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Sangsari language

Semnani language spoken in northern Iran

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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.

01Classification

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.

02Phonology

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

03Grammar

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. Distinguishing them from all other Western Iranian languages, the typological feature of grammatical gender marking within the copula is exhibited by Sangsari, alongside Semnani, Momenabadi, Zaza, and Tati.

Pronouns

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

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article Sangsari language, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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