Semnani language

Semnani (سمنی زفون, Semani zefön) (known also as Komisenian languages) is one of the local languages of the Semnan province of Iran. Despite the common misconception that Semnani is a Persian dialect, the language belongs to the Northwestern branch of the Western Iranian languages. Like other Caspian languages, it bears some resemblance to the Old Iranian Median language and was influenced by Parthian in a later process.^[2]

Semnani
سمنی زفون Semani zefön
Region	Iran
Ethnicity	Semnani
Native speakers	70,000 (2021)[1]
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Iranian Western Iranian Northwestern Semnani Semnani
Dialects	Biyabanaki
Language codes
ISO 639-3	smy
Glottolog	semn1249
ELP	Semnani

Map depicting areas where Semnani languages are spoken (alongside Caspian languages)

Phonology

Consonants

	Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	m		n			(ŋ)
Plosive	p b		t d			k ɡ	q	ʔ
Affricate				tʃ dʒ
Fricative	f v	θ	s z	ʃ ʒ		x ɣ		h
Tap			ɾ
Trill			(r)
Approximant			l		j	w

(Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a voiced consonant. Allophones are in parentheses.)

Grammar

Syntax

Subjects in Semnani must have gender agreement with the verb in their immediate clause.^[3]

Notes

1. Semnani at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
2. Habib Borjian: . In: . Nr. 2. Brill, 2009
3. Rezapour, Ebrahim (2015). "Word order in Semnani language based on language typology". IQBQ. 6 (5): 169–190.

Bibliography

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.