵ, translit=Mûsil, Turkish: ''Musul'', syr, ܡܘܨܠ, Māwṣil) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate. The city is considered the second larg ...

region of northern

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

. It has similarities with the Northwestern Iranian language Gorani (or Hawrami), which is often referred as a " Kurdish dialect", although the Kurdish languages form an independent group within the Northwestern Iranian languages. Shabaki is a distinct language. It also has elements of

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

, Turkish and Persian language. The number of speakers of Shabaki was estimated in 1989 to be between 10,000 and 20,000.Ethnologue about Shabaki
/ref> Currently, the number of native speakers of Shabaki is estimated at 250,000. As Shabaki is one of the

Zaza–Gorani languages Zaza–Gorani is a linguistic subgroup of Northwestern Iranian languages. They are usually classified as a non- Kurdish branch of the Northwestern Iranian languages but most of their speakers consider themselves ethnic Kurds. The Zaza–Gora ...

, it is most similar to languages like Gorani (Hewrami), Bajelani, Sarli and Zazaki. Because Zaza–Gorani belongs to the Northwestern Iranian branch. Shabaki is a language in its own right and not a spoken dialect of any other language, with its own vocabulary and pronunciations, despite the fact that words from many other languages have entered into it as a result of the geographical nearness to other ethnic tribes.

Status

The Shabak people fear the demise of the Shabaki language especially after the occupation of the ISIS terrorist groups to their home in Nineveh Plain, which led to the displacement of the majority of their population and the other groups residing in that area.

Comparison

Pronouns

Vocabulary

Literature

* Dr. Sultan, Abbas Hassan Jassim (

University of Kufa The University of Kufa is one of Iraqi universities located in Kufa, Iraq. It was founded on December 23, 1987 of only two faculties; Education for Women and Medicine. Worthy mentioned that the Faculty of Medicine was established roughly a decad ...

, Iraq)
Shabaki - English Dictionary
or here a
PDF
(2016)
An Account of Light verb constructions in Shabaki
(Vol. 5 2011, 2)
An Account of Clitics in Shabaki with Reference to Wackernagel's Law
(2014)
Serial verb constructions in Shabaki

Reciprocal Pronouns in Shabaki
(Vol. 4 2010, 1)
Causatives in Shabaki
(Vol. 4 2010, 2)
An Account of Epistemic Modality in Shabaki

The truth conditional content of evidentials in Shabaki

Evidentials in Shabaki

Shabaki alphabets
or here a
Slideshow
* E. K. Brown, R. E. Asher, J. M. Y. Simpson (Elsevier, 2006)
Encyclopedia of language & linguistics, Band 2

References

External links

Ethnologue

SIL International

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shabaki Language Northwestern Iranian languages Languages of Iraq Languages of Kurdistan Shabak people