Symbols
74Click a symbol to copy it and open its page.
Why is 🪕 a box on my screen?
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Zaza alphabet: A to K
Ç follows C, Ê follows E, Ğ follows G and Î follows I, each a letter of its own. In the standard alphabet the capital of i is plain I.
Zaza alphabet: L to Z
Ş follows S and Û follows U. Q, W and X are everyday Zaza letters.
Turkish-style spelling
Some writers in Türkiye follow Turkish spelling and write the short vowel as dotless ı (zıwan for ziwan), with dotted İ as the capital of i.
Quotation marks
Currency
Where Zaza is spoken
Türkiye is home to nearly all speakers; Germany is home to a large community abroad.
Music and mountains
On the map
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The Zaza alphabet in order
One Zazaki Latin spelling, shown here, has 32 letters: A B C Ç D E Ê F G Ğ H I Î J K L M N O P Q R S Ş T U Û V W X Y Z. Twenty-six are the familiar A to Z; the other six carry a mark, the cedilla on Ç and Ş, the circumflex on Ê, Î and Û and the breve on Ğ, and each has its own place in this spelling, straight after its plain letter.
Modern Zazaki Latin writing developed in diaspora publications from the 1980s onward, and several orthographies remain in use. The Vate Study Group, established in 1996, promotes a 31-letter Bedirxan/Hawar alphabet without Ğ; other systems include it, so this 32-letter form is not the single alphabet followed by all writers. Older Zaza texts were written in Arabic script.
Several plain letters do not sound as they do in English. C is the j of jam, J the s of measure, X the rough kh of Scottish loch, Q a k said deep in the throat, W the English w and Y the y of yes. Words are read the way they are written.
Zaza letters Ç, Ê, Ğ, Î, Ş and Û: what they sound like
The circumflex marks the long, clear vowels. E is open, as in English bed, and Ê is closer, like the vowel of day, as in Xarpêt, the Zaza name of Harput near Elazığ. I is a short, dull vowel, close to the a in about, and Î is the ee of see, the sound at the end of Zazakî and Kirmanckî. U is a short u and Û the long oo of moon. Dropping the circumflex changes the vowel, so it is not optional.
Ç is the ch of church, as in Çewlîg, the Zaza and Kurdish name of Bingöl, and Ş is the sh of ship, as in şew, night. In the 32-letter spelling shown here, Ğ represents a voiced back fricative, a soft gargled sound like the Arabic gh; the 31-letter Vate/Hawar spelling omits it.
In the 31-letter Bedirxan/Hawar spelling used by Vate, the capital of i is plain I, and there is no dotless ı. Phones and programs set to Turkish turn i into İ when they capitalise, so check headings written in capitals.
Turkish-style Zaza spelling with ı and İ
Not everyone writes Zaza the same way. Some writers and publishers in Türkiye follow Turkish spelling habits: the short vowel becomes dotless ı and its capital I, while dotted i takes the Turkish capital İ. The word for language then appears as zıwan instead of ziwan, and eye as çım instead of çim.
Both spellings are in use, so this page has İ and ı next to the 32-letter spelling shown above. If you use the 31-letter Bedirxan/Hawar spelling, leave them out; if you use the Turkish-style spelling, a Turkish keyboard already has every letter except Ê, Î and Û.
How to type Zaza letters on a keyboard and phone
Windows: with Num Lock on, hold Alt and type on the number pad: Alt0199 Ç, Alt0231 ç, Alt0202 Ê, Alt0234 ê, Alt0206 Î, Alt0238 î, Alt0219 Û, Alt0251 û. Ğ and Ş have no Alt code of this kind; in Word type 011E, 011F, 015E or 015F and press AltX, or add the Turkish Q keyboard, which has keys for Ç, Ğ and Ş. With the United States-International layout, press and then e, i or u for ê î û, and ' then c for ç.
Mac: press Optioni, then the vowel, for ê î û (Optioni then ShiftE gives Ê), and Optionc for ç. For ğ and ş, add the Turkish Q input source and switch to it with ControlSpace. iPhone and Android: hold down e, i, u or c on the keyboard and slide to ê, î, û or ç; ğ and ş are on the Turkish keyboard.
On web pages the letters can be written as HTML entities: Ç ç Ê ê Î î Û û, and Ğ ğ for Ğ ğ, Ş ş for Ş ş. Mark Zaza text with lang="zza" so that browsers and screen readers know which language it is.
Where the Zaza language is spoken
Zaza is spoken in eastern Türkiye , around Tunceli (Dersim), Bingöl, Elazığ, Erzincan, Muş, Diyarbakır, Adıyaman and Siverek, and by many families who moved to Istanbul and other large cities. CLDR estimates about 1.2 million speakers; other counts run higher. Germany is home to a large Zaza community abroad, so many speakers pay in euros as well as lira . Writing uses the ordinary Latin punctuation, and quotations usually go in curly quotes “ ”.
There are three main dialects: Northern Zaza around Dersim, whose speakers usually say Kirmanckî; Central Zaza around Bingöl and Palu; and Southern Zaza around Siverek and Çermik, where Dimilkî is common. Speakers of different dialects understand each other with some effort.
Linguists class Zaza as a Northwestern Iranian language of its own, closest to Gorani and to the Caspian languages such as Talysh, and not a dialect of Kurmanji, although the two have lived side by side for centuries and share many words. Many Zaza speakers count themselves as Kurds; others see the Zaza as a people of their own. Related collections: Kurdish (Kurmanji), which writes with almost the same alphabet, Central Kurdish (Sorani), Turkish, which shares Ç, Ğ and Ş, and Persian, a more distant relative.
How to use them
5 situationsClick to copyZaza Alphabet (Zazaki) combos
10Worth knowing
- The first book printed in Zaza is usually said to be Ehmedê Xasî's Mewlid, a poem on the birth of the Prophet, printed in 1899 in Arabic script.
- The ISO language code zza covers two varieties with codes of their own: kiu for Northern Zaza (Kirmanjki) and diq for Southern Zaza (Dimli).
- UNESCO's Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger lists Zaza as vulnerable, because many younger speakers grow up with Turkish as their main language.
- The 32-letter spelling shown here adds Ğ to the 31-letter Bedirxan/Hawar letter set; Vate uses the 31-letter alphabet without Ğ.
Questions people ask
7How many letters are in the Zaza alphabet?
The 32-letter spelling shown here is: A B C Ç D E Ê F G Ğ H I Î J K L M N O P Q R S Ş T U Û V W X Y Z. Vate uses a 31-letter Bedirxan/Hawar alphabet without Ğ; other writers use Turkish-based forms with ı and İ.
Is Zaza a Kurdish language?
Linguists class Zaza as a separate Northwestern Iranian language, closer to Gorani and Talysh than to Kurmanji. Many speakers identify as Kurds and others as Zaza; the language question and the identity question are answered differently by different people.
What is the difference between Zaza and Kurmanji?
They are different Iranian languages that have long been spoken side by side in eastern Türkiye. They share many words and almost the same alphabet, but grammar and basic vocabulary differ enough that speakers of one usually do not follow the other without learning it.
How to type Zaza letters on a keyboard?
Windows: Alt0234 ê, Alt0238 î, Alt0251 û, Alt0231 ç, and the Turkish keyboard for ğ and ş. Mac: Optioni then the vowel for ê î û, Optionc for ç, Turkish Q for ğ and ş. Phones: hold e, i, u or c. Or copy them from this page.
Where is the Zaza language spoken?
In eastern Türkiye, around Tunceli (Dersim), Bingöl, Elazığ, Erzincan, Muş, Diyarbakır, Adıyaman and Siverek, in Istanbul and other cities, and in the diaspora, notably in Germany. CLDR estimates about 1.2 million speakers.
Does Zaza use the Turkish dotless ı?
Not in the standard alphabet, where the short vowel is written i and its capital is I. Some writers in Türkiye use Turkish-style spelling with ı and İ instead (zıwan for ziwan).
What are the Zaza numbers 1 to 10?
yew, di, hîrê, çar, panc, şeş, hewt, heşt, new, des.
