Northern Kurdish
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| Northern Kurdish | |||
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| Kurmanji | |||
| Kurmancî, Kurdiya Jorîn | |||
| Native to | Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey | ||
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Native speakers
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"Very provisional" figure of 15 million in Turkey (2009)[1] Maybe 5 million elsewhere, including 2.8 million in Iraq (2004), 940,000 in Syria (1993), and 350,000 in Iran (1988)[1] |
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Indo-European
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| Dialects |
Tori
Botani
Bazidi
Bakrani
Hakkari
Badini
Judikani
Jiwanshiri
Alburzi
Qochani
Birjendi
Rihayi
Êzidîki
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| Latin (main); Perso-Arabic | |||
| Official status | |||
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Recognised minority
language in |
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| Language codes | |||
| ISO 639-3 | kmr |
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| Glottolog | nort2641[3] |
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Geographic distribution of Kurdish and other Northwestern Iranian languages spoken by Kurds
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Northern Kurdish (کوردیا ژۆرین; kurdiya jorîn), also called Kurmanji (کورمانجی; Kurmancî), is a group of Kurdish dialects predominantly spoken in southeast Turkey, northwest 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,[4][5] 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.[6][7]
Scripts and books
Northern Kurdish dialects, which uses the Latin script, is the most common dialect group of the Kurdish language, spoken by 80% of all Kurds. The earliest textual record of the Kurdish language dates to the 16th century.[4]
Kurmanji is the ceremonial language[8][9] of Yezidism. The sacred book Mishefa Reş (the "Black Book") and all prayers are written and spoken in Kurmanji.
Speakers
Kurmanji is a recognized minority language of education in Armenia, where most Kurds are Yazidi.[1]
Dialects
Northern Kurdish forms a dialect continuum of great variability. Loosely, five dialect areas can be distinguished:[10]
- 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.[11]
See also
- Kurdish alphabet
- Central Kurdish dialects
- Southern Kurdish dialects
- Kurmancî, a Kurdish linguistic magazine
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Northern Kurdish at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Windfuhr, Gernot (1975), “Isoglosses: A Sketch on Persians and Parthians, Kurds and Medes”, Monumentum H.S. Nyberg II (Acta Iranica-5), Leiden: 457–471
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Kurmanji is the language of almost all the orally transmitted religious traditions of the Yazidis.
- ↑ Yazidis belong to the Kurdish race but have their own religion. They speak a northern dialect of Kurdish (Kurmanji). Except for a few Arabic poems, all religious texts are in Kurmanji, including their hymns (qewl). All Scriptures and texts that they have are also in Kurdish.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ for Bahdinan, a historical Kurdish principality, paralleling use of Sorani, also the name of a historical principality, for southern dialects. See BAHDĪNĀN in Encyclopedia Iranica by A. Hassanpour, 1988 (updated 2011): "The majority of the population are Kurds (see figures in Edmonds, [Kurds, Turks and Arabs, London, 1957,] p. 439) and speak Kurmanji, the major Kurdish dialect group, also called Bādīnānī (see, among others, Jardine [Bahdinan Kurmanji: A Grammar of the Kurmanji of the Kurds of Mosul Division and Surrounding Districts, Baghdad, 1922] and Blau [Le Kurde de ʿAmādiya et de Djabal Sindjar: Analyse linguistique, textes folkloriques, glossaires, Paris, 1975])."
External links
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Kurdî edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
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Northern Kurdish test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator |
- Kurdish Institute Kurdish language, history, books and latest news articles.
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