Kurdish is an official language in Iraq, Iran, and Syria, spoken by more than 30 million people worldwide. The language belongs to the Northwestern Iranian subgroup of Indo-European languages and has several dialects. Here are ten facts about the Kurdish language.
Kurdish is separated into two main dialects, Kurmanji and Sorani. Kurmanji is typically used in Turkey and Syria, while Sorani –– is spoken in Iraq and Iran.
The first written accounts of Kurdish date back to the 16th century and initially used an Arabic alphabet. During the 20th century, Kurdish transitioned to a Latin-based script and a Cyrillic alphabet for some areas of Russian and other countries.
Kurdish is classified as a low-risk language on the UNESCO Atlas of Language Vitality.
Kurdish has 35 letters in its alphabet, including five extra consonants and three civilized vowels.
As a part of the Indo-European language family, Kurdish has many similarities with languages such as Persian and Armenian.
The earliest known stages of Kurdish date back to the 13th century and were documented by several Islamic scholars in Iraq.
There are two primary linguistic standards for the Kurdish language. These are Kurmanji and Sorani, which are both mutually intelligible.
Kurdish has several loanwords from other languages, including post-classical Arabic and Mongolian.
Kurdish studies have been pursued more intensively since the 2000s, and several specialized university departments are now enthusiastic about the language.
Kurdish has two mutually intelligible written varieties, Cêrî and Zazaki. Both have been developed independently yet have been influenced by each other in terms of vocabulary and grammar.
