Kurdish
كوردی, Kurdî, К'ӧрди
Spoken in:  Iran,
 Iraq,
 Syria,
 Turkey,
 Armenia,
 Lebanon,
(see article for full list) 
Region: Middle East
Total speakers: 16,000,000[1][2][3] to
26,000,000[4] 
Ranking: 52
Language family: Indo-European
 Indo-Iranian
  Iranian
   Western Iranian
    Northwestern Iranian
     Kurdish 
Writing system: Kurdish alphabet (modified Arabic alphabet in Iraq and Iran, Latin alphabet in Turkey and Syria, modified Cyrillic in the former USSR) 
Official status
Official language in:  Iraq (Kurdish Autonomous Region)
 Armenia[5]
Regulated by: No official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1: ku
ISO 639-2: kur
ISO 639-3: variously:
kur – Kurdish (generic)
ckb – Central Kurdish
kmr – Northern Kurdish
sdh – Southern Kurdish 

Areas where Kurdish is spoken as mother language
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

The Kurdish language (Kurdish: Kurdî or کوردی) is a term used for the language spoken by Kurds. It is mainly concentrated in the parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey.[6] Kurdish belongs to the northwestern sub-group of the Iranian languages, which themselves belong to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. The most closely related languages to Kurdish are Balochi, Gileki and Talysh, all of which belong to the north-western branch of Iranian languages. Also related to Kurdish is the Persian language, which belongs to the south-western branch, especially the Lori and Bakhtiari dialects.

Contents

Origin and roots

The Kurdish language belongs to the north-western sub-group of the Iranian languages, which in turn belongs to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family. From about the 10th century BC, Iranian tribes spread in the area now corresponding to Kurdistan, among them Medes, speakers of a Northwest Iranian dialect. Gradual linguistic assimilation of the various indigenous peoples to this Median language in the course of the Iron Age marks the beginning of Kurdish ethnogenesis. The older Hurrian language of the people inhabiting the Kurdish areas was replaced by Indo-European around 850 BCE, with the arrival of the Medes to Western Iran [7] A linguistic group influential on Kurdish to a lesser degree was Aramaic.

History

Although Kurdish has a northwestern Iranian root, little is known about Kurdish in pre-Islamic times. The most notable language in this group is Median, of which little is known either. Among the earliest Kurdish religious texts is Mashafa Rash/Mishefa Reş (The Black Book) the sacred book of Yazidi faith. It is considered to have been authored by Hassan bin Adi (b. 1195 AD), the great-grandnephew of the founder of the faith (Shiekh Adi), sometime in the 13th century AD. It contains the Yazidi account of the creation of the world, the origin of man, the story of Adam and Eve and the major prohibitions of the faith[8]. From the 15th to 17th centuries, classical Kurdish poets and writers developed a literary language. The most famous classical Kurdish poets from this period are Ali Hariri, Ahmad Khani, Malaye Jaziri and Faqi Tayran.

The Italian priest Maurizio Garzoni published the first Kurdish grammar titled Grammatica e Vocabolario della Lingua Kurda in Rome in 1787 after eighteen years of missionary work among the Kurds of Amadiyah[9]. This work is very important in the Kurdish history as it is the first acknowledgement of the originality of the Kurdish language on a scientific base. Garzoni was given the title of Father of Kurdology by later scholars[10]. The Kurdish language was banned in a large portion of Kurdistan for some time. Turkey, having a history of conflict with the Kurds, has tried to cripple their culture. Since a lange portion of the Kurdish homeland is on Turkish territory, the Turkish government has tred to supress their movement for an independent state. Until 1991, the use of the Kusdish language was illegal in Turkey, as part of the effort. [11]

Current status

Today, Kurdish is an official language in Iraq, while it is banned in Syria where it is forbidden to publish material in Kurdish.[12] Before August 2002, the Turkish government placed severe restrictions on the use of Kurdish, prohibiting the language in education and broadcast media.[13] [14]. The Kurdish alphabet is still not recognized in Turkey, and use of the Kurdish names containing letters X, W, Q which do not exist in the Turkish alphabet is prohibited. Moreover according to the article 42 of Turkey's constitution No language other than Turkish shall be taught as a mother tongue to citizens of Turkey at any institution of training or education[15].

In Iran, though it is used in some local media and newspapers, it is not used in schools [16] [17]. As a result, some Iranian Kurds have left for Iraqi Kurdistan where they can study in their native language[18].

In March 2006, Turkey allowed private television channels to begin airing Kurdish language programming. However, the Turkish government said that they must avoid showing children's cartoons, or educational programs that teach the Kurdish language, and can only broadcast for 45 minutes a day or four hours a week. The programs must carry Turkish subtitles.[19] Kurdish blogs have emerged in recent years as virtual fora where Kurdish-speaking Internet users can express themselves in their native Kurdish or in other languages. Kurdish satellite television is also available in the Middle East and Europe.[citation needed]

State-run Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) started its 24-hour Kurdish television station on 01 January 2009 with the motto of “we live under the same sky”.[20] Turkish Prime Minister sent a video message in Kurdish to the opening ceremony which is attended by Minister of Culture and other state officials. The channel uses the controversial X, W, Q letters during broadcasting.

Dialects

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According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, Kurdish has two main dialects: a northern and a central one. The central group, called Sorani, is spoken in west Iran and the central part of Iraqi Kurdistan. The northern dialect, Northern Kurmanji also commonly referred to simply as Kurmanji (and sometimes Bahdini), is spoken in northern half of Iraqi Kurdistan, Caucasus, Turkey, and Syria. [21]. Linguists often classify both dialects as part of the same Kurmanji branch (as well as the larger branch) of the Kurdish language. There are two distinct senses of the expression ’Kurdish dialect’: the one being ’dialect of the Kurdish branch of Northwestern Indo-Iranian languages’, and the other ’dialect spoken by people who consider themselves Kurds’. Failure to distinguish these two senses may easily lead to needless confusion and polemics: ethnic developments should not be confused with linguistic reconstructions.[2]

A third group, the southern dialects (however spoken in both Northern and Southern Kurdistan regions) are largely referred to by linguists as the Zaza-Gorani branch.[22] While some scholars reject the classification of Zaza-Gorani as belonging to the Kurdish branch of Indo-Iranian languages as many of the words are from the same root, and the grammatical structures are the same as kurmanci and sorani.

Another classification of Southern Kurdish dialects suggests as following: Kalhori, Feyli, Gurani and classifies these dialects as one branch of Kurdish language dialects.

Sorani

Main article: Sorani

Sorani is named after the Soran Emirate which ruled for more than six centuries until it was removed by Ottoman troops in 1835. Soranî is the central Dialect, it is spoken by the Majority of Kurds in Iraq and Iran. Sorani is written with the Arabic Alphabet. Sorani has official status in Iraq , and it is the official language of the Iranian Kurdistan. It is spoken by 10-15 million Kurds with a majority of them residing in Iran and Iraq.

Kurmanji

Main article: Kurmanji

The main theory about the etymology of Kurmanji is that the term Kurmanji comes from Kurd+man+cî which means, those Kurds who remained in their places. In earlier publications of this century, the term Kurmanji was sometimes spelled with a "d" like "Kurdmanji" but the standard spelling of the term is Kurmanji in English and Kurmancî in Kurdish. It is written with the Latin script. It is spoken by 18 million Kurds, a majority of them residing in Turkey.[23]

Kurmanji and Sorani

The use of the word "Kurdish" to describe the language or languages that Kurds speak may be the very cause of controversies regarding the differences among the dialects or languages. Outside of foreign conversation or literature, the majority of Kurds use the name of the dialect they speak in order to describe their dialect or language, and sometimes even one another. The use of the word, Kurdish, by contrast, has been used more often to simply describe the ethnic identity of the Kurds reflecting the significant differences between the dialects or languages.

Some linguistic scholars assert that the term "Kurdish" has been extrinsically applied in describing the language the Kurds speak, while Kurds intuitively have used the word to simply describe their ethnic or national identity and refer to their language as Kurmanji, Sorani, Hewrami, or whatever other dialect or language they are native to. Some historians have noted that only until recent history have a small minority of Kurds who speak the Sorani dialect begun referring to their language as Kurdî, in addition to their identity, which is translated to simply mean Kurdish.[24]

According to Philip Kreyenbroek (1992), it may also be misleading to call Northern Kurmanji and Sorani "dialects" because they are in some ways as different from one another as German and English.[25] However, both dialects are widely accepted as part of a Kurmanji branch of languages spoken by Kurds.

Kurmanji or Northern Kurmanji is more archaic than the other dialects in both phonetic and morphological structure, and it is conjectured that the differences between central and northern dialects, have been caused by the proximity of central group to the other Iranian languages.[26].

According to Encyclopaedia of Islam, although Kurdish is not a unified language, its many dialects are interrelated and at the same time distinguishable from other western Iranian languages. The same source classifies different Kurdish dialects as two main groups of northern and central. Northern group (Kurmanji) is spoken by most of the Kurds in Turkey, Syria, Armenia, and Bahdinan regions in Iraq and Kurdish communities in Khorasan (northeast of Iran). Central group (Sorani) is spoken by most Kurds of Iraq and Iran which includes but is not limited to Arbil Governorate, Sulaymaniya Governorate, and Kirkuk Governorate of Iraq, and in Iran, Kurdistan province,parts of West Azarbaijan Province and Kermanshah province. [26]. The reality is that the average Kurmanji speaker will not find it easy to communicate with the inhabitants of Suleymania or Halabja.[27]

Indo-European linguistic comparison

Because Kurdish language is an Indo-European language, there are many words that are cognates in Kurdish and other Indo-European languages such as Avestan, Persian, Sanskrit, German, English, Norwegian, Latin and Greek. (Source: Altiranisches Wörterbuch (1904) for the first two and last six.)

Kurdish Avestan Persian Sanskrit Greek English German Norwegian Latin Lithuanian Russian PIE
ez,min "I" äzəm [ezìm] mān aham egō I (< OE ić) ich eg ego aš ja (from old ES jazŭ, related to OCS azŭ) *h₁eĝh₂om
lepik,dest "Hand" dāst (OE lōf "fillet, band") (OHG lappo "palm (of the hand)") lóve "palm (of the hand)" lṓpa"paw, claw" lápa *tlāp-[3]
jin "woman" ghenãnãmca [ghenâ] "woman" zan janay- gynēka queen (OHG quena) kvinne femina (OPruss. genna) žená "wife" *gʷenh₂-
leystin(bileyzim) "to play(I play)" ley ley Kardan(to jump with one foot ) réjati paizo play leich leke láigīti *(e)lAig'- "to jump, to spring, to play"[4]
mezin,gewre "great" maz-, mazant mah(ī)-/mahānt- megas much (< OE mićil, myćil) (OHG mihhil) mykje "much" magnus milžinas "giant" mogúčij "powerful", "mighty" *meĝh₂- "big, great" [5]
mêzer "headband/turban" mitrā- "god name"(Old Persian) mitrah mitra "headband, turban", Mitra - from Greek mitra - from Greek) mir "world, peace" *mei- "to tie" ([6], p38)
pez "sheep" pasu- "sheep, goat" boz paśu "animal" fee (< OE feoh "cattle") Vieh "cattle" fe "cattle" pecus "cattle" pekus "ox" pastuh "shepherd" *pek̂-u- "sheep"[7],[8]
çiya,kash "mountain" kūh, chakād "peak/summit" kakúd-, kakúbh- "peak/summit" kinn "steep mountain side" cacūmen *kak-, *kakud- "top"[9] [10]
zîndu "alive" jiyan "to live" gaêm [gaya] zind[e] "alive", zî[stan] "to live", zaideh "child" jīvati zoi "life", zō "live" quick quick "bright" vīvus "alive", vīvō "live", vīta "life" gývas žyznj "life", žyvój "living, alive" *gʷih₃(u̯)-
[di][a]zan[im] "I know" zan[în] "to know" zan- [mi]dān[am] "I know", dān[estan] "to know" jān[āti] [gi]gnō[skō] know kennen kjenne "to know (a person) nō[scō], [co]gn[itus] žin[au]"I know" žin[oti] "to know" znatj "to know" *ĝneh₃-

Writing system

Main article: Kurdish alphabet

The Kurdish language uses three different writing systems. In Iran and Iraq it is written using a modified version of the Arabic alphabet (and more recently, sometimes with the Latin alphabet in Iraqi Kurdistan). In Turkey and Syria, it is written using the Latin alphabet. As an example, see the following online news portal published in Iraqi Kurdistan. [11] Also see the VOA News site in Kurdish. [12] Kurdish in the former USSR is written with a modified Cyrillic alphabet. There is also a proposal for a unified international recognised Kurdish alphabet based on ISO-8859-1.[28]

Phonology

According to the Kurdish Academy of Language, Kurdish has the following phonemes:

Consonants

Bilabial Labio-
dental		 Apical Post-
alveolar		 Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyn-
geal		 Glottal
Nasal m n ŋ
Plosive p b t d k g q
Fricative f v s z ʃ ʒ ç x ɣ ħ ʕ h
Affricate ʧ ʤ
Lateral l ɫ1
Flap ɾ
Trill r
Approximant ʋ j
  1. Just as in many English dialects, the velarized lateral does not appear in the onset of a syllable.

Vowels

front central back
short long short long short long
close i iː ʉ u uː
mid e eː ə o
open a

The vowel pairs /i/ and /iː/, /e/ and /eː/, and /u/ and /uː/ contrast in length and not quality. This distinction shows up in the writing system, for instance in the Kurdish Latin alphabet, short vowels are represented by o, u, i and e and long vowels have a circumflex ( ^ ), such as û, î and ê. Unlike Arabic, all vowels in Kurdish are mandatory and should be written down.

Dictionaries

Kurdish-only dictionaries

  • Wîkîferheng (Kurdish Wiktionary)
  • Husein Muhammed: Soranî Kurdish - Kurmancî Kurdish dictionary (2005)
  • Khal, Sheikh Muhammad, Ferhengî Xal (Khal Dictionary), Kamarani Press, Sulaymaniya, 3 Volumes,
Vol. I, 1960, 380 p.
Vol. II, 1964, 388 p.
Vol. III, 1976, 511 p.

Kurdish-English dictionaries

  • Rashid Karadaghi, The Azadi English-Kurdish Dictionary
  • Chyet, Michael L., Kurdish Dictionary: Kurmanji-English, Yale Language Series, U.S., 2003 (896 pages) (see [29])
  • Abdullah, S. and Alam, K., English-Kurdish (Sorani) and Kurdish (Sorani)-English Dictionary, Star Publications / Languages of the World Publications, India, 2004 [30]
  • Awde, Nicholas, Kurdish-English/English-Kurdish Dictionary and Phrasebook, Hippocrene Books Inc., U.S., 2004 [31]
  • Raman : English-Kurdish (Sorani) Dictionary, Pen Press Publishers Ltd, UK, 2003, (800 pages) [32]
  • Saadallah, Salah, English-Kurdish Dictionary, Avesta/Paris Kurdish Institute, Istanbul, 2000, (1477 pages)
  • Amindarov, Aziz, Kurdish-English/English-Kurdish Dictionary, Hippocrene Books Inc., U.S., 1994 [33]
  • Rizgar, Baran (M. F. Onen), Kurdish-English/English-Kurdish (Kurmancî Dictionary) UK, 1993, 400 p. + 70 illustrations [34]

As a main program, Iranian Kurdish-speaker scholar, Hamid Hassani, is supposed to prepare a Soranî Kurdish Language Corpus, consisting of one-million words.

References

  1. ^ SIL - Kurdish, Central
  2. ^ SIL - Kurdish, Northern
  3. ^ SIL - Kurdish, Southern
  4. ^ Estimate of Kurdish speakers on Omniglot.com
  5. ^ European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages
  6. ^ Geographic distribution of Kurdish and other Iranic languages
  7. ^ Arnaiz-Villena, Antonio; Martiñez-Lasoa, Jorge; Alonso-Garcia, Jorge, The correlation Between Languages and Genes: The usko-Mediterranean Peoples, , Human Immunology 62 (9): 1051-1061, 2001 
  8. ^ Jonh S. Guest, The Yazidis: A Study In Survival, Routledge Publishers, 1987, ISBN 0710301154, 9780710301154, 299 pp. (see pages 18, 32)
  9. ^ Ernest R. McCarus, Kurdish Language Studies, The Middle East Journal, Published by Middle East Institute, Washington, 1960, p.325
  10. ^ Kurdistan and Its Christians, Mirella Galetti, World Congress of Kurdish Studies, 6-9 September 2006
  11. ^ Michael Ross- The Volunteer- The amazing true story of a Mossad Agent.
  12. ^ Repression of Kurds in Syria is widespread, Amnesty International Report, March 2005.
  13. ^ Special Focus Cases: Leyla Zana, Prisoner of Conscience
  14. ^ Kurdish performers banned, Appeal from International PEN
  15. ^ Zehra F. Kabasakal Arat, Richard Falk, Human Rights in Turkey,University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007, 349 pp., ISBN 0812240006, 9780812240009 (see p.79)
  16. ^ The Kurdish Language and Literature, by Joyce Blau, Professor of Kurdish language and civilization at the National Institute of Oriental Language and Civilization of the University of Paris (INALCO).
  17. ^ The language policy of Iran from State policy on the Kurdish language: the politics of status planning by Amir Hassanpour, University of Toronto
  18. ^ Neighboring Kurds Travel to Study in Iraq
  19. ^ Turkey to get Kurdish television
  20. ^ Kurdish TV starts broadcasting in Turkey
  21. ^ Kurdish language - Britannica Online Encyclopedia
  22. ^ Ethnologue report for Zaza-Gorani
  23. ^ http://www.kurdishacademy.org/?q=node/42
  24. ^ Keo - History
  25. ^ J N Postgate, Languages of Iraq, ancient and modern, British School of Archaeology in Iraq., [Iraq] : British School of Archaeology in Iraq, 2007, p.139.
  26. ^ a b D.N. MacKenzie, Language in Kurds & Kurdistan, Encyclopaedia of Islam.
  27. ^ Postgate, J.N., Languages of Iraq, ancient and modern, [Iraq] : British School of Archaeology in Iraq, 2007., ISBN 9780903472210, p.139
  28. ^ The Kurdish Unified Alphabet
  29. ^ Kurdish-English Dictionary - Chyet, Michael L. - Yale University Press
  30. ^ [1]
  31. ^ ISBN 0-7818-1071-X
  32. ^ ISBN 1-904018-83-1
  33. ^ ISBN 0-7818-0246-6
  34. ^ ISBN 1-873722-05-2

See also

External links

Wikipedia
Kurdish language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Religious texts

Kurdish broadcast programs

v • d • e
Kurdish · كوردی · Kurdî · К'ӧрди
Language · Alphabet
Letters
A....
Varieties
Academic
Scripts
Related topics
v • d • e
Iranian languages
Old
E
W
Middle
E
Bactrian · Khwarezmian · Ossetic · Khotanese · Tumshuqese · Scythian · Sogdian
W
Modern
E
Bartangi · Ishkashmi  · Khufi · Munji · Oroshori · Ormuri · Ossetic · Parachi · Pashto · Roshani (Roshni) · Sanglechi · Sarikoli · Shughni · Wakhi · Vanji · Yaghnobi · Yidgha · Yazgulami · Zebaki
W
E = Eastern · W = Western · Italics indicate extinct languages
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