Mazanderani New Testament — Western Dialect (MZNMWV)

Overview

This New Testament in the Western dialect of Mazanderani was produced by Korpu Ltd and dedicated as part of a collection of twelve new Iranian minority-language Bible translations presented at a ceremony in London in January 2024 [1]. Korpu — meaning "bridge" in Azeri — is a Bible translation agency founded and directed by Feridoon Mokhof, who began translating the New Testament into his native Southern Azeri in 1990 and later expanded into Mazanderani and other minority languages of Iran [1]. Translation work on Mazanderani began in the early 2000s and was held in abeyance until the Southern Azeri Scriptures were completed in 2014, after which Korpu resumed work on Mazanderani alongside Gilaki, Talysh, Luri, Tati, and Qashqai [1]. Iran mandates Farsi in education and civil affairs, leaving minority-language communities with few resources in their mother tongue and creating significant demand for Scripture in languages such as Mazanderani [1]. Three distinct Mazanderani dialect translations were produced by Korpu: a Western dialect version, an Eastern dialect version, and a GileMaz mixed dialect version, reflecting the internal diversity of the language [2]. Mazanderani is a Northwestern Iranian language with one of the oldest literary traditions among living Iranian languages, documented from the tenth to the fifteenth centuries [3].

Language and People

Mazanderani (ISO 639-3: mzn) is spoken by an estimated 2,320,000 people, primarily in the Mazandaran Province along the southern coast of the Caspian Sea in northern Iran. [Glottolog: maza1291]

Publishing and Organizations

Published by Korpu Ltd. Translation type: First.

References