Shabaki is an Indo-Iranian language

Indo-Iranian languages

The Indo-Iranian language group constitutes the easternmost extant branch of the Indo-European family of languages. It consists of three language groups: the Indo-Aryan, Iranian and Nuristani...

 of the Zaza–Gorani group spoken by the Shabak people

Shabak people

Shabak people are an ethnic and religious minority group living in northern Iraq, who live mainly in the villages of Ali Rash, Khazna, Yangidja, and Tallara in Sinjar district in the province of Ninawa in northern Iraq. Their language, Shabaki, is a Northwestern Iranian language very close to...

 and ethnic Kurds in Mosul, Iraq. The number of speakers of Shabaki was estimated in 1989 to be between 10,000 and 20,000.

Similarities with other languages

As Shabaki belongs the Zaza–Gorani group it is most similar to languages such as Gorani (Hewrami) dialects

Gorani language

Gorani is a Northwestern Iranian language, that includes Hewrami, and is spoken by Kurdish populations in the southernmost parts of Iranian Kurdistan and the Iraqi Kurdistan region. Some linguists classify it as a member of the Zaza–Gorani branch of the Northwestern Iranian languages...

 and Zazaki

Zazaki language

Zazaki is an Indo-European language spoken primarily in eastern Turkey. According to Ethnologue, the language is a part of the northwestern group of the Iranian section of the Indo-European family. Zazaki shares many features, structures, and vocabulary with Gorani, Talyshi and other Caspian...

. As Zaza–Gorani belongs to the Northwestern Iranian branch, it also shares specific Sorani Kurdish features:

Shabaki	Zazaki	Sorani Kurdish	Hewrami	English
cham	çım	caw	cem	eye
ziwan	zıwan	ziman	ziwan	tongue

Pronouns

{| border="1" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" style="border:1px solid #aaa; border-collapse:collapse"
|- bgcolor="#ADD8E6"
!Shabaki
!Zazaki
!Sorani Kurdish
!Hewrami
!English
|--
| amn-am||ez||min||emin, min||I, me, mine, my
|--
| atu||to, tu||tu, to||eto, to||thou, thee, thine
|--
| aw, îna||a, o||ew||ew||s/he, his, hers, him, her
|--
| hima-alama-gisht||ma||ême||ma||we, our
|--
| shime||shima||êwe||shima||you, your
|--
| ishan||inu, inan||Ewan||Ade||they, them, their
|--
|