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Sorani
Central Kurdish, also known as Sorani Kurdish, is a Kurdish dialect or a language spoken in Iraq, mainly in Iraqi Kurdistan, as well as the provinces of Kurdistan, Kermanshah, and West Azerbaijan in western Iran. Central Kurdish is one of the two official languages of Iraq, along with Arabic, and is in administrative documents simply referred to as "Kurdish". The term Sorani, named after the Soran Emirate, refers to a variety of Central Kurdish based on the dialect spoken in Slemani. Central Kurdish is written in the Kurdo-Arabic alphabet, an adaptation of the Arabic script developed in the 1920s by Sa’ed Sidqi Kaban and Taufiq Wahby. History Tracing back the historical changes of Central Kurdish is difficult. No predecessors of Kurdish are yet known from Old and Middle Iranian times. The extant Kurdish texts may be traced back to no earlier than the 16th century CE. Cebtral Kurdish originates from the Silêmanî region. 1700s–1918 The oldest written literature in C ...
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Kurdish Language
Kurdish (, , ) is a Northwestern Iranian languages, Northwestern Iranian language or dialect continuum, group of languages spoken by Kurds in the region of Kurdistan, namely in southeast Turkish Kurdistan, Turkey, northern Iraqi Kurdistan, Iraq, northwest Iranian Kurdistan, Iran, and northern Syrian Kurdistan, Syria. It is also spoken in northeast Iran, as well as in certain areas of Armenia and Azerbaijan. Kurdish Variety (linguistics), varieties constitute a dialect continuum, with some Mutual intelligibility, mutually unintelligible varieties, and collectively have 26 million native speakers. The main varieties of Kurdish are Kurmanji, Sorani, and Southern Kurdish (). The majority of the Kurds speak Kurmanji, and most Kurdish texts are written in Kurmanji and Sorani. Kurmanji is written in the Hawar alphabet, a derivation of the Latin script, and Sorani is written in the Sorani alphabet, a derivation of the Arabic script. A separate group of non-Kurdish Northwestern I ...
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Kurdish Literature
Kurdish literature ( or ) is literature written in the Kurdish languages. Literary Kurdish works have been written in each of the six main Kurdish languages: Zaza language, Zaza, Gorani language, Gorani, Kurmanji, Sorani, Laki language, Laki and Southern Kurdish. Balül, a 9th-century poet and religious scholar of the Yarsanism, Yarsani faith, is the first well-known poet who wrote in Gorani Kurdish. Ehmedê Xanî (1650–1707) is probably the most renowned of the old Kurdish poets. He wrote the romantic Epic poetry, epic ''Mem and Zin, Mem û Zîn'' in Kurmanji, sometimes considered the Kurdish national epic. Sorani poetry developed mainly after the late 18th century. Most written Kurdish literature was poetry until the 20th century, when prose genres began to be developed. Zazaki-Gorani literature Zaza language, Zaza and Gorani language, Gorani (also known as Hewrami) are two Northwestern Iranian languages which are linguistically distinct from the Kurdish languages, altho ...
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Arabic Script
The Arabic script is the writing system used for Arabic (Arabic alphabet) and several other languages of Asia and Africa. It is the second-most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world (after the Latin script), the second-most widely used List of writing systems by adoption, writing system in the world by number of countries using it, and the third-most by number of users (after the Latin and Chinese characters, Chinese scripts). The script was first used to write texts in Arabic, most notably the Quran, the holy book of Islam. With Spread of Islam, the religion's spread, it came to be used as the primary script for many language families, leading to the addition of new letters and other symbols. Such languages still using it are Arabic language, Arabic, Persian language, Persian (Western Persian, Farsi and Dari), Urdu, Uyghur language, Uyghur, Kurdish languages, Kurdish, Pashto, Punjabi language, Punjabi (Shahmukhi), Sindhi language, Sindhi, South Azerbaijani, Azerb ...
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Gorani Language
Gorani (), also known by the name of its main dialect, Hawrami (, ''Hewramî''), is a Northwestern Iranian language spoken by ethnic Kurds in northeastern Iraq and northwestern Iran and which with Zaza language, Zaza constitute the Zaza–Gorani languages. Zaza and Gorani are linguistically distinct from the Kurdish language, although the great majority of their speakers consider their language to be Kurdish. Gorani is spoken in Iraq and Iran and has four dialects: Bajelani, Hawrami, and Sarli, some sources also include the Shabaki language, Shabaki as a dialect of Gorani as well. Of these, Hawrami was the traditional literary language and Koiné language, koiné of Kurds in the historical Ardalan region at the Zagros Mountains, but has since been supplanted by Central Kurdish and Southern Kurdish. Gorani is a literary language for many Kurds. Gorani had an estimated 180,000 speakers in Iran in 2007 and 120,000 speakers in Iraq as well in 2007 for a total of 300,000 speakers ...
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Southern Kurdish
Southern Kurdish () is one of the dialects of the Kurdish language, spoken predominantly in northeastern Iraq and western Iran. The Southern Kurdish-speaking region spans from Khanaqin in Iraq to Dehloran southward and Asadabad eastward in Iran. Name 'Southern Kurdish' is a linguistic term for a group of related dialects in Western Iran. Speakers are not familiar with the term and do not refer to the language as such. They generally identify the kind of Kurdish they speak as a local dialect (the Kurdish of a given village), or as a regional variety such as "Garūsi". Variants Southern Kurdish has many variants, linguist Fattah divides them into 35 varieties. These include: * Bîcarî ** The most septentrional variety of Southern Kurdish spoken in and around Bijar in Iran. Bîcarî is the only Southern Kurdish variety detached from the greater Southern Kurdish-speaking region. * Qurweyî (Chahar Dawli Xarbi) ** The Quwreyî variety is spoken around Ghorveh in Iran an ...
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Kurdo-Arabic Alphabet
Kurdish is written using either of two alphabets: the Latin-based Bedirxan or Hawar alphabet, introduced by Celadet Alî Bedirxan in 1932 and popularized through the Hawar magazine, and the Kurdo-Arabic alphabet. The Kurdistan Region has agreed upon a standard for Central Kurdish, implemented in Unicode for computation purposes. The Hawar alphabet is primarily used in Syria and Turkey, while the Kurdo-Arabic alphabet is commonly used in Iraq and Iran. The Hawar alphabet is also used to some extent in Iraqi Kurdistan. Two additional alphabets, based on the Armenian and Cyrillic scripts, were once used by Kurds in the Soviet Union, most notably in the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic and Kurdistansky Uyezd. Southern Kurdish lacks a standard orthography, as of 2024. Hawar alphabet Usually it is the northern languages spoken by Kurds, Zazaki and Kurmanji, that are written in the extended Latin alphabet consisting of the 26 letters of the ISO basic Latin Alphabet with 5 let ...
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Kurdish Alphabets
Kurdish language, Kurdish is written using either of two alphabets: the Latin-script alphabet, Latin-based Bedirxan or Hawar alphabet, introduced by Celadet Alî Bedirxan in 1932 and popularized through the Hawar (magazine), Hawar magazine, and the Kurdo-Arabic alphabet. The Kurdistan Region has agreed upon a standard for Central Kurdish, implemented in Unicode for computation purposes. The Hawar alphabet is primarily used in Syria and Turkey, while the Kurdo-Arabic alphabet is commonly used in Iraq and Iran. The Hawar alphabet is also used to some extent in Kurdistan Region, Iraqi Kurdistan. Two additional alphabets, based on the Armenian alphabet, Armenian and Cyrillic scripts, were once used by Kurds in the Soviet Union, most notably in the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic and Kurdistansky Uyezd. Southern Kurdish lacks a standard orthography, as of 2024. Hawar alphabet Usually it is the northern languages spoken by Kurds, Zaza language, Zazaki and Kurmanji, that are writte ...
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Baban
Baban () was a Kurdish emirate existing from the 16th century to 1850, centered on Sulaymaniyah. The Baban Principality played an active role in the Ottoman-Safavid conflict and gave significant military support to the Ottomans. They were in constant rivalry with Ardalan, Bohtan and Soran and its territory would therefore oscillate. Before the removal of the last Baban leader in 1850, their rule had become limited to their capital Sulaymaniyah and few surrounding villages. The modern city of Sulaymaniyah was built by Baban in 1784 which served as their capital. Prior to the founding of the city, the dynasty lived in Qala Çolan. The principality also encouraged and facilitated the use of Sorani Kurdish among its local literary authors. Origins When the Ottomans arrived to the Sulaymaniyah plains ( Şahrizor), the Baban princes had already established themselves in the region. However, there is no pre-Ottoman source on Baban, and their origins are obscure. Information on th ...
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Kurds
Kurds (), or the Kurdish people, are an Iranian peoples, Iranic ethnic group from West Asia. They are indigenous to Kurdistan, which is a geographic region spanning southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northeastern Syria. Consisting of 30–45 million people, the global Kurdish population is largely concentrated in Kurdistan, but significant communities of the Kurdish diaspora exist in parts of West Asia beyond Kurdistan and in parts of Europe, most notably including: Turkey's Central Anatolian Kurds, as well as Kurds in Istanbul, Istanbul Kurds; Iran's Khorasani Kurds; the Caucasian Kurds, primarily in Kurds in Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan and Kurds in Armenia, Armenia; and the Kurdish populations in various European countries, namely Kurds in Germany, Germany, Kurds in France, France, Kurds in Sweden, Sweden, and the Kurds in the Netherlands, Netherlands. The Kurdish language, Kurdish languages and the Zaza–Gorani languages, both of which belong to the Wes ...
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Iranian Languages
The Iranian languages, also called the Iranic languages, are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family that are spoken natively by the Iranian peoples, predominantly in the Iranian Plateau. The Iranian languages are grouped in three stages: Old Iranian (until 400 BCE), Middle Iranian (400 BCE – 900 CE) and New Iranian (since 900 CE). The two directly attested Old Iranian languages are Old Persian (from the Achaemenid Empire) and Old Avestan (the language of the Avesta). Of the Middle Iranian languages, the better understood and recorded ones are Middle Persian (from the Sasanian Empire), Parthian (from the Parthian Empire), and Bactrian (from the Kushan and Hephthalite empires). Number of speakers , '' Ethnologue'' estimates that there are 86 languages in the group. Terminology and grouping Etymology The term ''Iran'' derives directly from Middle Persian , first attested in a third-century inscription at Naqsh-e Rostam, ...
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Kurmanji
Kurmanji (, ), also termed Northern Kurdish, is the northernmost of the Kurdish languages, spoken predominantly in southeast Turkey, northwest and northeast Iran, northern Iraq, northern Syria and the Caucasus and Khorasan regions. It is the most widely spoken form of Kurdish. Kurmanji is also the common and ceremonial language of Yazidis. Their sacred book '' Mishefa Reş'' and all prayers are written and spoken in Kurmanji. ''Ethnologue'' reports that the use of Kurmanji is declining in Turkey even when the language is used as a language of wider communication (LWC) by immigrants to Turkey, and that the language is threatened because it is losing speakers. History Pre-modern Kurmanji Although Kurds are mentioned in the pre-Islamic period, there is no information of the Kurdish language before the Islamic period. The first mention of Kurmanji Kurdish is by the medieval Chaldean author Ibn Wahshiyya (d. 930/1) in his treatise about alphabets. Orientalist Joseph Hammer ...
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Zaza Language
Zaza (endonym: , , , , , or , ) is a Northwestern Iranian language spoken primarily in eastern Turkey by the Zazas, who are mostly considered as Kurds, and in many cases identify as such. The language is a part of the Zaza–Gorani language group of the northwestern group of the Iranian branch. The glossonym Zaza originated as a pejorative. According to Ethnologue, Zaza is spoken by around 1.48 million people, and the language is considered threatened due to a declining number of speakers, with many shifting to Turkish. Nevins, however, puts the number of Zaza speakers between two and three million. Classification The Zaza language is considered a branch of the Kurdic subgroup within the Northwestern Iranian languages. The varieties of Kurdic do not directly descend from any known Middle Iranian languages, such as Middle Persian or Parthian, or from Old Iranian languages, such as Avestan or Old Persian. Zaza is considered a macrolanguage, consisting of Southern and N ...
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