Semnani language

Semnani
Region	Iran
Native speakers	60,000 (2007)
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Iranian Western Iranian Semnani Semnani
Dialects	? Biyabanaki
Language codes
ISO 639-3	smy
Glottolog	semn1249

Semnani (Semnani: fa Semani zefön) is one of the local languages of the Semnan Province of Iran. The language belongs to the Northwestern Branch of the Western Iranian languages, and it is a descendent of the now extinct Parthian language. The Semnani language is often mistakenly labeled as a "dialect".

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.)

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.