Zaza–Gorani is a Kurdic 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–Gorani languages are the Zaza and the Gorani, and Shabaki languages. Whereas Gorani is composed of four dialects being Hawrami, Bajelani and Sarli.
Gorani (Kurdish: گۆرانی, romanized: Goranî, lit. 'song'), also known by the name of its main dialect, Hawrami (ھەورامی, romanized: Hewramî), is a Northwestern Iranian language spoken by ethnic Kurds in northeastern Iraq and northwestern Iran and which with Zaza constitute the Zaza–Gorani languages. Zaza and Gorani are linguistically distinct from the Kurdish language, although the great majority of their speakers consider their language to be Kurdish.
Gorani is spoken in Iraq and Iran and has four dialects: Bajelani, Hawrami, and Sarli, some sources also include the Shabaki as a dialect of Gorani as well. Of these, Hawrami was the traditional literary language and koiné of Kurds in the historical Ardalan region at the Zagros Mountains, but has since been supplanted by Central Kurdish and Southern Kurdish. Gorani is a literary language for many Kurds.
Kurds (Kurdish: کورد, romanized: Kurd), or the Kurdish people, are an Iranic ethnic group from West Asia. They are indigenous to Kurdistan, which is a geographic region spanning southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northeastern Syria. Consisting of 30–45 million people, the global Kurdish population is largely concentrated in Kurdistan, but significant communities of the Kurdish diaspora exist in parts of West Asia beyond Kurdistan and in parts of Europe, most notably including: Turkey's Central Anatolian Kurds, as well as Istanbul Kurds; Iran's Khorasani Kurds; the Caucasian Kurds, primarily in Azerbaijan and Armenia; and the Kurdish populations in various European countries, namely Germany, France, Sweden, and the Netherlands.
The Kurdish languages and the Zaza–Gorani languages, both of which belong to the Western Iranic branch of the Iranic language family, are the native languages of the Kurdish people. Other widely spoken languages among the community are those of their host countries or neighbouring regions, such as Turkish, Persian, or Arabic. The most prevalent religion among Kurds is Sunni Islam, with Shia Islam and Alevism being significant Islamic minorities. Yazidism, which is the ethnic religion of the Kurdish-speaking Yazidi people, is the largest non-Islamic minority religion among the broader Kurdish community, followed by Yarsanism, Zoroastrianism, and Christianity.
Shabaks (Arabic: الشبك, Kurdish: شەبەک, romanized: Şebek) are a group native to the Nineveh Plains in Iraq. They speak Shabaki, a branch of the Zaza–Gorani languages, and largely follow Shia Islam. Their ethnic origin is uncertain and disputed, although they were largely considered Kurds by scholars.
Zaza (endonym: Zazakî, Dimlî, Dimilkî, Kirmanckî, Kirdkî, or Zonê ma, lit. 'Our language') is a Northwestern Iranian language spoken primarily in eastern Turkey by the Zazas, who are mostly considered as Kurds, and in many cases identify as such. The language is a part of the Zaza–Gorani language group of the northwestern group of the Iranian branch. The glossonym Zaza originated as a pejorative. According to Ethnologue, Zaza is spoken by around 1.48 million people, and the language is considered threatened due to a declining number of speakers, with many shifting to Turkish. Nevins, however, puts the number of Zaza speakers between two and three million.
Shabaki is an Indo-Iranian language and belongs to the subgroup Zaza-Gorani of the Northwestern Iranian languages. The Shabaki language is spoken by the Shabak people in the Mosul region of northern Iraq. It is a subdialect of the Kurdish dialect Gorani. alongside Hewrami, Sarli, and Bajalan. It also been influenced by Arabic, Turkish and Persian language. The number of speakers of Shabaki was estimated in 1989 to be between 10,000 and 20,000. Currently, the number of native speakers of Shabaki is estimated at 250,000. As Shabaki is one of the Zaza–Gorani languages, it is most similar to other Dialects of Gorani; Hewrami Bajelani, Sarli. and to Zazaki.