Shabaki language

Shabaki is an Indo-Iranian language and belongs to the subgroup Zaza-Gorani^[2][3][4][5] of the Northwestern Iranian languages. The Shabaki language is spoken by the Shabak people^[6][7] in the Mosul region of northern 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.^[8][9][10] It also has elements of Arabic, Turkish and Persian language.^[5][11] The number of speakers of Shabaki was estimated in 1989 to be between 10,000 and 20,000.^[12] Currently, the number of native speakers of Shabaki is estimated at 250,000.^[13] As Shabaki is one of the Zaza–Gorani languages, 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.^[14]