Southern Kurdish

Southern Kurdish
Kurdish: کوردیی باشووری ,کوردی خوارگ
Native to	Eastern Iraq, Western Iran
Native speakers	3,000,000 in Iran (2000)
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Iranian Western Northwestern Kurdish languages Southern Kurdish
Dialects	Bayray Feyli Garrusi (Bijari) Kermanshahi Kolyai Kordali Malekshahi Sanjabi Laki Kalhori Zangana
Writing system	Hawar alphabet, Perso-Arabic (Sorani alphabet)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	sdh
Glottolog	sout2640
Linguasphere	58-AAA-c

Southern Kurdish (Kurdish: کوردیی باشووری ,کوردی خوارگ, romanized: Kurdîyi başûrî, Kurdî xwarg), also known as Kurdî Xwarîn is a Kurdish dialect predominantly spoken in Eastern Iraq and Western Iran. In Iran, it is spoken in the provinces of Kermanshah and Ilam. In Iraq, it is spoken in the region of Khanaqin, all the way to Mandali. It is also the dialect of the populous Kurdish Kakayî tribes near Kirkuk and most Yarsani Kurds in Kermanshah Province. There are also populous diasporas of Southern Kurdish-speakers found in the Alburz mountains.

Native speakers use various different alphabets to write Southern Kurdish, the most common ones are extensions of the standard Kurdish alphabets.

Subdialects

The subdialects of Southern Kurdish are:

• Kermanshahi is spoken mostly in Western Iran, in and around the city of Kermanshah (Kirmaşan).
• Feyli, referring to the Feyli tribe; also known as Ilami, after Ilam Province. It is spoken in Eastern Iraq in the Khanaqin region of Diyala Governorate near the Iranian border and in Western Iran in Ilam province and parts of Kermanshah province, by the Feyli Kurds. Mahaki is a sub-dialect. It is spoken by the tribe of Ali Sherwan (Beyrey) in Ilam and by almost all Feyli Kurds in Baghdad, Mandali, Badrah and Zorbatiah in Iraq. It shares many features with Sorani.
• Garrusi Bijari (Gerrûsî) (Bîcarî)
• Malekshahi (Melikşayî)
• Sanjâbi (Sincawî) referring to the language of Sanjâbi people. It is closely related to Laki.
• Laki is spoken in the central Zagros region of Iran, in the provinces of Lorestan (Nurabad, Kuhdasht), Kermanshah (Kangavar, Harsin, Sahneh) Darreh Shahr and Holeylan in Ilam Province and in much smaller numbers in the provinces of Qazvin, Hamedan and Khuzestan.
• Kalhori (Kelhûrî), referring to the Kalhor (Kurdish tribe).

See also

• Kalhor Kurds
• Gorani language
• Sorani
• Kurmanji
• Laki language

Sources

• Kamandar Fattah, Les Dialectes kurdes méridionaux: étude linguistique et dialectologique. Louvain, Peeters, 2000, p. 55-62.

External links

• Information regarding Southern Kurdish
• Kurdish Academy of Language describing Southern Kurdish
• Audio recordings of wordlists and narratives in Southern Kurdish, archived with Kaipuleohone
• southern Kurdish Wikipedia