Kurdish language

The Kurdish language is spoken in parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey.

The Kurdish language belongs to the Indo-European family of languages. Kurdish dialects are members of the northwestern subdivision of the Iranic branch of this largest family of languages in the world. The Kurdish language is an independent language, having its own historical development, continuity, grammatical system and rich living vocabularies. The Kurdish language was derived from the ancient "Median" language or "Proto-Kurdish". Ca. 30 million people in the high land of Middle East, Kurdistan, speak different dialects of Kurdish.

Kurdish dialects can be divided into three primaries groups: 1) the Northern Kurdish dialects group also called Kurmanjí and Badínaní, 2) Central Kurdish dialects group also called Soraní (see also basic linguistic differences between these two major branches) and 3) the Southern Kurdish dialects group also called Pehlewaní or "Pahlawanik" group in some sources. The two other major branches of Kurdish language are, Dimílí group also called "Zaza" and Hewramí group also called Goraní (Gúraní) in some sources. These are further divided into scores of dialects and sub-dialects as well.

In some linguistic sources the south west Iranic branch of Indo-Iranic languages Lurrí (Luri) group has been classed as a subgroup of Kurdish language. Although Lurrí contains a great number of Kurdish words there are still many unanswered questions regarding the relation between Lurrí and the rest of Kurdish language.

There is no standard nomenclature for the divisions of Kurdish dialects, not just in the works of Western scholars but among the Kurds themselves. All the native designators for local language and dialects are based on the way the spoken language of one group sounds to the unfamiliar ears of the other. Dimila and their vernacular, Dimili, are therefore called Zaza by the Badínaní speakers, with reference to the preponderance of Z sounds in their language (Nikitin 1926). The Dimila call the Badínaní dialect and its speakers Xerewere. The Gorans refer to the Soraní as Kurkure and Wawa. The Soraní speakers in turn call the Gorans and their vernacular, Goraní, Mecú Mecú, and refer to the tongue and the speakers of Badínaní as Ji Babu.

Source KurVAL: Kurdish Virtual Academy of Language (http://kurdweb.humanrights.de/kval/index)

External links and references

• Google Directory category for Kurdish (http://directory.google.com/Top/Science/Social_Sciences/Language_and_Linguistics/Natural_Languages/Indo-European_Languages/Indo-Iranian_Languages/Iranian_Languages/Kurdish/)
• Kurd_lal: Kurdish Language and Linguistics (http://www.cogsci.ed.ac.uk/%7esiamakr/kurd_lal)
• On-line Kurdish-English dictionary (http://stp.ling.uu.se/%7ekamalk/dic/foldoc/lexikon)