Kurdish language

Kurdish (Kurdish: Kurdî or کوردی) is a dialect continuum spoken by the Kurds in western Asia. It is part of the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian group of Indo-European languages. The Persian language, also known as Farsi, is one of its close modern relatives.

The Kurdish language itself has about 16^[2] million speakers today. According to KONDA, 11,97% of total population of Turkey knows Kurdish as their native or second language.^[4] According to the CIA World Factbook, 9% of total population of Iran speaks Kurdish.^[5] The actual number of ethnic Kurds is higher than speakers of Kurdish varieties, estimated to be between 25-30 million.

It exists in a continuum of dialects spoken in a geographical area spanning border regions of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria, and a small number of speakers in the South Caucasus.^[6]

Kurdish does not exist as a unified standard language. What exists is the concept, a discursive construct of such a language that at best refers to a group of speech varieties which are not mutually intelligible unless there has been considerable prior contact between their speakers.^[7]

The written literary output in Kurdic languages was confined mostly to poetry until the early 20th century, when a general written literature began to be developed. In its written form today "Kurdish" has two regional standards, namely Kurmanji in the northern parts of the geographical region of Kurdistan, and Sorani further east and south. Another distinct language group called Zaza–Gorani is also spoken by several millions of ethnic Kurds^{[8][9][10][11]} today and is generally also described and referred to as Kurdish, or as Kurdic languages, because of the ethnic association of the communities speaking the languages and dialects.^[12] Hewrami, a variation of Gorani, was an important literary language used by the Kurds but was steadily replaced by Sorani in the twentieth century.^[13]

Origin and roots

The Kurdish languages belong to the Iranian branch of the Indo-European family. Systematic comparison of Kurdish with other Iranian languages shows that Kurdish is a northwestern Iranian language.^[14] The present state of knowledge about Kurdish allows, at least roughly, drawing the approximate borders of the areas where the main ethnic core of the speakers of the contemporary Kurdish dialects was formed. The most argued hypothesis on the localisation of the ethnic territory of the Kurds remains D.N. Mackenzie’s theory, proposed in the early 1960s (Mackenzie 1961). Developing the ideas of P. Tedesco (1921: 255) and regarding the common phonetic isoglosses shared by Kurdish, Persian, and Baluchi, D.N. Mackenzie concluded that the speakers of these three languages may once have been in closer contact. He has tried to reconstruct the alleged Persian-Kurdish-Baluchi linguistic unity presumably in the central parts of Iran. According to Mackenzie's theory, the Persians (or Proto-Persians) occupied the province of Fars in the southwest (proceeding from the assumption that the Achaemenids spoke Persian), the Baluchis (Proto-Baluchis) inhabited the central areas of Western Iran, and the Kurds (Proto-Kurds), in the wording of G. Windfuhr (1975: 459), lived either in northwestern Luristan or in the province of Isfahan.^[15] Windfuhr identified Kurdish dialects as Parthian, albeit with a Median substratum.^[16]

History

Although Kurdish has a long history, little is known about Kurdish in pre-Islamic times. Among the earliest Kurdish religious texts is the Yazidi Black Book, the sacred book of Yazidi faith. It is considered to have been authored by Hassan bin Adi (b. 1400 AD), the great-grandnephew of Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir, the founder of the faith, 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.^[17] From the 15th to 17th centuries, classical Kurdish poets and writers developed a literary language. The most notable classical Kurdish poets from this period were 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 Amadiya.^[18] This work is very important in Kurdish history as it is the first acknowledgment of the originality of the Kurdish language on a scientific base. Garzoni was given the title Father of Kurdology by later scholars.^[19] The Kurdish language was banned in a large portion of Kurdistan for some time. After the 1980 Turkish coup d'état until 1991 the use of the Kurdish language was illegal in Turkey.^[20]

Current status

Today, Kurdish is an official language in Iraq. In Syria, on the other hand, publishing material in Kurdish is forbidden.^[21] Before August 2002, the Turkish government placed severe restrictions on the use of Kurdish, prohibiting the language in education and broadcast media.^[22][23] The Kurdish alphabet is still not recognized in Turkey, and the use of Kurdish names containing the letters X, W, and Q, which do not exist in the Turkish alphabet, is not allowed. Kurdish education in private institutions is allowed in Turkey, but not in public basic education.

In Iran, though it is used in some local media and newspapers, it is not used in public schools.^[24][25] In 2005, 80 Iranian Kurds took part in an experiment and gained scholarships to study in Kurdish in Iraqi Kurdistan.^[26]

In March 2006, Turkey allowed private television channels to begin airing programming in the Kurdish language. However, the Turkish government said that they must avoid showing children's cartoons, or educational programs that teach the Kurdish language, and could broadcast only for 45 minutes a day or four hours a week.^[27] However, most of these restrictions on private Kurdish television channels were relaxed in September 2009.^[28] In 2010 Kurdish municipalities in southeast decided to begin printing water bills, marriage certificates and construction and road signs, as well as emergency, social and cultural notices in Kurdish alongside Turkish. Friday sermons by Imams began to be delivered in Kurdish, and Esnaf provided Kurdish price tags.

The state-run Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) started its 24-hour Kurdish television station on 1 January 2009 with the motto “we live under the same sky.”^[29] The Turkish Prime Minister sent a video message in Kurdish to the opening ceremony, which was attended by Minister of Culture and other state officials. The channel uses the X, W, Q letters during broadcasting.

Other Kurdish satellite televisions are available in the Middle East and Europe.

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.

Kurmanji Kurdish versus Sorani Kurdish and Kemanshahi Kurdish

Kurdish has three standardized versions, which have been labelled 'Northern', 'Central' and 'Southern'. The northern version, commonly called Kurmanji, is spoken in Turkey, Syria, and the northern part of the Kurdish-speaking areas of Iraq and Iran,^[30] and it accounts for a little over three-quarters of all Kurdish speakers. The central version, commonly called Sorani, is spoken in west Iran and much of Iraqi Kurdistan.^[31] The southern version, commonly called Kermanshahi, is spoken in Kermanshah province of Iran.^[32] In historical evolution terms, Kurmanji is less modified than Sorani and Kermanshahi in both phonetic and morphological structure. The Sorani group has been influenced by among other things its closer cultural proximity to the other languages spoken by Kurds in the region including the Gorani language in parts of Iranian Kurdistan and Iraqi Kurdistan.^[31][33] The Kermanshahi group has been influenced by among other things its closer cultural proximity to Persian.^[32]

Philip G. Kreyenbroek, an expert writing in 1992, says:

Since 1932 most Kurds have used the Roman script to write Kurmanji.... Sorani is normally written in an adapted form of the Arabic script.... Reasons for describing Kurmanji and Sorani as 'dialects' of one language are their common origin and the fact that this usage reflects the sense of ethnic identity and unity among the Kurds. From a linguistic or at least a grammatical point of view, however, Kurmanji and Sorani differ as much from each other as English and German, and it would seem appropriate to refer to them as languages. For example, Sorani has neither gender nor case-endings, whereas Kurmanji has both.... Differences in vocabulary and pronunciation are not as great as between German and English, but they are still considerable.

—^[31]

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, northern and central.^[33] The reality is that the average Kurmanji speaker does not find it easy to communicate with the inhabitants of Suleymania or Halabja.^[34]

Sorani differs on six grammatical points from Kurmanji. This appears to be a result of Gorani (Haurami) influence.

• The passive conjugation: the Sorani passive morpheme -r-/-ra- corresponds to -y-/-ya- in Gorani and Zazaki, while Kurmanji employs the auxiliary verb, come;
• a definite suffix -eke, also occurring in Zazaki;
• an intensifying postverb -ewe, corresponding to Kurmanji preverbal ve-;
• an 'open compound' construction with a suffix -e, for definite noun phrases with an epithet;
• the preservation of enclitic personal pronouns, which have disappeared in Kurmanji and in Zazaki;
• a simplified izāfa system.

Some linguistic scholars assert that the term "Kurdish" has been applied extrinsically in describing the language the Kurds speak, while Kurds have used the word "Kurdish" to simply describe their ethnic or national identity and refer to their language as Kurmanji, Sorani, Hewrami, Kermanshahi, Kalhery or whatever other dialect or language they speak. Some historians have noted that it is only recently that the Kurds who speak the Sorani dialect have begun referring to their language as Kurdî, in addition to their identity, which is translated to simply mean Kurdish.^[35]

Gorani Kurds, Zazaki, and Shabaki

Gorani is a language that appears to be distinct from Kurmanji and Sorani, but that shares vocabulary with both of the latter mentioned and some grammatical similarities with Sorani.^[36] Despite the differences, the Gorani language has been classified as part of the Kurdish language.^[37] This is probably due to the fact that Gorani-speakers, who are spread out across the southern and southeastern parts of Kurdistan, identify themselves as Kurds and the Gorani language is not spoken by other ethnic groups.^[38] European scholars have maintained that Gorani is separate from Kurdish and that Kurdish is synonymous with the Kurmanji-language group, while ethnic Kurds maintain that Kurdish encompasses any of the unique languages or dialects spoken by Kurds and that are not spoken by neighboring ethnic groups.^[39]

The Gorani language (which includes Horami) is often classified as part of the Zaza–Gorani branch of Indo-Iranian languages.^[40] The Zazaki language, spoken in the northernmost parts of Kurdistan differs both grammatically and in vocabulary and is generally not understandable by Gorani speakers but it is considered related to Gorani. Almost all Zaza-speaking communities,^[41] as well as speakers of another closely related language spoken in parts of Iraqi Kurdistan called Shabaki, identify themselves as ethnic Kurds.^{[42][43][44][45][46][47]}

Phonology

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

Consonants

• ^1 Just as in many English dialects, the velarized lateral does not appear in the onset of a syllable. Additionally, in some dialects, the velarized lateral /ɫ/ changes to a [ɾ] in women's speech.^[48]
• ^2 /k/ and /ɡ/ are strongly palatalized before the close and mid front vowels (/i/ and /e/) as well as the rounded high front allophone [ɥ] of the phoneme /w/, closing on /t͡ʃ/ and /d͡ʒ/.^[49]

Vowels

As in most modern Iranian languages, Kurdish vowels contrast in quality; they often carry a secondary length distinction that does not affect syllabic weight.^[50] This distinction appears in the writing systems developed for Kurdish. The three "short" vowels are /ɛ/ (e), /ɯ/ (u), and i, and the five long vowels are /a/ (a), /e/ (ê), /i/ (î), /o/ (o), and /u/ (û).

Historical phonology

Indo-European linguistic comparison

Because Kurdish 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.)

Grammar

Vocabulary

The bulk of the vocabulary in Kurdish is of Iranian origin, especially of northwestern Iranian. There are also Persian loanwords in Kurdish, entered mainly through poetry. A considerable number of loanwords come from Semitic, mainly Arabic, which entered through Islam and historical relations with Arab tribes. Yet, a smaller group of loanwords which are of Armenian, Caucasian, and Turkic origins are used in Kurdish, besides some European words. There are also Kurdish words with no clear etymology.

Writing system

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, Syria and Armenia, it is written using the Latin alphabet. Kurdish in the former USSR is written with a modified Cyrillic script. There is also a proposal for a unified international recognized Kurdish alphabet based on ISO-8859-1^[51] called Yekgirtú.

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 (1960, 1964, 1976)

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^[52])
• Abdullah, S. and Alam, K., English–Kurdish (Sorani) and Kurdish (Sorani)–English Dictionary, Star Publications / Languages of the World Publications, India, 2004^[53]
• Awde, Nicholas, Kurdish–English/English–Kurdish Dictionary and Phrasebook, Hippocrene Books Inc., U.S., 2004^[54]
• Raman: English–Kurdish (Sorani) Dictionary, Pen Press Publishers Ltd, UK, 2003, (800 pages)^[55]
• 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^[56]
• Rizgar, Baran (M. F. Onen), Kurdish–English/English–Kurdish (Kurmancî Dictionary) UK, 1993, 400 p. + 70 illustrations^[57]

See also

• Kurdish people
• Iranian Languages vocabulary comparison table
• Western Iranian languages
• University of Kurdistan
• List of countries by Kurdish-speaking population
• Kurdish grammar
• Kurdish literature
• Kurdish Institute of Paris
• Kurdish Institute of Istanbul
• Kurdish culture
• Sorani
• Kurmanji/Bahdīnī
• Kalhori/Kermanshahi
• Laki language

References

External links

• The Kurdish Institute of Paris: Language and Literature
• Kurdish Language and Linguistics, at Encyclopedia Iranica (article written by Ludwig Paul)
• History of Kurdish Written Literature, at Encyclopedia Iranica (article written by Philip G. Kryeenbroek)
• Kurdish Language Initiative of Seywan Institute
• Kurdish Institute of Istanbul
• KAL: The Kurdish Academy of Language
• Kurdish Language Academy in Iran
• Kurdish Kurdish links and language information, dictionary etc.
• Kurdish language at the Open Directory Project
• Online Kurdish-English Dictionary
• On-line Kurdish-English Dictionary
• Online English to Kurdish to English Dictionary (By Erdal Ronahî)
• Online Kurdish-German-Kurdish Dictionary
• Online Kurdish-English Ferheng Dictionary
• Online Turkish-Kurdish-Turkish Dictionary
• http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Linguistics-and-Philosophy/24-942Grammar-of-a-Less-Familiar-
• Comparison between alphabets used in Kurdish
• Gorani Influence on Central Kurdish