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Kurdish language

Kurdish
Kurdî / کوردی
Native toTurkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Armenia, Azerbaijan
RegionKurdistan, Anatolia, Caucasus, Khorasan, Kurdish diaspora
EthnicityKurds
Native speakers
26 million (2020–2022)[1]
Dialects
Official status
Official language in
 Iraq[6][a]  Rojava[8][9]
Recognised minority
language in
Language codes
ISO 639-1ku
ISO 639-2kur
ISO 639-3kur – inclusive code
Individual codes:
kmr – Northern Kurdish
ckb – Central Kurdish
sdh – Southern Kurdish
lki – Laki Kurdish
Glottologkurd1259
Linguasphere58-AAA-a (North Kurdish incl. Kurmanji & Kurmanjiki) + 58-AAA-b (Central Kurdish incl. Dimli/Zaza & Gurani) + 58-AAA-c (South Kurdish incl. Kurdi)
Geographic distribution of Kurdish dialects and other Iranian languages spoken by Kurds
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.
 
People
Population
  • Homeland
History

Ancient

Karduchian dynasties

Corduene
Zabdicene
Cyrtians
Moxoene

Medieval

Modern
Culture
Languages
Kurdish languages
Religion

Kurdish (Kurdî, کوردی) is a Northwestern Iranian language or group of languages spoken by Kurds in the region of Kurdistan,[11][12] namely in Turkey, northern Iraq, northwest and northeast Iran, and Syria.

Kurdish varieties constitute a dialect continuum,[13] with some mutually unintelligible varieties,[11] and collectively have 26 million native speakers.[14] The main varieties of Kurdish are Kurmanji, Sorani, and Southern Kurdish (Xwarîn). The majority of the Kurds speak Kurmanji,[15] and most Kurdish texts are written in Kurmanji and Sorani. Kurmanji is written in the Hawar alphabet, a derivation of the Latin script, and Sorani is written in the Sorani alphabet, a derivation of the Arabic script.

A separate group of non-Kurdish Northwestern Iranian languages, the Zaza–Gorani languages, are also spoken by several million ethnic Kurds.[16][17][18]

The classification of Laki as a dialect of Southern Kurdish or as a fourth language under Kurdish is a matter of debate,[2] but the differences between Laki and other Southern Kurdish dialects are minimal.[19]

The literary output in Kurdish was mostly confined to poetry until the early 20th century, when more general literature became developed. Today, the two principal written Kurdish dialects are Kurmanji and Sorani. Sorani is, along with Arabic, one of the two official languages of Iraq and is in political documents simply referred to as "Kurdish".[20][21]

  1. ^ Kurdish language at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024) Closed access icon
  2. ^ a b "Atlas of the Languages of Iran A working classification". Languages of Iran. Retrieved 25 May 2019.
  3. ^ MacCagg, William O.; Silver, Brian D., eds. (1979). Soviet Asian Ethnic Frontiers. Pergamon Press. p. 94. ISBN 9780080246376. Since the most active Soviet Kurdish center has been and continues to be Yerevan, the first alphabet used for publishing Kurdish in the USSR was the Armenian alphabet.
  4. ^ Курдский язык (in Russian). Krugosvet. ...в Армении на основе русского алфавита с 1946 (с 1921 на основе армянской графики, с 1929 на основе латиницы).
  5. ^ Khamoyan, M. (1986). "Քրդերեն [Kurdish language]". Soviet Armenian Encyclopedia (in Armenian). Vol. 12. p. 492. ...գրկ. լույս է տեսնում 1921-ից հայկ., 1929-ից՝ լատ., 1946-ից՝ ռուս. այբուբենով...
  6. ^ "Iraq's Constitution of 2005" (PDF). p. 4. Retrieved 14 April 2019.
  7. ^ "Kurdistan: Constitution of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region". 2 November 2009. Retrieved 14 April 2019.
  8. ^ "Social Contract - Sa-Nes". Self-Administration of North & East Syria Representation in Benelux. Archived from the original on 9 December 2018. Retrieved 22 March 2019.
  9. ^ "Rojava could be a model for all Syria". Salih Muslim. Nationalita. 29 July 2014. Retrieved 22 March 2019.
  10. ^ Pavlenko, Aneta (2008). Multilingualism in Post-Soviet Countries. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters. pp. 18–22. ISBN 978-1-84769-087-6.
  11. ^ a b Ozek, Fatih; Saglam, Bilgit; Gooskens, Charlotte (1 September 2023). "Mutual intelligibility of a Kurmanji and a Zazaki dialect spoken in the province of Elazığ, Turkey". Applied Linguistics Review. 14 (5): 1411–1449. doi:10.1515/applirev-2020-0151. ISSN 1868-6311.
  12. ^ "Kurdish language | Kurdish Dialects, Writing System & Grammar | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2 May 2024.
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference Iranica was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ Kurdish language at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024) Closed access icon
  15. ^ "Kurmanji Kurdish" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 24 February 2016.
  16. ^ Kaya, Mehmet. The Zaza Kurds of Turkey: A Middle Eastern Minority in a Globalised Society. ISBN 1-84511-875-8
  17. ^ "Languages of the Middle East". Archived from the original on 18 January 2012. Retrieved 23 December 2011.
  18. ^ McDowall, David (14 May 2004). A Modern History of the Kurds: Third Edition - David McDowall - Google Books. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 9781850434160. Retrieved 18 December 2012.
  19. ^ "Lak Tribe". Iranica Online. Retrieved 25 May 2019.
  20. ^ Allison, Christine. The Yezidi oral tradition in Iraqi Kurdistan. 2001. "However, it was the southern dialect of Kurdish, Sorani, the majority language of the Iraqi Kurds, which received sanction as an official language of Iraq."
  21. ^ "Kurdish language issue and a divisive approach". Kurdish Academy of Language. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015.


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