Yahya Zoka was a writer, archaeologist, and art historian of Iran. Since his youth and student days, he was interested in the hypothesis of the Kasravi Azeri language, and he undertook some research on this topic, and he published the results of his research and findings in numerous articles. Nine of these articles by Yahya Zoka were published in 1990 by the Dr. Mahmoud Afshar Endowment Foundation under the title “Essays on the Language of the Azerbaijani People.” In this article, three examples of Yahya Zoka’s articles, titled “Two Newly Discovered Azeri Ghazals,” “Kreingan Dialect,” and “Gelin-Qiyeh or Harzandi Dialect,” are reviewed and criticized.
The article “Two Newly Discovered Azeri Ghazals” is related to the publication of a poetry collection named Badr Shirvani (845-789 AH). This collection was printed and published by Abolfazl Hashem-oghly Rahimov in the publications of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Academy of Sciences of the Azerbaijan Socialist Republic. In that divan, there are two ghazals and a mulamme, which were composed in a special dialect. Zoka has considered these two ghazals to be related to the Azeri language and has attempted to introduce it.
The “Essay on the Keringan Dialect” is the result of Yahya Zokaa's research during her stay of several months in the border areas of Iran along the Aras River in 1949. During this time, she collected notes on the Tati language of the “Keringan” people from the villages of the Qara-Dagh region of East Azerbaijan and published them in Tehran in 1953.
“The Dialect of Gelin Qiyeh or Harzandi” is the title of an article written by the author about the language of the people of Gelin Qiyeh village in Marand province. This article is based on information collected by him during his visit to this village in 1954. It contains five sections: “Dictionary”, “A Few Grammatical Points About the Harzandi Dialect”, “Conjugation of Several Verbs”, “Translation of Several Proverbs into the Harzandi Dialect”, and “Text in the Harzandi Dialect” with its Persian translation.