Everything about Kurdish Language totally explained
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|region=
Middle East
|speakers= 39,500,000(
disputed)
|rank=39 (
disputed)
|fam2=
Indo-Iranian
|fam3=
Iranian
|fam4=
Western Iranian
|fam5=
Northwestern Iranian
|script=
Kurdish alphabet (modified
Arabic alphabet in Iraq and Iran, modified
Latin alphabet in Turkey and Syria, modified
Cyrillic in the former USSR)
|nation=
(
Kurdish Autonomous Region)
|iso1=ku
|iso2=kur
|lc1=kur|ld1=Kurdish (generic)|ll1=none
|lc2=ckb|ld2=Central Kurdish|ll2=Sorani
|lc3=kmr|ld3=Northern Kurdish|ll3=Kurmanji
|lc4=sdh|ld4=Southern Kurdish
|map=
Areas where Kurdish is spoken as mother tongue}}
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. 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,
Zazaki 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.
Origin and roots
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. Some evidence of
Hurrian influence on Kurdish is detected in its
ergative grammatical structure. A linguistic group influential on Kurdish to a lesser degree was
Aramaic. M.R. Izady (1993) identifies three-quarters of Kurdish clan names and roughly two-third of
toponyms are as deriving from Hurrian, for example, the names of the clans of Bukhti, Tirikan, Bazayni, Bakran, Mand; rivers Murad, Balik and Khabur, lake Van; the towns of Mardin, Ziwiya, Dinawarand Barzan.
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. The sacred book of the
Yazidis,
Mishefa Reş (Black Book) was written in
Kurmanji Kurdish by
Shaikh Adi's son in early 13th century . 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.
Current status
Today, Kurdish is an official language in
Iraq, while it's banned in
Syria where it's forbidden to publish material in Kurdish. Before August 2002, the Turkish government placed severe restrictions on the use of Kurdish, prohibiting the language in education and broadcast media. Up to 2001, the use of Kurdish was still widely restricted by the Turkish government and singing in Kurdish wasn't allowed.
The Kurdish alphabet is still not recognized in Turkey, and use of the Kurdish letters
X,
W,
Q which don't exist in the
Turkish alphabet has led to prosecution and harassment as recently as
2008. Over the past two years, numerous human rights activist and politicians all over southeastern Turkey, have been taken to court due to use of Kurdish, sometimes as minor as only a few words: sending a greeting card with the words
happy new year in Kurdish, for example, or saying
my dear sisters in a speech at a political rally. Such lawsuits have become so common that in some cases the accused is simply fined for using the letters W, X or Q — present in the Kurdish but not the Turkish alphabet — in an official capacity. In cases involving elected politicians, like Abdullah Demirbas (mayor of Sur, Diyarbakir's central district), the language usage is sometimes considered disloyalty and can carry a prison sentence .
In
Iran, though it's used in some local media and newspapers, it's forbidden in schools
. As a result many Iranian Kurds have left for
Iraqi Kurdistan where they can study in their native language.
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.
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 Kurdistan and Europe.
Dialects
According to
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Kurdish has two main dialects: a northern and a central one. 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, Syria and northwest of Iran. The central group, called
Sorani, is spoken in west of Iran and central part of Iraqi Kurdistan.
. Linguists often classify both dialects as part of the same
Kurmanji branch (as well as the larger branch) of the Kurdish language. An other classification of
Southern Kurdish dialects suggests as following:
Kalhori,
Feyli,
Gurani and classifies these dialects as one branch of
Kurdish language dialects.
A third group, the southern dialects (ironically are spoken in both Northern and Southern
Kurdistan regions) are largely referred to by linguists as the
Zaza-Gorani branch. Linguistically,
Zaza-Gorani languages belong to North Western Iranian Languages group like Kurdish,
Gilaki,
Mazandarani. The Zazaki language still preserved its gender construction while Kurdish, Persian and many other
Iranian languages lost it. Furthermore, Zazaki has preserved "v" sounds at the begining of sentences while Kurdish,
Persian, and Belochi lost it to "b" and "g" sounds.
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 literatures, 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're 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.
Kurmanji and Sorani
According to Philip Kreyenbroek (1992), it may also be misleading to call
Northern Kurmanji and
Sorani "dialects" because they're in some ways as different from one another as nothern and southern German . 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's conjectured that the differences between central and northern dialects, have been caused by the proximity of central group to the other Iranian languages..
According to
Encyclopaedia of Islam, although Kurdish isn't 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 in
Turkey,
Armenia,
Azerbaijan,
Mosul and Bahdinan regions in Iraq and Kurdish communities in
Khorasan (northeast of Iran). Central group (Sorani) is spoken in
Arbil,
Sulaimaniya,
Kirkuk (all in Iraq),
Mahabad and
Sanandaj (in Iran). .
The reality is that the average Diyarbakir Kurmanji speaker won't find it easy to communicate with the inhabitants of Suleymania or Halabja. Another fact is that when the Kurds from Syria, Turkey, Iran and Iraq get together in America, they've no choice but to speak English in order to communicate.
A potentially unified form, emerging either via natural or organised merger of Kurmanji and Sorani is humorously dubbed Soranji by Kurds.
A new term coined recently by Mehrdad Izady, a writer on Kurdish subjects is
Pahlawani which tries to link the Iranian languages of
Zaza-Gorani branch to Kurmanji and Sorani.
(External Link
) Zaza and
Gorani are two languages from north-western Iranian branch and are distinct from Kurmanji and Sorani.
Indo-European linguistic comparison
Due to the fact that 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,
Latin and
Greek. (Source:
Altiranisches Wörterbuch (1904) for the first two and last six.)
| Kurdish |
Avestan |
Persian |
Sanskrit |
Greek |
English |
German |
Latin |
Lithuanian |
Russian |
a href=http://Proto-Indo-European_language.totallyexplained.com title="Proto-Indo-European language - Totally Explained">PIE |
| ez "I" |
äzəm [ezìm] |
|
aham |
egō |
I (< OE ić) |
ich |
ego |
aš |
ja (OCS azŭ) |
|
| lepik "Hand" |
|
|
|
|
(OE lōf "fillet, band") |
(OHG lappo "palm (of the hand)") |
|
lṓpa"paw, claw" |
lápa |
(External Link) |
|
| jin "woman" |
ghenãnãmca [ghenâ] "woman" |
zan |
janay- |
gynēka |
queen |
(OHG quena) |
femina |
(OPruss. genna) |
žená "wife" |
|
| leystin(bileyzim) "to play(I play)" |
|
|
réjati |
paizo |
play |
leich |
|
láigīti |
|
"to jump, to spring, to play"(External Link) |
| mezin "great" |
maz-, mazant |
|
mah(ī)-/mahānt- |
megas |
much (< OE mićil, myćil) |
(OHG mihhil) |
magnus |
milžinas "giant" |
moguchiy |
"big, great" (External Link) |
| mêzer "headband/turban" |
|
mitrā- "god name"(Old Persian) |
mitrah |
mitra "headband, turban", |
mitre "bishop's tall hat" - from Greek(External Link)) |
Mitra - from Greek |
mitra - from Greek) |
|
mir "world, peace" |
"to tie" ((External Link), p38) |
| pez "sheep" |
pasu- "sheep, goat" |
|
paśu "animal" |
|
fee (< OE feoh "cattle") |
Vieh "cattle" |
pecus "cattle" |
pekus "ox" |
pastuh "shepherd" |
"sheep"(External Link),(External Link) |
| çiya "mountain" |
|
kūh, chakād "peak/summit" |
kakúd-, kakúbh- "peak/summit" |
|
|
|
cacūmen |
|
|
"top"(External Link) (External Link) |
| 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 |
živój |
|
| mang meh hîv "moon, month" |
māh- |
māh "moon, month" |
mās- |
mēn "month" |
moon, month |
Mond, Monat |
mēnsis "month" |
mėnuo/mėnesis |
mésjac |
|
| mird[u] "dead", mird[in] "to die" |
mar-, məša- |
mord[a] "dead", mord[an] "to die" |
marati, mrta- |
brotos "mortal", ambrosios "immortal" |
murder |
Mord "murder" |
morior "die", mors "death" |
mirti "to die" |
umerét’"to die", mërtvyj "dead" |
|
| ser "head" |
sarah- |
sar |
śiras- |
ker[as] "horn", kara "head", krā[nion] "cranium" |
dial. harns "brain" |
[Ge]hir[n] "brain" |
cereb[rum] "brain" |
|
cherep "skull" |
|
| sed "hundred" |
satəm |
sad |
śatam |
[he]katon |
hund[red] |
Hund[ert] |
centum |
šimt[as] |
sto |
|
| [di]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 |
nō[scō], [co]gn[itus] |
žin[au]"I know" žin[oti] "to know" |
zná[ju]"I know" zn[at’]' "to know" |
|
Writing system
The Kurdish language uses three different writing systems. In Iran and Iraq it's 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's written using the Latin alphabet. As an example, see the following online news portal published in
Iraqi Kurdistan.
(External Link) Also see the
VOA News site in Kurdish.
(External Link) 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.
Phonology
According to the Kurdish Academy of Language, Kurdish has the following phonemes:
Consonants
- Just as in many English dialects, the velarized lateral doesn't appear in the onset of a syllable.
Vowels
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 )
Abdullah, S. and Alam, K., English-Kurdish (Sorani) and Kurdish (Sorani)-English Dictionary, Star Publications / Languages of the World Publications, India, 2004
Awde, Nicholas, Kurdish-English/English-Kurdish (Kurmanci, Sorani and Zazaki) Dictionary and Phrasebook, Hippocrene Books Inc., U.S., 2004
Raman : English-Kurdish (Sorani) Dictionary, Pen Press Publishers Ltd, UK, 2003, (800 pages)
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
Rizgar, Baran (M. F. Onen), Kurdish-English/English-Kurdish (Kurmancî Dictionary) UK, 1993, 400 p. + 70 illustrations Further Information
Get more info on 'Kurdish Language'.
|
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