The language appears to be decreasing, as it is threatened, and due to the majority of its speakers shifting to Iranian Persian.

The earliest references to the language of Mazandaran, called Tabari, are to be found in the works of the early Muslim geographers.

This status was achieved during the long reign of the independent and semi-independent rulers of Mazandaran in the centuries after the Arab invasion.

[14] The rich literature of this language includes books such as Marzban Nameh (later translated into Persian) and the poetry of Amir Pazevari.

[16] The dialects of Mazanderani are Saravi, Amoli, Baboli, Ghaemshahri, Chaloosi, Nuri, Shahsavari, Ghasrani, Shahmirzadi, Damavandi, Firoozkoohi, Astarabadi and Katouli.

[20][21] Just as in other modern Iranian languages, there is no distinction between the dative and accusative cases, and the nominative in the sentence takes almost no indicators but may be inferred from word order (depending on dialect it may end in a/o/e).

Grammatical gender is still present in certain modern languages closely related to Mazandarani such as Semnani, Sangesari and Zazaki.

[23] Adpositions in Mazanderani are after words, while most of other languages including English and Persian have preposition systems in general.

An occasional glottal stop /ʔ/ or voiceless uvular fricative /ʁ/ or voiced plosive /ɢ/ may also be heard, depending on the dialect.

[citation needed] Spoken in a territory sheltered by the high Alborz mountains, Mazanderani preserves many ancient Indo-European words no longer in common use in modern Iranian languages such as Persian.

In Iran, there are some popular companies and products, like Rika (boy) or Kija (girl), which take their name from Mazanderani words.

[30] bεlεndi níštεmε vεlεnd-e nεfār-ε bεlbεl xavεr biārdε nо̄bεhār ε dār-e čel-ču-rε bāur ánde nέnāle batεrkessέ dεl dā́rmo qam-e yār-ε I was sitting [on] the heights, on the lofty nefār; The nightingale brought the news that it is early spring.

bεlεnd-e bālxεnε, bεlεnd-e lamε vέne sar ništ bío Āl-e Mohammεd har ki mεn o tέrε bázunε tomεt vεšúnnε bákuše Darviš Mohammεd The lofty balcony, the long mat; On its top had sat the Dynasty of Muhammad.