Kurmanji Kurdish
| Kurmanji | |
|---|---|
| Northern Kurdish | |
| Kurmancî, Kurdiya Jorîn | |
| Native to | Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey |
Native speakers |
"Very provisional" figure of 15 million in Turkey (2009)[1] Maybe 5 million elsewhere, including 2.8 million in Iraq (2004), 940,000 in Syria (1993), and 350,000 in Iran (1988)[1] |
| Dialects |
Torî
Botani
Bazidi
Bakrani
Hakkari
Badini
Shengali
Judikani
Jiwanshiri
Alburzi
Qochani
Birjendi
Rihayi
|
| Latin (main); Perso-Arabic | |
| Official status | |
Recognised minority language in | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 |
kmr |
| Glottolog |
nort2641[3] |
|
| |
Northern Kurdish (کوردیا ژۆرین; kurdiya jorîn), also called Kurmanji (کورمانجی; Kurmancî) is a group of Kurdish dialects predominantly spoken in southeast Turkey, northwest Iran, northern Iraq and northern Syria. It is the most widespread dialect group of the Kurdish languages. While Kurdish is generally categorized as one of the Northwestern Iranian languages along with Baluchi,[4][5] it also shares many traits with Southwestern Iranian languages like Persian, apparently due to longstanding and intense historical contacts, and some authorities have gone so far as to classify Kurmanji as a Southwestern or "southern" Iranian language.[6][7]
Scripts and books
The Kurmanji language, which uses the Latin script, is the commonest dialect of the Kurdish language, spoken by 80% of all Kurds. However, the earliest textual record of the Kurdish language dates to the 16th century.[4]
Kurmanji is the ceremonial language of Yezidism. The sacred book Mishefa Reş (the "Black Book") and all the prayers are written and spoken in Kurmanji.
Speakers
Kurmanji is a recognized minority language of education in Armenia, where most Kurds are Yezidi.[1]
- Most significant native communities in Kurdistan
- Kurmanji is the only Kurdish dialect that is spoken in all four areas which are vastly populated by Kurds; Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria.
- The vast majority of Kurds in Eastern and Southeastern Turkey speak Kurmanji.
- Kurmanji is the mother tongue of the Kurds in Syria.
Iran and Iraq also have a significant number of Kurmanji speakers:
- In northern Iraq, Kurmanji is spoken in the cities of Mosul, Duhok, Zakho, Akre, Amedia, Sheikhan, Shangal, and Zummar.
- In Iraq, Kurmanji is sometimes known as Bahdini, simply because Kurmanji-speaking Kurds live in the Bahdinan region, which consists of the abovementioned cities and towns.
- In Iran, Kurmanji is spoken in the northern parts of the country, in the cities of Urmia, Maku, Khoy, and Salmas, as well as exile by Kurds in Khorasan province of Iran.
- In Iran, Kurmanji is sometimes called "Shikaki" after the major Kurmanji tribe Shikak, which is the tribe of Kurdish leader Ismail Aghaye Shikak, who is also known as legendary Simko among the Kurds.
- Also
- Kurmanji was the official language of the autonomous Red Kurdistan (Russian Красный Курдистан) that was established in Lachin, Kalbajar and Qubadli and surrounding cities in Azerbaijan, and existed from 1923 to 1929.
- Kurmanji is spoken by the Kurdish population that was exiled from the historical Kurdish homeland. Some one million Kurds living in Khorasan Province of Iran in cities such as Quchan, Shirvan, Esfarayen, Bozhnurd (Bojnurd), Dargaz, Chenaran, Faruj, Bajgiran, Ashkhane and Kalat speak Kurmanji.
- Kurdish migrant communities, some of whose members were forcefully exiled, in Ankara, Konya, Kirsehir, Aksaray, Eskisehir and some other cities of Central Anatolia of Turkey speak Kurmanji.
- Kurdish populations in former Soviet countries such as Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Russia and Ukraine, as well as the Kurds in Lebanon are speakers of Kurmanji.
- Kurmanji is spoken by 200,000 Kurdophones settled around Kabul, Afghanistan, and some in Pakistan.
Dialects
Kurmanji forms a dialect continuum of great variability. Loosely, five dialect areas can be distinguished:[8]
- Northwestern Kurmanji, spoken in the Kahramanmaraş (in Kurmanji: Meraş), Malatya (Meletî) and Sivas (Sêwaz) provinces of Turkey.
- Southwestern Kurmanji, spoken in the Adıyaman (Semsûr), Gaziantep (Entab) and Şanlıurfa provinces of Turkey and the Aleppo Governorate of Syria.
- Northern Kurmanji or Serhed , spoken mainly in the Ağrı (Agirî), Erzurum (Erzerom) and Muş (Mûş) provinces of Turkey, as well as adjacent areas.
- Southern Kurmanji, spoken in the Al-Hasakah Governorate in Syria, the Sinjar distinct in Iraq, and in several adjacent parts of Turkey centering on the Mardin and Batman provinces.
- Southeastern Kurmanji or Badînî, spoken in the Hakkâri province of Turkey and Dohuk Governorate of Iraqi Kurdistan.
The most distinctive of these is Badînî[9]), where features shared with Sorani appear. Also quite divergent is the geographically rather isolated Northwestern group. Standard Kurmanji is mainly based on the Southern and Southeastern dialects.
Etymology
The main theory about the etymology of Kurmanji is that the term Kurmanji, according to Prince Celadet Bedirxan, the great Kurdish intellectual who prepared the Latin Kurdish alphabet, comes from Kurd+man+cî which means, those Kurds who remained in their places (not moved like others). In earlier publications of this century [Twentieth 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.
See also
- Kurdish alphabet
- Central Kurdish dialects
- Southern Kurdish dialects
- Kurmancî, a Kurdish linguistic magazine
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Kurmanji at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ↑ Pavlenko, Aneta (2008). Multilingualism in post-Soviet countries. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters. pp. 18–22. ISBN 978-1-84769-087-6.
- ↑ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Northern Kurdish". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Paul, Ludwig (2008). "Kurdish language I. History of the Kurdish language". In Yarshater, Ehsan. Encyclopædia Iranica. London and New York: Routledge. Retrieved 28 August 2013.
- ↑ Windfuhr, Gernot (1975), “Isoglosses: A Sketch on Persians and Parthians, Kurds and Medes”, Monumentum H.S. Nyberg II (Acta Iranica-5), Leiden: 457–471
- ↑ Paul J. White, ed. (2002). Turkey's Alevi Enigma: A Comprehensive Overview. Brill. p. 23. ISBN 978-9004125384.
- ↑ Gunter, Michael M. (2009). The A to Z of the Kurds. The Scarecrow Press. p. 112. ISBN 978-0810868182.
- ↑ Öpengin, Ergin; Haig, Geoffrey (2014), "Regional variation in Kurmanji: A preliminary classification of dialects", Kurdish Studies 2, ISSN 2051-4883
- ↑ for Bahdinan, a historical Kurdish principality, paralleling use of Sorani, also the name of a historical principality, for southern dialects. See BAHDĪNĀN in Encyclopedia Iranica by A. Hassanpour, 1988 (updated 2011): "The majority of the population are Kurds (see figures in Edmonds, [Kurds, Turks and Arabs, London, 1957,] p. 439) and speak Kurmanji, the major Kurdish dialect group, also called Bādīnānī (see, among others, Jardine [Bahdinan Kurmanji: A Grammar of the Kurmanji of the Kurds of Mosul Division and Surrounding Districts, Baghdad, 1922] and Blau [Le Kurde de ʿAmādiya et de Djabal Sindjar: Analyse linguistique, textes folkloriques, glossaires, Paris, 1975]).".
External links
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Kurmanji Kurdish test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator |
- Kurdish Institute Kurdish language, history, books and latest news articles.
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