Shabaki (زِوان شَبَكي)

Shabaki is a language spoken by Shabak people in Mosul, Iraq. It is
part of the northwestern group of the Iranian part of the Indo-Iranian
branch of the Indo-European family. The Shabaki language belongs to the
Zaza-Gorani group and is supposed to share major similarities with Gorani
dialects such as Hewremi, Bajelani and Sarli. It’s written in Arabic Alphabet
and has 28 Letters .

In 1989 an estimate of speakers of Shabaki was put between 10,000 and
20,000. According to Shabaki media man (Ghanem Musawi), those statistics
are not correct because the former regime of AlBaath forced the Shabak
People to choose between Arabization and Kurdization .

Shabaki alphabet and pronunciation

Notes

The long version of ا = /ɑ/
و = u/ as a long vowel and /w/ as a consonant
ي = /i/ as a long vowel abd /j/ as a consonant
Short vowel marks are same as in Arabic: fatha (َ ),
Damma (ُ-) and Kasra (ِ ). Fatha = /æ/,
Damma = /o/ and Kasra = /e/.