Mazanderani Bible Portions (Luke +) (MZNWBT)

Overview

This volume contains Bible portions in Mazanderani (Western Mazanderani dialect), including the Gospel of Luke and additional selections, produced by Mazanmedia and published through Wycliffe Bible Translators [1][2]. The translation is part of a broader effort led by Korpu, a Bible translation agency founded by Feridoon Mokhof, who began translating the Bible into his native Southern Azeri in 1990 and expanded into Mazanderani and other Iranian minority languages in the early 2000s [3]. Mazanderani is a Northwestern Iranian language spoken primarily in the Mazandaran Province along the southern coast of the Caspian Sea in northern Iran, with an estimated 2.3 million speakers of the Western dialect [4]. Among living Iranian languages, Mazanderani has one of the longest literary traditions, dating from the tenth to fifteenth centuries, though its modern use is declining as speakers increasingly shift to Persian [5]. The publication of these Bible portions is significant because Iran mandates Farsi in education and civil affairs, leaving minority language communities with few resources in their mother tongue [3].

Language and People

Mazanderani (ISO 639-3: mzn) is spoken by approximately 2,320,000 people. [Glottolog: maza1291]

Publishing and Organizations

Published by Wycliffe Bible Translators USA.

References