Southern Kurdish

Southern Kurdish
کوردی خوارگ
Spoken in	Eastern Iraq, Western Iran
Region	Main in Western Iran, Kermanshah, Ilam Province, eastern Kurdistan Province, western Hamedan province, Qazvin province, southern kurds diaspora in Tehran province, Alborz province; Eastern Iraq border with those provinces including Xanaqin, Kifri, Mandali, Qorwaq and Baghdad.
Native speakers	About 6,000,000 in Iran, Iraq and elsewhere.  (date missing)
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Iranian Western Northwestern Kurdish Southern Kurdish
Language codes
ISO 639-3	sdh
Linguasphere	58-AAA-c
Southern Kurdish Area

Southern Kurdish (Southern Kurdish: Kurdí Xuwarig،کوردی خوارگ), also called Kermānšāhi, belongs to the Northwestern Iranian languages and is predominantly spoken in western Iran and eastern Iraq. In Iran, it is spoken in the provinces of Kermanshah (Kermānšān) and Ilam. In Iraq it is spoken in the region of Khanaqin (Xaneqîn), all the way to Mandali, Pehle. It is also the language of the populous Kurdish Kakayî tribe near Kerkuk and the Zengenes near Kifrî. There are also populous diasporas of Southern Kurdish Dialects group found in the Alburz mountains. Its dialects are Kolyaî, Kermanshahi (Kermānšānî), Kalhuri, Garrusi (Gerrûsî) (Bijari), Sanjâbi (Sencabî), Malekshahi (Melikşay), Beyrey or Mahaki (which is a sub-dialect of Feyli) and Feyli (ilami). It had around 3 million speakers in Iran in 2000.

Southern Kurdish which is spoken in Iran in Ilam and Kermanshah provinces, is very similar to Laki language which is spoken in Lorestan, Hamedan, and Kermanshah. Southern dialects standard written form is like standard Persian and have not been adequately studied.

See also

• Kalhor
• Gorani, Hewrami
• Central Kurdish
• Northern Kurdish

External links

• Information regarding Southern Kurdish
• Kurdish Academy of Language describing Southern Kurdish