Central Kurdish - Wikipedia

Central Kurdish - Wikipedia
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(Redirected from
Central Kurdish language
"Surani" redirects here. For the Kenyan-British developmental biologist, see
Azim Surani
. For the Canadian poet and artist, see
Moez Surani
. For the Palestinian human rights lawyer, see
Raji Sourani
. For the mountain in the Bolivian Andes, see
Sura Surani
. For the commune in Romania, see
Surani, Prahova
Variety of Kurdish spoken in Iran and Iraq
Central Kurdish
Kurdîy Nawendî
Soranî
کوردیی ناوەندی
سۆرانی
Central Kurdish and Sorani written in the
Sorani alphabet
Native to
Iran
Iraq
Region
Kurdistan
Ethnicity
Kurds
Native speakers
6.1 million (2023–2024)
Language family
Indo-European
Indo-Iranian
Iranian
Western
Northwestern
Kurdish
Central Kurdish
Dialects
Babanî (Silêmanî)
Mukriyanî
Erdelanî
Germiyanî (Cafî)
Hewlêrî
Xoşnaw
Kerkukî
Writing system
Arabic
Kurdo-Arabic alphabet
Latin
Hawar alphabet
) (occasionally)
Official status
Official language in
Iraq
Kurdistan Region
Language codes
ISO 639-3
ckb
Glottolog
cent1972
Linguasphere
58-AAA-cae
Geographic distribution of Kurdish and other Iranian languages spoken by Kurds
Kurmanji
(Northern Kurdish)
Sorani (Central Kurdish)
Zaza language
Southern Kurdish
Gorani
is included)
mixed dialect areas
A Sorani Kurdish speaker, recorded in
Norway
Central Kurdish
also known as
Sorani Kurdish
, is a
Kurdish
language variety
spoken in
Iraq
, mainly in
Iraqi Kurdistan
, as well as the
Iranian provinces
of
Kurdistan
Kermanshah
, and
West Azerbaijan
. Central Kurdish is one of the two official languages of Iraq, along with
Arabic
, and is in administrative documents simply referred to as "Kurdish".
11
12
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
13
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.
14
Central Kurdish originates from the
Silêmanî
region.
15
1700s–1918
The oldest written
literature
in Central Kurdish is reported to have been
Mehdîname
("The book of
Mahdi
") from 1762 by Mulla Muhammed ibn ul Haj. Central Kurdish thus only emerged as a written language after the decline of the
Gorani
vernacular, the
Ardalan
state and the rise of
Baban
around Silêmanî. During the Baban era, Sorani emerged as an important literary vernacular and many poets such as
Nalî
wrote in Sorani despite being proficient in
Arabic
and
Persian
. Nalî mentioned that he wrote in Kurdish knowing his poetry might not receive the same
dissemination
as it might have done in the more prestigious Arabic or Persian.
16
Contemporaries of Nalî like
Salim
and Mustefa Bêgî Kurdî also wrote in Sorani and their writings would become the foundation for the standard variety of Central Kurdish. When the Baban dynasty was overthrown in 1850, the golden era of Sorani ended and poets including Nalî left the Silêmanî region.
17
Hacî Qadirî Koyî
continued the tradition of writing in Sorani and lamented the lack of promotion of Sorani among the Kurdish clergy and called those who did not do so 'bastards'. Beside Koyi,
Riza Talebanî
also promoted Sorani as a literary language.
18
Prior to the 20th century, only three non-poetic Central Kurdish works are known to exist being
Mewlûdname
by Şêx Husên Qazî (1793-1871), a glossary of Arabic-Kurdish by Ehmedî from 1795 and a translation of the introduction to
Gulistan
by
Saadi Shirazi
19
The language of these works heavily relied on Arabic and Persian, which prevented Central Kurdish from enjoying further progress besides being a literary language. Only after
World War I
did this change.
19
Besides poetry and the few other texts mentioned above, linguistic works on Central Kurdish also existed.
Leonard Chodźko
wrote a sketch of the Silêmanî variety of Sorani in 1857; de Morgan wrote his "
Etudea linguistiques: Dialectee Kurdea
" in 1904, in which he compared eleven varieties of Kurdish to each other and with Persian and
Sanskrit
. Later, in 1903,
Ely Bannister Soane
published a learner textbook and vocabulary list on Sorani for British personnel in Kurdistan, while Oskar Mann wrote
Die Mundart der Mukri Kurden
containing a grammar sketch of the Central Kurdish variety of
Mukriyan
in 1906. Lastly, Ludvig Olsen Fossum published a grammar book in 1919 based on the Central Kurdish variety spoken around
Mahabad
19
1918–1930s
After the dissolution of the
Ottoman Empire
, much of the Central Kurdish-speaking region came under
British
rule in present-day Iraq. Central Kurdish subsequently became the language for
prose
, media, and journalism, and a distinct alphabet was created for the vernacular. Sorani also gained a kurdified vocabulary by the 1950s. The British began publishing
periodicals
in the language to mobilize Kurds, since the Central Kurdish-speaking contingent of Iraq was more urbanized, better educated, and more inclined towards
Kurdish nationalism
than the
Kurmanji
-speaking population around
Duhok
. Such nationalism was promoted to prevent any Turkish takeover of
Kirkuk
and
Mosul
. To this end, the first government press in Sorani was established in
Sulaymaniyah
in 1920, which propelled Central Kurdish into becoming a language of media, education, and administration. The government press had by 1923 published six books, 118 issues of the weekly publication
Pêşkewtin
(Progress), fourteen issues of
Bangî Kurdistan
(The Call of Kurdistan), and sixteen issues of
Rojî Kurdistan
(The Day of Kurdistan).
20
The period also saw the publication of Central Kurdish works for schools, and courts began using the language as well. In 1923,
Taufiq Wahby
was instructed to produce school books in Central Kurdish by the Iraqi government, and his modified
orthography
for the language would be implemented as the official Central Kurdish script in school textbooks two decades later. His orthography included purging the Arabic letters (
ث/ذ/ص/ض/ط/ظ
) and creating the new letters (
پ/ژ/چ/گ/ڤ/ڕ/ڵ/وو/ێ
).
21
Wahby also supported switching to the
Latin alphabet
, but this idea was not accepted by the literary society or the state.
22
In the 1930s, the
League of Nations
urged Iraq to draft a law guaranteeing the use of the Kurdish language. The authorities reluctantly agreed, but the British knew the law would not be implemented once they left Iraq. This pushed the British to implement the law themselves in May 1931, which made Kurdish an official language in the governorates of
Sulaymaniyah
Kirkuk
, and
Erbil
. Kurds were, however, dissatisfied, since Kurdish was only allowed to be used in elementary schools and Iraq had fully
arabized
the education and administration systems in Kirkuk and Mosul. In subsequent years, linguistic rights for Kurds were either ignored or reluctantly implemented.
23
The development of Central Kurdish was slow in Iran and faced many challenges. The earliest use of the language was during the
Simko Shikak revolt
of 1918 to 1922, which saw the use of Central Kurdish side by side with Kurmanji as official languages in the area controlled by the rebels. After the defeat of the revolt, formal use of Central Kurdish ceased until 1946. During the rule of
Reza Shah
from 1925 to 1941, Iran was extremely centralist and
Persian
was dominant to the detriment of other languages. A decree issued by the government in 1935 suppressed Kurdish and marked its end as a written language. Only a dozen handwritten poetic manuscripts in Central Kurdish exist from this period, including works by Hassan Saifulquzzat, Said Kamil Imani, and Khalamin Barzanji.
24
1940s–1950s
By the 1940s, the Silêmanî variant of the dialect had become the standard variant of Central Kurdish and even
Kurds in Iran
accepted this. The 1940s also saw the use of Sorani in radio broadcasting which elevated its prestige but also the urgency in proficiency since it was linked to current events.
25
Iraq
The 1940s experienced an intermittent suppression of Kurdish but Central Kurdish still succeeded in becoming considerably standardized by the end of the period.
25
By the time the
14 July Revolution
took place in 1958, Central Kurdish had incorporated the norms of a standard language which had given it legitimacy.
26
During the new
Iraqi Republic
from 1958 to 1968, the number of journals in Central Kurdish increased fast and a Kurdish department was established at the
University of Baghdad
and moreover a Directorate General of Kurdish Studies was established to answer the growing Kurdish demands for mother tongue education.
27
In 1960, the first Central Kurdish-Arabic dictionary was published.
27
Iran
After the ousting of Reza Shah in 1941 and the
Anglo-Soviet occupation of Iran
, nationalist movements among Kurds gained strength and Central Kurdish became the formal language again, especially in
Mukriyan
where the
Komeley Jiyanewey Kurd
(KJK) used it as their official language. Central Kurdish was also introduced in schools, administration and in mosques.
Kurds in Iraq
aided with this, for example by exporting school books to Iran.
Language planning
was also in the works but rudimentary.
28
When the
Republic of Mahabad
fell, formal use of Central Kurdish also ceased in Iran, however the new
Pahlavi
state under
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
would become more tolerant than that of Reza Shah. Researcher Hassanpour argues that the reason for this was the vulnerability of the new central government which had to approach the Kurds more relaxed. For this, some developments did take place including the publication of periodicals in Central Kurdish but also state-sponsored radio broadcasting and teaching Kurdish at the
University of Tehran
29
In the 1950s, the Iranian authorities began restricting and controlling the tolerance towards Kurdish which continued towards the
Iranian Revolution
in 1979. No
positive rights
were given and any written use was controlled. However, the restrictions had to be loosen since Kurds in Iran were receiving radio broadcasting from Iraq and
Soviet Armenia
. Iran thus allowed for limited radio broadcasting in Mahabad,
Sanandaj
and
Kermanshah
which legitimized and popularized Central Kurdish further.
26
1960s–1980s
Iraq
The Kurdish Scientific Academy was established in
Baghdad
in 1968 which devoted a significant part of their job to develop
neologisms
, grammar books, writing style guide-lines, a modified orthography and research in linguistics subjects. The
Kurdistan Democratic Party
and its media also used Central Kurdish as their official language despite its leader
Mustefa Barzanî
being a Kurmanji-speaker. Despite the deterioration of relations between the Kurds and Iraq in the 1970s, the state still sponsored the implementation of Central Kurdish as language in secondary schools. However, this ended by 1978 when the Iraqi authorities embarked on an Arabization to quell Kurdish nationalism.
30
On this, Hassanpour wrote in 1992 that:
31
Language-related aspects of Arabization include, among other things, the Arabization of Kurdish schools in the Autonomous region; the dissolution of the Kurdish Academy in 1978 and the formation of a 'Kurdish corporation' within the Iraqi Scientific Academy (the policy was to replace 'Kurdish' by 'Iraqi' in the name of organizations, institutions and unions); the removal of Sulaymanya University from Sulaymaniya, main center of Kurdish nationalism, to Arbil and partial Arabization of its faculty and curriculum; and the Arabization of Kurdish geographical names.
Central Kurdish continued as the main language in elementary and secondary schools in Iraqi Kurdistan.
31
In the 1980s, the state sponsored publications in Central Kurdish despite warring with the Kurds.
32
Iran
In the 1960s, schooling in Kurdish or teaching Kurdish was unthinkable, even in private. However, the University of Tehran began offering two courses in Kurdish even though one had to refrain from discussing Kurdish and had to call it a 'dialect'. The policy of the Pahlavi state in regard to Kurdish was like that of
safety valve
where rights were restricted when the state felt threatened.
33
After the
Iranian Revolution
in 1979, the new Iranian constitution was ambiguous towards Kurdish but the new regime discouraged the use of Central Kurdish both in private and in public. Limited media in Central Kurdish was allowed in the subsequent years.
34
The policy of safety valve continued throughout the 1980s.
35
1990s
Iraq
Kurdistan Region Parliament
passed a provisional constitution in 1992 making Kurdish the official language of
Kurdistan Region
. 'Kurdish' would refer to Central Kurdish which also became the language of instruction in Kurmanji– and Gorani–speaking areas until these linguistic communities demanded education in
Kurmanji
and
Gorani
, respectively. Central Kurdish ceased as language of instruction in these areas in the mid-2000s. In 1997, the Kurdistan Sciency Academy was established in
Erbil
with the goal of creating a unitary language in the autonomous region.
36
Iran
More leniency was given towards Kurdish, especially Central Kurdish in the 1990s, but use of Central Kurdish in administration and education was still not allowed. The debate on mother tongue education entered the public sphere in the 2000s.
37
2000s–Present
Orthography
remains a challenge for Central Kurdish. In Iraq, Central Kurdish orthography is moving towards being based on a single
morpheme
while Sorani-speakers in Iran make longer words. An example is the word
to review
which can be spelled both
pêdaçûnewe and
pê da çûnewe.
38
World Wide Web
has had a significant impact on Central Kurdish as thousands of Central Kurdish-speakers have gotten free access to literature. It also became easier to listen to radio and watch television. The Internet moreover fostered the use of Central Kurdish in Iran and the diaspora, where the language had no official status,
39
altough prevalence of the language in digital spaces is still scarce overall.
40
A language learning app
for Sorani has aimed to improve the online accesibility of the language.
41
Arabic and Persian words continue to be purged from written Central Kurdish and are getting replaced by neologisms. Conversely, Central Kurdish is borrowing words from the
English language
42
Iraq
After the fall of
Saddam Hussein
in 2003, Iraq declared Kurdish as the official language of the country beside Arabic. The first section of Article 4 secures this. In 2006,
Duhok
began using Kurmanji as their official language as a way of resisting Central Kurdish. Fearing the loss of hegemony, 53 academics, writers and poets pushed the Kurdish Parliament to declare Central Kurdish as the official language of the autonomous region. This attempt failed multiple times and Kurmanji remains the official Kurdish language in Duhok. In the 2010s, criticism arose due to the quality of the Sorani school textbooks, media texts and
signage
. In 2011, two journalism professors from
Salahaddin University
criticized the state of Central Kurdish in Kurdistan Region which could affect its use among the people. They also expressed dismay over the method of the Kurdistan Region Parliament in using the language, since the institution wrote their bills and laws in Arabic and then translated to Central Kurdish.
38
Iran
More flexibility was shown to Kurdish in the mid-2000s by the
reformists
, likely to win the Kurdish vote. Kurds used the opportunity and began publishing more in Central Kurdish, set up private language learning courses and also advocated for the implementation of Article 15 of the Constitution which would allow the use of regional languages. The use of Central Kurdish in Iran has since then been revitalized by Kurdish book publishers like
Mang
. Nonetheless, the use of Central Kurdish in the public school system is not supported by Iranian nationalists and
conservatives
who believe it could damage the unity of the nation-state.
42
Writing system
Main article:
Kurdish alphabets § Kurdo-Arabic alphabet
Central Kurdish is mostly written with a modified version of the
Arabic alphabet
. The Latin-based
Hawar Alphabet
is also used increasingly, and there have been discussions about its adoption.
43
44
45
46
In the Central Kurdish writing system almost all vowels are always written as separate letters. This is in contrast to the original Arabic writing system and most other writing systems developed from it, in which certain vowels (usually "short" vowels) are shown by diacritics above and under the letters, and usually omitted.
The other major point of departure of the Central Kurdish writing system from other Arabic-based systems is that the Arabic letters that represent sounds that are non-existent in Kurdish are usually (but not always) replaced by letters that better represent their Kurdish pronunciation.
47
Media and education
Iraq is the only country in which a Kurdish language has enjoyed official or semi-official rights during the last few decades. Kurdish media outlets in Iraq mushroomed during the 1990s, spurred by the semi-autonomous status the region has enjoyed since the uprising against the Saddam regime in 1991.
48
The use of Kurdish in media and education is prevalent in Iraqi Kurdistan. Seven of the top 10 TV stations viewed by Iraqi Kurds are Kurdish-language stations,
49
and the use of Arabic in Kurdistan schools has decreased to the extent that the number of Iraqi Kurds who speak Arabic fluently has dropped significantly over the past decades.
50
Some Kurdish media in Iraq seem to be aiming for constructing a cross-border Kurdish identity. The Kurdish-language satellite channel
Kurdistan TV
(KTV), owned by the
Kurdistan Democratic Party
(KDP), for example, employs techniques that expose audiences to more than one Kurdish variety in the same show or program.
51
It has been suggested that continuous exposure to different Kurdish varieties on KTV and other satellite television stations might make Kurdish varieties increasingly mutually intelligible.
51
In Iran, state-sponsored regional TV stations air programs in both Kurdish and Persian. Kurdish press are legally allowed in Iran, but there have been many reports of a policy of banning Kurdish newspapers and arresting Kurdish activists.
52
53
54
Phonology
Main article:
Kurdish phonology
Central Kurdish has 9 phonemic vowels and 26 to 28 phonemic consonants (depending on whether the pharyngeal sounds /ħ/ and /ʕ/ are counted or not).
Central Kurdish Consonants
Labial
Dental
Alveolar
Palatal
Velar
Uvular
Pharyngeal
Glottal
plain
velar.
plain
plain
labial.
plain
labial.
Nasal
Plosive
voiceless
asp.
pʰ
tʰ
t͡ʃʰ
kʰ
vcls.
unasp.
t͡ʃ
kʷ
qʷ
voiced
d͡ʒ
ɡʷ
Fricative
voiceless
sˠ
xʷ
voiced
zˠ
ɣʷ
Approximant
Tap/flap
Trill
Vowels
Front
Back
unrounded
rounded
unrounded
rounded
Close
iː
uː
Close-mid
eː
øː
oː
Open-mid
Open
ɑː
Vowels
in parentheses are not
phonemic
, but have been included in the table below because of their ubiquity in the language. Letters in the
Central Kurdish alphabet
take various forms depending on where they occur in the word.
55
Forms given below are letters in isolation.
IPA
Kurdo-Arabic Alphabet
Romanization
Example Word (Central Kurdish)
Example Word (English)
hiʧ = "nothing"
"beet"
gɪr'tɪn = "to take, to hold"
"bit"
hez = "power"
"bait"
bɛjɑni = "morning"
"bet"
ʃəw = night
"but"
tænæ'kæ = "tin can"
"bat"
وو
gur = "calf"
"boot"
gʊɾg = "wolf"
"book"
gor = "level"
"boat"
mangɑ = "cow"
"balm" ("father")
Some vowel alternations and notes
The vowel [æ] is sometimes pronounced as [ə] (the sound found in the first syllable of the English word "above"). This
sound change
takes place when [æ] directly precedes [w] or when it is followed by the sound [j] (like English "y") in the same syllable. If it, instead, precedes [j] in a context where [j] is a part of another syllable it is pronounced [ɛ] (as in English "bet").
55
The vowels [o] and [e], both of which have slight
off-glides
in English, do not possess these
off-glides
in Sorani.
55
Consonants
Letters in the Central Kurdish alphabet take various forms depending on where they occur in the word.
56
An important allophonic variation concerns the two velar sounds /k/ and /g/. Similar to certain other languages of the region (e.g. Turkish and Persian), these consonants are strongly palatalized before the close and mid front vowels (/i/ and /e/) in Central Kurdish.
57
58
Syllable
Central Kurdish allows both complex onsets (e.g. spî: "white", kwêr: "blind") and complex codas (e.g. ferş: "carpet"). However, the two members of the clusters are arranged in such a way that, in all cases, the
Sonority Sequencing Principle
(SSP) is preserved.
59
In many loanwords, an epenthetic vowel is inserted to resyllabify the word, omitting syllables that have codas that violate SSP. Originally mono-syllabic words such as /hazm/ ("digestion") and /zabt/ ("record") therefore become /hɛ.zɪm/ and /zɛ.bɪt/ respectively.
59
Primary stress always falls on the last syllable in nouns,
60
but in verbs its position differs depending on tense and aspect. Some have suggested the existence of an alternating pattern of secondary stress in syllables in Central Kurdish words.
60
Grammar
Absolute state
A noun in the absolute state occurs without any suffix, as it would occur in a vocabulary list or dictionary entry. Absolute state nouns receive a generic interpretation,
61
as in "qawe reş e." ("Coffee is black.") and "befr spî ye." ("Snow is white").
62
Indefinite state
Indefinite
nouns receive an interpretation like English nouns preceded by
a, an
some
, or
any
Several modifiers may only modify nouns in the indefinite state.
62
This list of modifiers includes:
çend
[ʧɛnd] "a few"
hemû
[hɛmu] "every"
çî [ʧi] "what"
her [hɛɾ] "each"
... i zor [ɪ zoɾ] "many"
Nouns in the indefinite state take the following endings:
61
63
Singular
Plural
Noun Ending with a Vowel
-yek
-yan
Noun Ending with a Consonant
-êk
-an
A few examples are given below showing how nouns are made indefinite:
63
پیاو piyaw 'man' > پیاوێک piyaw
êk
'a man'
نامه name 'letter' > نامه‌یه‌ک name
yek
'a letter'
پیاو piyaw 'man' > پیاوان piyaw
an
'(some) men'
ده‌رگا derga 'door' > ده‌رگایان derga
yan
'(some) doors'
Definite state
Definite
nouns receive an interpretation like English nouns preceded by
the
Nouns in the definite state take the following endings:
61
63
Singular
Plural
Noun Ending with a Vowel
-ke
-kan
Noun Ending with a Consonant
-eke
-ekan
When a noun stem ending with [i] is combined with the definite state suffix the result is pronounced [ekɛ] ( i + eke → ekɛ)
Verbs
Like many other Iranian languages, verbs have a present stem and a past stem in Sorani. The present simple tense, for example, is composed of the aspect marker "de" ("e" in Sulaymaniyah dialect) followed by the present stem followed by a suffixed personal ending. This is shown in the example below with the verb نووسین / nûsîn ("to write"), the present stem of which is نووس / nûs.
Verb
Meaning
ده‌نووسم de
nûs
im
I write
ده‌نووسی de
nûs
You (sg.) write
ده‌نووسێ de
nûs
She/He/It writes
ده‌نووسین de
nûs
în
We write
ده‌نووسن de
nûs
in
You (pl.) write
ده‌نووسن de
nûs
in
They write
Note that the personal endings are identical for the second person plural (Plural "you") and third person plural ("they").
Similarly, the simple past verb is created using the past stem of the verb. The following example shows the conjugation of the intransitive verb هاتن hatin ("to come") in the simple past tense. The past stem of "hatin" is "hat".
Verb
Meaning
هاتم
hat
im
I came
هاتی
hat
You (sg.) came
هات
hat
She/He/It came
هاتین
hat
în
We came
هاتن
hat
in
You (pl.) came
هاتن
hat
in
They came
Central Kurdish is claimed by some to have split
ergativity
, with an ergative-absolutive arrangement in the past tense for transitive verbs.
citation needed
Others, however, have cast doubt on this claim, noting that the Central Kurdish past may be different in important ways from a typical ergative-absolutive arrangement.
64
65
In any case, the transitive past tense in Central Kurdish is special in that the agent affix looks like the possessive pronouns and usually precedes the verb stem (similar to how accusative pronouns in other tenses). In the following example, the transitive verb نووسین / nûsîn ("to write") is conjugated in the past tense, with the object "name" ("letter"). The past stem of the verb is "nûsî".
62
Verb
Meaning
نامه‌م نووسی namem nûsî
I wrote a letter.
نامه‌ت نووسی namet nûsî
You (sg.) wrote a letter.
نامه‌ی نووسی namey nûsî
She/He/It wrote a letter.
نامه‌مان نووسی nameman nûsî
We wrote a letter.
نامه‌تان نووسی nametan nûsî
You (pl.) wrote a letter.
نامه‌یان نووسی nameyan nûsî
They wrote a letter.
Note in the example above that the clitics attaching to the objects are otherwise interpreted as possessive pronouns. The combination "name-m" therefore is translated as "my letter" in isolation, "name-t" as "your letter", and so on.
The agent affix is a clitic that must attach to a preceding word/morpheme. If the verb phrase has words other than the verb itself (as in the above example), it attaches to first word in the verb phrase. If no such pre-verbal matter exists, it attaches to the first morpheme of the verb. In the progressive past, for example, where the aspect marker "de" precedes the verb stem, the clitic attaches to "de".
66
Hewlêrî Kurdish
Hewlêrî Kurdish
67
or
Hawleri
Kurdish
Hewlêrî, هەولێری
) is a regional dialect of
Kurdish
spoken primarily in
Erbil
, the capital of the
Kurdistan Region
, and in some of its surrounding areas.
68
Hewlêrî is spoken not only by its Kurdish inhabitants but also by other ethnic communities residing in the city, including Turkmen and Assyrians.
69
Hewlêrî has many characteristics that distinguish it from other Kurdish dialects and has had an impact on shaping the standard Sorani dialect.
70
Pronunciation and Phonology
Differing from standard
Central Kurdish
, Hewlêrî displays several noteworthy phonetic differences. One prominent contrast is observed in the pronunciation of the letter "ڵ/ll". While in most Central Kurdish dialects, this sound is pronounced as /ɫ/, in Hewlêrî it is typically pronounced as
/ɾ/
or
/l/
71
In the Hewlêrî Kurdish spoken in Erbil, further phonetic changes are evident. Notably, there's a shift observed from "û" to "î" and "w" to "f". For instance, "șûtî" transforms into "şiftî," while "mizgewt" changes to "mizgeft."
72
These phonetic alterations are commonly found in both Hewlêrî and the
Kurmanji
dialect.
Grammar and Syntax
Apart from its phonetic distinctions, the subdialect encompasses several unique grammatical and syntactic characteristics. Unlike standard Sorani but similar to Kurmanji, Hewlêrî Kurdish employs oblique case and utilizes different personal pronouns.
73
Another feature of the dialect is the use of the suffix "ek/ەک" instead of the standard "êk\ێک."
Personal Pronouns
Hewlêrî
Sorani
Kurmanji
emin [I]
min
ez
etu [you]
to
tu
ew [they]
ew
ew
eme [we]
ême
em
engo [you]
êwe
hingo
74
Pronouns in the oblique case
Hewlêrî
Sorani
Kurmanji
min
min
tu
te
wî
wî/wê
me
me
ngo
we
See also
Kurdistan portal
Languages portal
Kurdish alphabets
Sorani grammar
Notes
Kurdish
کوردیی ناوەندی
romanized
Kurdîy Nawendî
, also
کوردیی سۆرانی
Kurdîy Soranî
, or
کرمانجیی خواروو
Kurmancîy Xwarû
Southern Kurmanji
Kurdish's status is disputed regarding its status as a single language or a group of languages.
10
References
Hassanpour, A. (1992).
Nationalism and Language in Kurdistan 1918–1985
. USA: Mellen Research University Press.
Nebez, Jemal (1976).
Toward a Unified Kurdish Language
. NUKSE.
{{
cite book
}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link
Baran, Murat (2021).
Kurdish Grammar: SORANI Reference Book
. Silêmanî: Amazon publishing.
ISBN
979-8-5606-4352-2
Sheyholislami, Jaffer (2021), "The History and Development of Literary Central Kurdish", in Bozarslan, Hamit (ed.),
The Cambridge History of the Kurds
Cambridge University Press
, pp.
633–
662,
doi
10.1017/9781108623711.026
ISBN
978-1-108-62371-1
S2CID
235541104
Thackston, W.M. (2006),
"—Sorani Kurdish— A Reference Grammar with Selected Readings"
(PDF)
Harvard Faculty of Arts & Sciences
Harvard University
, archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 27 February 2021
, retrieved
10 June
2021
External links
Sorani Kurdish edition
of
Wikipedia
, the free encyclopedia
VejinBooks, collection of Kurdish literary and historical texts
Vejin Dictionaries, collection of Kurdish dictionaries
(written in Arabic script)
The Kurdish Academy of Language
(unofficial)
Yagey Ziman, the Kurdish language school
(Sorani)
inKurdish: English–Kurdish Translation
Dictio: English–Kurdish (Sorani) Dictionary
Kurdish language
Alphabets
Grammar
Literature
Romanization
Groups
Northern
Kurmanji
Behdini
Bohti
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Xorasani
Central
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Garmiani
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Babani
(Slemani)
Southern
Laki
Kalhori
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Feyli
(Ilami)
Related languages
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Category
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(unclassified)
indicate
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or
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Languages between parentheses are
varieties
of the language on their left.
Languages of Iraq
Official languages
Standard
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(Main)
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(Main)
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Official language
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Authority control databases
International
GND
Other
IdRef
Central Kurdish
at
Ethnologue
(28th ed., 2025)
"Full Text of Iraqi Constitution"
Washington Post
. 12 October 2005
. Retrieved
12 June
2013
"کرمانجیی خواروو"
ڤەژینبوکس
(in Kurdish)
. Retrieved
2024-02-07
Mustafa, Aso Omer; Mohamed, Dlshad Ali (2019-04-01).
"ڕه‌هه‌ندی کۆمه‌ڵایه‌تی له‌ گوتاری ڕه‌خنه‌ی شیعری له‌ ئه‌ده‌بی کوردیدا -کرمانجی خواروو 1920- 1958"
Journal of Garmian University
(in Kurdish).
(1):
290–
301.
doi
10.24271/garmian.1018
"رووداو ئەی ئای پڕۆژەی خوێندنەوەی هەواڵەکانی بە دەنگ رادەگەیێنێت"
www.rudaw.net
. Retrieved
2024-03-02
Edmonds, Alexander Johannes (January 2012).
"Dialects of Kurdish"
Aziz, Mahir A. (2011-01-30).
The Kurds of Iraq: Ethnonationalism and National Identity in Iraqi Kurdistan
. I.B.Tauris.
ISBN
978-1-84885-546-5
"The Kurdish Language and Literature"
Institutkurde.org
. Retrieved
2019-08-15
Sheyholislami, J. (2011-06-06).
Kurdish Identity, Discourse, and New Media
. Springer.
ISBN
978-0-230-11930-7
Thackston (2006)
, p. vii.
Allison, Christine (2012).
The Yezidi Oral Tradition in Iraqi Kurdistan
. Routledge.
ISBN
978-1-136-74655-0
However, it was the southern dialect of Kurdish, Central Kurdish, the majority language of the Iraqi Kurds, which received sanction as an official language of Iraq.
"Kurdish language issue and a divisive approach"
. Kurdish Academy of Language. 5 March 2016. Archived from
the original
on March 5, 2016.
Blau, Joyce
(2000).
Méthode de Kurde: Sorani
. Editions L'Harmattan.
ISBN
978-2-296-41404-4
, page 20
Ludwig, Paul (2008).
"Kurdish language i. History of the Kurdish language"
Iranica Online
. Retrieved
10 June
2021
Sheyholislami (2021)
, p. 633-634.
Sheyholislami (2021)
, pp. 637–638.
Sheyholislami (2021)
, p. 638.
Sheyholislami (2021)
, pp. 638–639.
Sheyholislami (2021)
, p. 639.
Sheyholislami (2021)
, p. 639–640.
Sheyholislami (2021)
, p. 640–641.
Sheyholislami (2021)
, p. 641.
Sheyholislami (2021)
, pp. 642–643.
Sheyholislami (2021)
, pp. 641–643.
Sheyholislami (2021)
, p. 644.
Sheyholislami (2021)
, p. 646.
Sheyholislami (2021)
, p. 647.
Sheyholislami (2021)
, pp. 644–645.
Sheyholislami (2021)
, p. 645.
Sheyholislami (2021)
, p. 648.
Sheyholislami (2021)
, p. 649.
Sheyholislami (2021)
, p. 651.
Sheyholislami (2021)
, pp. 648–649.
Sheyholislami (2021)
, p. 650.
Sheyholislami (2021)
, p. 652.
Sheyholislami (2021)
, p. 653.
Sheyholislami (2021)
, pp. 653–654.
Sheyholislami (2021)
, pp. 654–656.
Sheyholislami (2021)
, p. 654.
"19 yaşındaki gençten ilk Kürtçe öğrenme uygulaması: Bimus"
. Amed TV. 2025-08-29.
Sheyholislami (2021)
, p. 657.
Tavadze, Givi (January 2019).
"Spreading of the Kurdish language dialects and writing systems used in the middle east"
(PDF)
. p. 173.
"Kurdish language | Kurdish Dialects, Writing System & Grammar | Britannica"
www.britannica.com
. 2024-02-09
. Retrieved
2024-03-16
Syan, Karwan Ali Qadir (2017).
Media in an emergent democracy: the development of online journalism in the Kurdistan region of Iraq
(PhD thesis). University of Bradford.
"سلێمانی.. له‌ كۆڕێكدا شێوازی نوسینی كوردی مشتومڕی دروستكرد‌"
www.pukmedia.com
(in Kurdish)
. Retrieved
2024-03-16
Thackston (2006)
, p. 4.
"BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Guide: Iraq's Kurdish media"
news.bbc.co.uk
. 4 December 2007
. Retrieved
2017-09-01
"BBG Research Series: Media consumption in Iraq"
BBG
. Retrieved
2017-08-31
"Knowledge of Arabic Fading Among Iraq's Autonomous Kurds"
Rudaw
. Retrieved
2017-08-31
"Identity, language, and new media: The Kurdish case (PDF Download Available)"
ResearchGate
. Retrieved
2017-09-01
Ahmadzadeh, Hashem; Stansfield, Gareth (2010). "The Political, Cultural, and Military Re-Awakening of the Kurdish Nationalist Movement in Iran".
Middle East Journal
64
(1):
11–
27.
doi
10.3751/64.1.11
hdl
10871/9414
JSTOR
20622980
S2CID
143462899
"– Media in Iran's Kurdistan"
. Archived from
the original
on 2017-09-02
. Retrieved
2017-09-01
"World Directory of Minorities"
(PDF)
www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/eoir/legacy/2014/02/19/Kurds.pdf
. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 11 October 2017
. Retrieved
1 September
2017
Thackston (2006)
, p. 1.
Thackston (2006)
, pp. 1–2.
"Portland State Multicultural Topics in Communications Sciences & Disorders | Kurdish"
www.pdx.edu
. Archived from
the original
on 2019-10-22
. Retrieved
2017-08-31
Asadpour, Hiwa; Mohammadi, Maryam.
"A Comparative Study of Phonological System of Kurdish Varieties"
(PDF)
Journal of Language and Cultural Education
(3). SlovakEdu, o.z.:
104–
119.
eISSN
1339-4584
ISSN
1339-4045
Archived
(PDF)
from the original on 2024-06-16
. Retrieved
2025-12-19
Zahedi, Muhamad Sediq; Alinezhad, Batool; Rezai, Vali (2012-09-26).
"The Sonority Sequencing Principle in Sanandaji/Erdelani Kurdish: An Optimality Theoretical Perspective"
International Journal of English Linguistics
(5): 72.
doi
10.5539/ijel.v2n5p72
ISSN
1923-8703
S2CID
122240213
Saadi Hamid, Twana A. (2015).
The prosodic phonology of Central Kurdish
(Ph.D.). Newcastle University.
Merchant, Livingston T. (13 May 2013).
Introduction to Sorani Kurdish: The Principal Kurdish Dialect Spoken in the Regions of Northern Iraq and Western Iran
. University of Raparin.
ISBN
978-1-4839-6926-8
Thackston (2006)
, p. 8.
Thackston (2006)
, p. 9.
Jügel, a.M, Thomas, Frankfurt (2009).
"Ergative Remnants in Sorani Kurdish?"
(PDF)
OArSieJnÜtGalEiLa Suecana
LVIII
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158.
{{
cite journal
}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link
Samvelian, P. "A lexicalist account of Sorani Kurdish prepositions." Proceedings of the HPSG07 Conference. Stanford: CSLI Publications. 2006.
Thackston (2006)
, p. 16.
Ahmadi, Sina (2021-09-08),
A Formal Description of Sorani Kurdish Morphology
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Sheyholislami, Jaffer (January 2015).
"Language Varieties of the Kurds"
Sherwani, Kawa Abdulkareem (2021).
"The discourse of civic pride: Hawleri identity as one of the oldest Kurdistani cities in the Middle East"
PLOS ONE
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PMC
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"Diglossia: A Mixed-Mode Survey Analysis on the Use of Formal and Informal Speech among Sorani Kurdish Speakers"
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: 260. Archived from
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Ebadi, Saman; Mozafari, Vida (April 2015).
"The Realization of Address terms in Sorani Kurdish (Jafi Dialect)"
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"Hamad"
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"Diglossic Situation In Sorani Kurdish Dialect"
Qalaai Zanistscientific Journal
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"hingo"
Wîkîferheng
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, retrieved
2024-03-08
Retrieved from "
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