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<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9046467/Kurdish-language]</ref>. Linguists often classify both dialects as part of the same branch (as well as the larger branch) of the Kurdish language.
<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9046467/Kurdish-language]</ref>. Linguists often classify both dialects as part of the same branch (as well as the larger branch) of the Kurdish language.


In contrast, the southern dialects (ironically are spoken in both Northern and Southern [[Kurdistan]] regions) are largely referred to by linguists as the [[Zaza-Gorani]] branch.<ref>http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=90046</ref> While some scholars reject the classification of [[Zaza-Gorani]] as belonging to the Kurdish branch of Indo-Iranian languages, it is noteworthy that the majority of people who speak dialects belonging to the [[Zaza-Gorani]] branch identify as Kurds.<ref>http://www.zazaki.org/</ref><ref>http://www.hawraman.com/</ref>
In contrast, the southern dialects (ironically are spoken in both Northern and Southern [[Kurdistan]] regions) are largely referred to by linguists as the [[Zaza-Gorani]] branch.<ref>http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=90046</ref> While some scholars reject the classification of [[Zaza-Gorani]] as belonging to the Kurdish branch of Indo-Iranian languages, it is noteworthy that a large number of people who speak dialects belonging to the [[Zaza-Gorani]] branch identify as Kurds.<ref>http://www.zazaki.org/</ref><ref>http://www.hawraman.com/</ref>


===Kurmanji and Sorani===
===Kurmanji and Sorani===

Revision as of 20:20, 27 September 2007

Kurdish
كوردی, Kurdî, Кьӧрди
Native toIraqi Kurdistan, Turkey Kurdistan, Iranan Kurdistan, Syriaan Kurdistan, Armenia, Lebanon (see article for full list)
RegionMiddle East
Native speakers
31,417,000 (disputed)
Kurdish alphabet (modified Arabic alphabet in Iraq and Iran, modified Latin alphabet in Turkey and Syria, modified Cyrillic in the former USSR)
Official status
Official language in
Iraq
Kurdish Autonomous Region
Language codes
ISO 639-1ku
ISO 639-2kur
ISO 639-3Variously:
kur – Kurdish (generic)
ckb – Central Kurdish
kmr – Northern Kurdish
sdh – Southern Kurdish

Areas where Kurdish is spoken as mother tounge

The Kurdish language is the language spoken by Kurds. It is mainly concentrated in the region of Kurdistan, which includes parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey.[1]

The Kurdish language belongs to the western 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.

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.[2] Some evidence of Hurrian influence on Kurdish is detected in its ergative grammatical structure.[3]. 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.[4], e.g., the names of the clans of Bukhti, Tirikan, Bazayni, Bakran, Mand; rivers Murad, Balik and Khabur, lake Van; the towns of Mardin, Ziwiya, Dinawar and 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 [5]. 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.

In the beginning of the 20th century the countries that controlled the Kurdish-speaking regions refused to accept Kurdish as an official language and placed restrictions on its use, even םn basic right such as naming children in Kurdish. Today, only in Iraq, Kurdish is an official language. In Turkey the use of Kurdish is allowed, though with restrictions; In Iran, Kurdish is used in some publications, but it is not allowed to be taught in schools. Syria still opposes the use of Kurdish in the country.

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.[6] 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.

Today, Kurdish is an official language in Iraq while it is banned in Syria where it is forbidden to publish material in Kurdish.[7] Before August 2002, the Turkish government placed severe restrictions on the use of Kurdish, prohibiting the language in education and broadcast media.[8] The Kurdish alphabet is still not recognized in Turkey, and use of the Kurdish letters X, W, Q which do not exist in the Turkish alphabet has led to prosecution and harassment in 2000 and 2003 [9] [10]. In Iran, though it is used in some local media and newspapers, it is forbidden in schools [11] [12]. As a result many Iranian Kurds have left for Iraqi Kurdistan where they can study in their native language[13].

Grammar

The Kurdish language is a typical example of an ergative language. There are many variations of ergativity such as split ergativity or ergative-absolutive, especially in the past tense forms in the Kurdish language. In the ergative case, the subject is oblique, and the verb agrees with the object and thus is unlike Persian, Turkish and Arabic in which the object has an accusative marker and the verb in all tenses agrees with the subject of the sentence. Kurdish also shows clitic reversing in all tense forms in sentences. Linguists believe Kurdish has inherited this attribute of ergativity from the language of the Hurrians (Khurrites) who are believed to be one of the main ancestors of the Kurds.

A simple example of ergative-absolutive in Kurdish (Kurmanji):
  • Wan nan çêkir
  • Subject-object-verb
  • They-bread-made
  • They made the bread.

In the above example, wan is oblique and nan is absolute. In the ergative case the verb çêkir (to make) agrees with the object nan. Furthermore, ergativity only occurs in the past tense when the verb is transitive. When the verb is intransitive, sentence structure follows the standard subject-verb agreement. Lastly, the article the is automatically assumed if the object is absolute.

In addition to these, Kurdish uses various adpositions i.e. both prepositions and postpositions marking at the same time on a head noun. None of its neighbouring languages do so.

Dialects

According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, Kurdish has two main northern and central dialects. The northern dialect, Northern Kurmanji also commonly reffered 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. [14]. Linguists often classify both dialects as part of the same branch (as well as the larger branch) of the Kurdish language.

In contrast, the southern dialects (ironically are spoken in both Northern and Southern Kurdistan regions) are largely referred to by linguists as the Zaza-Gorani branch.[15] While some scholars reject the classification of Zaza-Gorani as belonging to the Kurdish branch of Indo-Iranian languages, it is noteworthy that a large number of people who speak dialects belonging to the Zaza-Gorani branch identify as Kurds.[16][17]

Kurmanji and Sorani

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. However, it is useful to comment on the differences between the two varieties.

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.[18].

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 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). [19].

Pehlewani

Often regarded to as the smaller branch of the Kurdish language apart from Kurmanji is Pehlewani, today referred to as Zaza-Gorani. According to medieval Islamic sources, the language spoken by Hurrian ancestors of Kurds that primarily belonged to the Yazdanism sect of religious belief spoke a Proto-Pehlewani language.[20] Today, Pehlewani is survived by few dialects spoken by modern-day Kurds including Gorani and Dimili or Zazaki. While these dialects similarly vary in ways that Northern Kurmanji and Sorani do, linguists have largely classified the dialects under the same branch.[21]

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 PIE
ez "I" äzəm [ezìm] aham egō I (< OE ić) ich ego aš ja (OCS azŭ) *h₁eĝh₂om
jin "woman" ghenãnãmca [ghenâ] "woman" zan janay- gynēka queen (OHG quena) femina (OPruss. genna) žená "wife" *gʷenh₂-
leystin(bileyzim) "to play (I play)" réjati paizo leich láigīti *(e)lAig'- "to jump, to spring, to play"[9]
mezin "great" maz-, mazant mah(ī)-/mahānt- megas much (< OE mićil, myćil) (OHG mihhil) magnus *meĝh₂- "big, great" [10]
mêzer "headband/turban" mithra- "god name"(Old Persian) mitrah mitra "headband, turban," mitera "bishop's tall hat" - from Greek[11]) Mitra - from Greek mitra - from Greek) mir "world, peace" *mei- "to tie" ([12], p38)
pez "sheep" pasu- "sheep, goats" paśu "animal" fee (< OE feoh "cattle") Vieh "cattle" pecus "cattle" pekus "ox" pastuh "shepherd" *pek̂-u- "sheep"[13],[14]
çiya "mountain" chakād "summit" kakúd-, kakúbh- "peak/summit" cacūmen *kak-, *kakud- "top"[15] [16]
zîndu "alive" jiyan "to live" gaêm [gaya] zende "alive", zîstan "to live" jīvati zoi "life", zō "live" quick quick "bright" vīvus "alive", vīvō "live", vīta "life" gývas živój *gʷih₃(u̯)-
mang "moon" māh- māh mās- mēn "month" moon, month Mond, Monat mēnsis "month" mėnuo/mėnesis mésjac *meh₁ns-
mirdu "dead", mirdin "to die" mar-, məša- morda "dead", mordan "to die" marati, mrta- brotos "mortal", ambrosios "immortal" murder Mord "murder" morior "die", mors "death" mirti "to die" umerét’"to die", mërtvyj "dead" *mer-, *mr̻to-
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" *k̂erh₂s-
sed "hundred" satəm sad śatam [he]katon hund[red] Hund[ert] centum šimt[as] sto *dk̂m̻tom
[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" *ĝneh₃-

there are 7 dialects

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. [17] Also see the VOA News site in Kurdish. [18] 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.[22]

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 [23])
  • Abdullah, S. and Alam, K., English-Kurdish (Sorani) and Kurdish (Sorani)-English Dictionary, Star Publications / Languages of the World Publications, India, 2004 [24]
  • Awde, Nicholas, Kurdish-English/English-Kurdish (Kurmanci, Sorani and Zazaki) Dictionary and Phrasebook, Hippocrene Books Inc., U.S., 2004 [25]
  • Raman : English-Kurdish (Sorani) Dictionary, Pen Press Publishers Ltd, UK, 2003, (800 pages) [26]
  • Saadallah, Salah, English-Kurdish Dictionary, Avesta/Paris Kurdish Institute, Istanbul, 2000, (1477 pages) [27]
  • Amindarov, Aziz, Kurdish-English/English-Kurdish Dictionary, Hippocrene Books Inc., U.S., 1994 [28]
  • Rizgar, Baran (M. F. Onen), Kurdish-English/English-Kurdish (Kurmancî Dictionary) UK, 1993, 400 p. + 70 illustrations [29]

References

  1. ^ Geographic distribution of Kurdish and other Iranic languages
  2. ^ A. Arnaiz-Villena, J. Martiez-Lasoa and J. Alonso-Garcia, The correlation Between Languages and Genes: The Usko-Mediterranean Peoples Human Immunology 62 (2001) No. 9:1057.
  3. ^ A. Arnaiz-Villena, E. Gomez-Casado, J. Martinez-Laso, Population genetic relationships between Mediterranean populations determined by HLA distribution and a historic perspective, Tissue Antigens, vol.60, p. 117, 2002[1]
  4. ^ M.R. Izady, Exploring Kurdish Origins, Kurdish Life, No. 7, Summer 1993
  5. ^ [2]
  6. ^ Turkey to get Kurdish television
  7. ^ Repression of Kurds in Syria is widespread, Amnesty International Report, March 2005.
  8. ^ Special Focus Cases: Leyla Zana, Prisoner of Conscience
  9. ^ [3](p.8)
  10. ^ [4]
  11. ^ 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).
  12. ^ The language policy of Iran from State policy on the Kurdish language: the politics of status planning by Amir Hassanpour, University of Toronto
  13. ^ Neighboring Kurds Travel to Study in Iraq
  14. ^ [5]
  15. ^ http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=90046
  16. ^ http://www.zazaki.org/
  17. ^ http://www.hawraman.com/
  18. ^ D.N. MacKenzie, Language in Kurds & Kurdistan, Encyclopaedia of Islam.
  19. ^ D.N. MacKenzie, Language in Kurds & Kurdistan, Encyclopaedia of Islam.
  20. ^ http://www.xs4all.nl/~tank/kurdish/htdocs/his/orig.html
  21. ^ http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=90046
  22. ^ The Kurdish Unified Alphabet
  23. ^ [6]
  24. ^ [7]
  25. ^ ISBN 0-7818-1071-X
  26. ^ ISBN 1-904018-83-1
  27. ^ [8]
  28. ^ ISBN 0-7818-0246-6
  29. ^ ISBN 1-873722-05-2

See also

Kurdish edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Religious texts

Kurdish broadcast programs

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