Kurdish language
The Kurdish language is an Indo-European language spoken by the Kurds in an area called Kurdistan, including parts of the countries Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey.[5] Kurdish has two main dialects and many subs dialects. The two main ones are Kurmanji and Sorani. Kurdish belongs to the same language group as the Iranian languages. Another well-known Iranian language is Persian. They are considered Indo-European languages.
| Kurdish Kurdî | |
|---|---|
| كوردی, Kurdî, Kurdí, Кöрди[1] | |
| Native to | Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova, Ukraine, Serbia, Russia |
| Ethnicity | 55-60 million Kurds |
| Native speakers | 60 million (2021)[2] |
| Language family | Indo-European
|
| Writing system | Kurdish Script |
| Official status | |
| Official language in |  Iraq: status as official language alongside Arabic. Iran: constitutional status as a regional language Armenia: minority language[3] Azerbaijan: minority language in 5 districts[4] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | ku |
| ISO 639-2 | kur |
| ISO 639-3 | kur – inclusive code Individual codes: ckb – Sorani kmr – Kurmanji sdh – Southern Kurdish lki – Laki |
| Linguasphere | 58-AAA-a (North Kurdish incl. Kurmanji & Kurmanjiki) + 58-AAA-b (Central Kurdish incl. Dimli/Zaza & Gurani) + 58-AAA-c (South Kurdish incl. Kurdi) + Luri dialect |
Kurdish Language Media
Old alphabet used previously for Kurdish, according to Ibn Wahshiyya 856 AC.
Road signs near Diyarbakır showing the place names in Turkish and Kurdish
References
- ↑ "Kurdish Language – Kurdish Academy of Language". Kurdishacademy.org. Retrieved 2 December 2011.
- ↑ Only very rough estimates are possible. SIL Ethnologue gives estimates, broken down by dialect group, totalling 60 million, but with the caveat of "Very provisional figures for Northern Kurdish speaker population". Ethnologue estimates for dialect groups: Northern: 37 M (undated; 30 M in Turkey for 2021), Central: 8.75M (2021), Southern: 6 M (2021), Laki: 2 M (2021). Luri:5 m (2021). Zazaki: 3 m (2021). The Swedish Nationalencyklopedin listed Kurdish in its "Världens 100 största språk 2007" (The World's 100 Largest Languages in 2007), citing an estimate of 20.6 million native speakers.
- ↑ European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages
- ↑ "Kurdish, Northern". Ethnologue.
- ↑ "Geographic distribution of the Kurdish language". Archived from the original on 2007-10-18. Retrieved 2007-06-18.
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This language has its own Wikipedia project. See the Kurdish language edition. |
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This language has its own Wikipedia project. See the Kurdish language edition. |
