Harman Patil (Editor)

Northern Kurdish

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Recognised minority language in
  
Armenia

Northern Kurdish

Native to
  
turkey, Armenia, Syria, iraq

Native speakers
  
"Very provisional" figure of 10 million in Turkey (2009)

Language family
  
Indo-European Indo-Iranian Iranian Western Northwestern Kurdish Northern Kurdish language

Dialects
  
Toriki Botani Bazidi Bakrani Hakkari Badini Shengali Judikani Jiwanshiri Alburzi Qochani Birjendi Rihayi

Writing system
  
Latin (Turkey), Perso-Arabic (Iran, Iraq, Syria); Cyrillic (formerly in the Soviet Union), Armenian (formerly in the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic)

Northern Kurdish (kurdiya jorîn; کوردیا ژۆرین), also called Kurmanji (Kurmancî; کورمانجی), is a group of Kurdish dialects predominantly spoken in southeast Turkey, northwest and northeast Iran, northern Iraq and northern Syria. It is the most widespread dialect group of the Kurdish languages. While Kurdish is generally categorized as one of the Northwestern Iranian languages along with Baluchi, it also shares many traits with Southwestern Iranian languages like Persian, apparently due to longstanding and intense historical contacts, and some authorities have gone so far as to classify Kurmanji as a Southwestern or "southern" Iranian language.

Contents

Scripts and books

Northern Kurdish is written using the Latin script in Turkey, where most of its speakers live. Northern Kurdish is the most widely spoken Kurdish language, being spoken by 80% of all Kurds. The earliest textual record of a Kurdish language dates to the 16th century.

Kurmanji is also the ceremonial language of Yazidism. The sacred book Mishefa Reş (the "Yazidi Black Book") and all prayers are written and spoken in Kurmanji.

Dialects

Northern Kurdish forms a dialect continuum of great variability. Loosely, five dialect areas can be distinguished:

  • Northwestern Kurmanji, spoken in the Kahramanmaraş (in Kurmanji: Meraş), Malatya (Meletî) and Sivas (Sêwaz) provinces of Turkey.
  • Southwestern Kurmanji, spoken in the Adıyaman (Semsûr), Gaziantep (Entab) and Şanlıurfa provinces of Turkey and the Aleppo Governorate of Syria.
  • Northern Kurmanji or Serhed , spoken mainly in the Ağrı (Agirî), Erzurum (Erzerom) and Muş (Mûş) provinces of Turkey, as well as adjacent areas.
  • Southern Kurmanji, spoken in the Al-Hasakah Governorate in Syria, the Sinjar distinct in Iraq, and in several adjacent parts of Turkey centering on the Mardin and Batman provinces.
  • Southeastern Kurmanji or Badînî, spoken in the Hakkâri province of Turkey and Dohuk Governorate of Iraqi Kurdistan.
  • Anatolian Kurmanji is spoken in central Anatolia, especially in Konya, Ankara, Aksaray, by Anatolian Kurds

    • The most distinctive of these is Badînî.

    References

    Northern Kurdish Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA


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