Local name:	Gilaki
Language family:	Indo-European > Indo-Iranian > Iranian > Western Iranian > Northwestern Iranian > Caspian
Native speakers:	~ 3.3 millions (Ethnologue.com, 1993)
Script:	A modified version of the Arabic alphabet (if written)
Official in:	Not official.
Spoken mostly in:	Iran (esp. the provinces Gilan and Mazandaran)

Gilaki belongs, together with Mazandarani, to the Caspian languages. Those are Iranian languages spoken at the southern coast of the Caspian Sea, north of the Alborz mountain range.

Even though Gilaki and Persian belong to different branches of the Iranian languages, they belong to the same cultural zone, where Persian is the dominant player, and Persian has therefore had a great influence on Gilaki, and many words have been borrowed. The verbs and the verb system has been very resistant to this influence, though.

Gilaki has traditionally been a spoken a language, and only during the last decades, there have been attempts at standardizing a written form of the language.

Gilaki: “Šomāle bād va āftāb”
Speaker: Padideh Age at recording: 31 (2013) Geographical reference: Kohne Gurāb, Gilān, IR (Google Map) Linguistic background: Padideh grew up speaking both Persian and Gilaki Transcription scheme: Based on Unipers Transcription scheme: Based on Unipers

Šomāle bād va āftāb hamdigare amra davā giftid ki kay-nafar qavitare, itā mardāy bamo ki xu ru itā bāšloqe garm dāšti.
Ušān hamdigare amra kenār bamoyid ke ki zudtar tane ane bāšloqa az ane ru usane.
Šomāle bād bā tamāme xu qudrat fui baze, vali harči ki bištar fui zayi marday bištar xu bāšloqa xore časbāneyi, ta šomāle bād das bakeše.
Dar natije āftāb jolo bamo va enqad garm o nurāni betabese va mardāy majbur bubose xu bāšloqa az xu tan birun bavare.
Šomāle bād qabul bukude ki āftāb qavitare.