Sorani

Sorani
Kurdîy Nawendî / Soranî
کوردیی ناوەندی / سۆرانی
Central Kurdish and Sorani written in the Sorani alphabet
Native toIran, Iraq
RegionKurdistan
EthnicityKurds
Native speakers
5.3 million (2020–2021)[1]
Dialects
  • Babanî (Silêmanî)
  • Mukriyanî
  • Erdelanî
  • Germiyanî (Cafî)
  • Arbilî (Hewlêrî)
  • Xoşnaw
  • Kerkukî
Official status
Official language in
 Iraq
 Kurdistan Region[2]
Language codes
ISO 639-3ckb
Glottologcent1972
Linguasphere58-AAA-cae
Geographic distribution of Kurdish and other Iranian languages spoken by Kurds
A Sorani Kurdish speaker, recorded in Norway.

Sorani Kurdish (Sorani Kurdish: کوردیی ناوەندی, Kurdî Nawendî),[3][4][5] also known as Central Kurdish, is a Kurdish dialect[6][7][8] or a language[9][10] spoken in Iraq, mainly in Iraqi Kurdistan, as well as the provinces of Kurdistan, Kermanshah, and West Azerbaijan in western Iran. Sorani is one of the two official languages of Iraq, along with Arabic, and is in administrative documents simply referred to as "Kurdish".[11][12]

The term Sorani, named after the Soran Emirate, is used especially to refer to a written, standardized form of Central Kurdish written in the Sorani alphabet developed from the Arabic alphabet in the 1920s by Sa'ed Sidqi Kaban and Taufiq Wahby.[13]

  1. ^ Sorani at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024) Closed access icon
  2. ^ "Full Text of Iraqi Constitution". Washington Post. 12 October 2005. Retrieved 12 June 2013.
  3. ^ "کرمانجیی خواروو". ڤەژینبوکس (in Kurdish). Retrieved 2024-02-07.
  4. ^ Mustafa, Aso Omer; Mohamed, Dlshad Ali (2019-04-01). "ڕه‌هه‌ندی کۆمه‌ڵایه‌تی له‌ گوتاری ڕه‌خنه‌ی شیعری له‌ ئه‌ده‌بی کوردیدا -کرمانجی خواروو 1920- 1958". Journal of Garmian University (in Kurdish). 6 (1): 290–301. doi:10.24271/garmian.1018.
  5. ^ "رووداو ئەی ئای پڕۆژەی خوێندنەوەی هەواڵەکانی بە دەنگ رادەگەیێنێت". www.rudaw.net. Retrieved 2024-03-02.
  6. ^ Edmonds, Alexander Johannes (January 2012). "Dialects of Kurdish".
  7. ^ Aziz, Mahir A. (2011-01-30). The Kurds of Iraq: Ethnonationalism and National Identity in Iraqi Kurdistan. I.B.Tauris. ISBN 9781848855465.
  8. ^ "The Kurdish Language and Literature". Institutkurde.org. Retrieved 2019-08-15.
  9. ^ Sheyholislami, J. (2011-06-06). Kurdish Identity, Discourse, and New Media. Springer. ISBN 9780230119307.
  10. ^ Thackston (2006), p. vii.
  11. ^ Allison, Christine (2012). The Yezidi Oral Tradition in Iraqi Kurdistan. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-136-74655-0. However, it was the southern dialect of Kurdish, Central Kurdish, the majority language of the Iraqi Kurds, which received sanction as an official language of Iraq.
  12. ^ "Kurdish language issue and a divisive approach". Kurdish Academy of Language. 5 March 2016. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016.
  13. ^ Blau, Joyce (2000). Méthode de Kurde: Sorani. Editions L'Harmattan. ISBN 978-2-296-41404-4., page 20

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