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Kurdish language
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The Kurdish language (Kurdish: Kurdî or ?????) is a term used for the language spoken by Kurds. It is mainly concentrated in the parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. Kurdish belongs to the northwestern 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.
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The Kurdish language (Kurdish: Kurdî or ?????) is a term used for the language spoken by Kurds. It is mainly concentrated in the parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. Kurdish belongs to the northwestern 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, especially the Lori and Bakhtiari dialects.
Origin and roots
The Kurdish language belongs to the north-western sub-group of the Iranian languages, which in turn belongs to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family. 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. The older Hurrian language of the people inhabiting the Kurdish areas was replaced by Indo-European around 850 BCE, with the arrival of the Medes to Western Iran
A linguistic group influential on Kurdish to a lesser degree was Aramaic.
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, apart from it shared important phonological isoglosses with Avestan.
Among the earliest Kurdish religious texts is Mashafa Rash/Mishefa Res (The Black Book) the sacred book of Yazidi faith. It is considered to have been authored by Hassan bin Adi (b. 1195 AD), the great-grandnephew of the founder of the faith (Shiekh Adi), sometime in the 13th century AD. It contains the Yazidi account of the creation of the world, the origin of man, the story of Adam and Eve and the major prohibitions of the faith. 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.
The Italian priest Maurizio Garzoni published the first Kurdish grammar titled Grammatica e Vocabolario della Lingua Kurda in Rome in 1787 after eighteen years of missionary work among the Kurds of Amadiyah.
This work is very important in the Kurdish history as it is the first acknowledgement of the originality of the Kurdish language on a scientific base. Garzoni was given the title of Father of Kurdology by later scholars. The Kurdish language was banned in a large portion of Kurdistan for some time. Turkey, having a history of conflict with the Kurds, has tried to cripple their culture. Since a large portion of the Kurdish homeland is on Turkish territory, the Turkish government has tried to supress their movement for an independent state. Until 1991, the use of the Kurdish language was illegal in Turkey, as part of the effort.
Current status
Today, Kurdish is an official language in Iraq, while it is banned in Syria where it is forbidden to publish material in Kurdish.
Before August 2002, the Turkish government placed severe restrictions on the use of Kurdish, prohibiting the language in education and broadcast media. . The Kurdish alphabet is still not recognized in Turkey, and use of the Kurdish names containing letters X, W, Q which do not exist in the Turkish alphabet is prohibited. Moreover according to the article 42 of Turkey's constitution No language other than Turkish shall be taught as a mother tongue to citizens of Turkey at any institution of training or education.
In Iran, though it is used in some local media and newspapers, it is not used in schools
. As a result, some Iranian Kurds have left for Iraqi Kurdistan where they can study in their native language.
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.
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 in the Middle East and Europe.
State-run Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) started its 24-hour Kurdish television station on 01 January 2009 with the motto of “we live under the same sky”. Turkish Prime Minister sent a video message in Kurdish to the opening ceremony which is attended by Minister of Culture and other state officials. The channel uses the controversial X, W, Q letters during broadcasting.
Dialects
Kurdish has two standardized dialects: a northern and a central one. The northern dialect, Northern Kurmanji also commonly referred to simply as Kurmanji, is spoken in northern half of Iraqi Kurdistan, Caucasus, Anatolia and Syria. The central dialect, called Sorani, is spoken in west Iran and much of the Iraqi Kurdistan..
However, there are two other dialects spoken by a smaller number of Kurds: Southern Kurdish, consisting of Feyli, Kalhori traditionally known as Gorani, spoken in Ilam, and parts of Kermanshah, Khaneqin and Bijar; The other is Hewrami (known as Gorani in linguistics) spoken in Pawe district in Iran and narrow Hewraman district in iraq. Medieval Kurdish scripts are written in these dialects i.e.poems and relegious books of Yarsan belonging to a few hundered years ago.
Some people consider Zaza and Laki dialects as kurdish dialects but it can not be verified.
Kurmanji and Sorani
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..
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, both dialects are widely accepted as part of a Kurmanji branch of languages spoken by Kurds.
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. . The reality is that the average Kurmanji speaker will not find it easy to communicate with the inhabitants of Suleymania or Halabja.
Sorani differs on six grammatical points from Kurmanji which appear to be a result of Gorani (Haurami) influence,
- The passsive conjugation: the Sorani passive morpheme -r-/-ra - corresponds to -y-/-ya - in Gorani and Zaza, while Kurmanci employs the auxiliary hatin, come;
- a definite suffix -eke, also occurring in Zaza;
- an intensifying postverb -ewe, corresponding to Kurmanci preverbal ve-;
- an 'open compound' construction with a suffix -e, for definite noun phrases with anepithet;
- the preservation of enclitic personal pronouns, which have disappeared in Kurmanci and in Zaza;
- a simplified izafe system.
Gorani which in medieval ages was literary idiom of modern Sorani-speaking areas, has eventually been replaced by Sorani.
Kurdish not an endo-linguonym
The use of the word "Kurdish" to describe the language or languages that Kurds speak may be the very cause of controversies regarding the differences among the dialects or languages. Outside of foreign conversation or literature, the majority of Kurds use the name of the dialect they speak in order to describe their dialect or language, and sometimes even one another. The use of the word, Kurdish, by contrast, has been used more often to simply describe the ethnic identity of the Kurds reflecting the significant differences between the dialects or languages.
Some linguistic scholars assert that the term "Kurdish" has been extrinsically applied in describing the language the Kurds speak, while Kurds intuitively have used the word to simply describe their ethnic or national identity and refer to their language as Kurmanji, Sorani, Hewrami, or whatever other dialect or language they are native to. Some historians have noted that only until recent history have a small minority of Kurds who speak the Sorani dialect begun referring to their language as Kurdî, in addition to their identity, which is translated to simply mean Kurdish.
Phonology
According to the Kurdish Academy of Language, Kurdish has the following phonemes:
Consonants
- Just as in many English dialects, the velarised lateral does not appear in the onset of a syllable. Additionally, in some dialects, the velarised lateral changes to a in women's speech.
- and are strongly palatalised before the high and mid front vowels ( and ) as well as the rounded high front allophone of the phoneme , closing on and .
Vowels
As in most modern Iranian languages, Kurdish vowels contrast in quality; they often carry a secondary length distinction that does not affect syllabic weight. This distinction appears in writing systems developed for Kurdish. The three "short" vowels are , and and the five long vowels are , , , and .
Historical phonology
| OP | MP | Persian | Kurdish | Parthian | Avestan | Proto-Iranian |
|---|
| ? | h | h | s | s | s | *s | | d | d | d | z | z | z | *z | | ç | s | s | s? | hr | ?r ('s'?) | *?r | | s/z | s/z | s/z | sp?/zw? | sp/zw | sp/zw | *sw/ *zw | | pasa | pas | pas | paš | paš | pas-ca | *pas-ca | | j | z | z | ž | ž | j | *j, *Vc | | ç | z | z | ž | ž | ç | * ç | | duv- | d- | d- | d- | b- | duu- | *dw- | | (h)uv- | xw- | x(w)- | x(w)- | wx- | xv-, huu- | *hw- | | rd | l, r | l | unclear (maybe: l, l, r) | rd & rz | rd & rz | *rd & *rz | | y- | j- | j- | j- | y- | y- | *y- | | fr- | fr- (hr-) | for- etc. | fr- | fr- | fr- | *fr- | | ?w | h | h | h? or w/v? | f | ?w | *?w | | b, d, g | w, y, (') | w, y, (/nil) | w, y, (nil) | ß, d, ? | b, d, g | *b, *d, *g | | p, t, k | b, d, g, | b, d, g | w, h, y, (/nil) | ß, d, ? | p, t, k | *p, *t, *k | | nd | nd/nn | nd | n | nd | nd | *nd | | šn | šn | šn | žn | zn | sn | *sn | | Všm, Vhm | -šm, -xm | -v (-w) | *šm? | | Vm | | x- | x- | x- | k- | x- | x- | *x- | | šiyav- | šaw- | šaw- | c- | šaw- | šiiu- | *cyau- | | w- | w- | b- | b- | w- | w- | *w- | | ft | ft | ft | (w)t, (ft?) | ft | ft | *ft | | xt | xt | xt | t | xt | xt | *xt |
Indo-European linguistic comparison
Because 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, Norwegian, Latin and Greek. (Source: Altiranisches Wörterbuch (1904) for the first two and last six.)
| Kurdish | Avestan | Persian | Sanskrit | Greek | English | German | Swedish | Latin | Lithuanian | Russian | PIE
|
|---|
| ez "I" | äz?m [ezìm] | adam [Old Persian] | aham | ego | I (< OE ic) | ich | jag | ego | aš | ja (from old ES jazu, related to OCS azu) |
| | lepik,dest "Hand" | | dast | | | (OE lof "fillet, band") | (OHG lappo "palm (of the hand)") | handflata "palm (of the hand)" | | l?pa"paw, claw" | lápa |
| | jin "woman" | ghenãnãmca [ghenâ] "woman" | zan | janay- | gyneka | queen | (OHG quena) | kvinna | femina | (OPruss. genna) | žená "wife" |
| | leystin(bileyzim) "to play(I play)" | | ley ley kardan(to jump with one foot ) | réjati | paizo | play | leich | leka | | láigiti | | "to jump, to spring, to play"
| | mezin,gewre "great" | maz-, mazant | | mah(i)-/mahant- | megas | much (< OE micil, mycil) | (OHG mihhil) | mycket "much" | magnus | milžinas "giant" | mogúcij "powerful", "mighty" | "big, great"
| | mêzer "headband/turban" | | mitra- "god name"(Old Persian) | mitrah | mitra "headband, turban", | | | | | | mir "world, peace" | "to tie" (, p38)
| | pez "sheep" | pasu- "sheep, goat" | boz | pasu "animal" | | fee (< OE feoh "cattle") | Vieh "cattle" | fe "cattle" | pecus "cattle" | pekus "ox" | pastuh "shepherd" | "sheep",
| | çiya,kash "mountain" | | kuh, chakad "peak/summit" | kakúd-, kakúbh- "peak/summit" | | | | kinn "steep mountain side" | cacumen | | | "top"
| | zîndu "alive" jiyan "to live" | gaêm [gaya] | zend[e] "alive", zî[stan] "to live", zaideh "child" | jivati | zoi "life", zo "live" | quick | quick "bright" | | vivus "alive", vivo "live", vita "life" | gývas | žyznj "life", žyvój "living, alive" |
| | [di][a]zan[im] "I know" zan[în] "to know" | zan- | [mi]dan[am] "I know", dan[estan] "to know" | jan[ati] | [gi]gno[sko] | know | kennen | jag vet "(I know) | no[sco], [co]gn[itus] | žin[au]"I know" žin[oti] "to know" | znatj "to know" |
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Vocabulary
The bulk of Kurdish vocabulary in standard Kurdish is of Iranian origin, especially of northwestern Iranian; there are also a number of Persian (southwestern) loanwords in Kurdish, entered mainly through poetry. A smaller number of loanwords come from Semitic, mainly Arabic, and are mostly religious terms. Yet, a smaller group of loanwords which are of Armenian, Caucasian and Turkic origins are used in standard Kurdish, besides some European words. There are also a number of Kurdish words with no clear etymology.
Writing system
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. Also see the VOA News site in Kurdish. 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.
Dictionaries
Kurdish-only dictionaries
- (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,
- Chyet, Michael L., Kurdish Dictionary: Kurmanji-English, Yale Language Series, U.S., 2003 (896 pages) (see )
- Abdullah, S. and Alam, K., English-Kurdish (Sorani) and Kurdish (Sorani)-English Dictionary, Star Publications / Languages of the World Publications, India, 2004
- Awde, Nicholas, Kurdish-English/English-Kurdish Dictionary and Phrasebook, Hippocrene Books Inc., U.S., 2004
- Raman : English-Kurdish (Sorani) Dictionary, Pen Press Publishers Ltd, UK, 2003, (800 pages)
- Saadallah, Salah, English-Kurdish Dictionary, Avesta/Paris Kurdish Institute, Istanbul, 2000, (1477 pages)
- Amindarov, Aziz, Kurdish-English/English-Kurdish Dictionary, Hippocrene Books Inc., U.S., 1994
- Rizgar, Baran (M. F. Onen), Kurdish-English/English-Kurdish (Kurmancî Dictionary) UK, 1993, 400 p. + 70 illustrations
As a main program, Iranian Kurdish-speaker scholar, Hamid Hassani, is supposed to prepare a Soranî Kurdish Language Corpus, consisting of one-million words.
See also
External links
- Kurdish links and language information, dictionary etc.
- (By Erdal Ronahî)
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Religious texts
Kurdish broadcast programs
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