Fars, Southwestern

The southwestern Fars dialects are the rural speech of central and western Fars province, a continuum of Southwestern Iranian varieties that descend from forms of Middle Persian and were traditionally called Tajiki by their speakers. They are sister varieties of standard Persian rather than dialects of it, and now survive in small rural districts or single villages: Buringuni, Masarmi, Somghuni, Papuni, Ardakani, Kalati, Khollari, Kondazi and Davani, with the Kuhmareh districts north of Kazerun holding the largest population. Speakers identify as Persians and by their district (Kuhmarehi, Davani).

Speakers live in Zagros foothill villages between Shiraz, Kazerun and Sepidan, growing grain, rice and orchard fruit and herding sheep and goats. Khollar was once among Iran's famous wine villages. Local scholars document the vocabulary: in early 2025 Ali Madad Nowruzi launched a 13-chapter dictionary of the Kuhmareh dialect in Shiraz, presenting it as a living continuation of Middle Persian.

Speakers are Twelver Shia, observing Muharram and visiting local imamzadeh shrines as across rural Fars. Kazerun was historically the seat of the Kazeruni Sufi order, but no Sufi practice among these villagers today is documented. Migrants to Shiraz share the national drift toward secularism.

No Scripture exists in the Fars dialects; all speakers use Persian, for which the Bible, the Jesus Film and audio resources are available. Audio recordings in the dialect are reported by Joshua Project but unverified.