The Kurdish language is considered one of the Indo-European languages. Kurdish is the second official language in Iraq and the official language of the Kurdish autonomous region in the north of the country. Sorani and Kurmanji are the two major dialects that are spoken in Northern Iraq. The Sorani dialect is mainly spoken in the cities of Sulaimani, Kirkuk and Erbil while the Kurmanji dialect is spoken in Duhok and Zhaku. As is the case with most other minority languages, the modern dialects of Kurdish are heavily influenced by the official languages spoken around them. The Kurdish spoken in Turkey, for example, contains a large number of Turkish words; the Kurdish in Iraq contains an overlay of Arabic vocabulary, and so on.
More than one system of writing is used in Kurdish, based on where the speaker is educated and where he lives. Kurds who are educated in Iraq, Iran and Syria use the Arabic alphabet, while Kurds who are educated in Turkey use the Roman alphabets. Kurds educated in countries of the former Soviet Union use the Cyrillic alphabet. The Kurdish alphabet written in Arabic contains extra letters to represent Kurdish sounds that do not exist in Arabic. The Arabic-based Kurdish alphabet is written from right to left and does not make a distinction between capital and small letters. This Kurdish-Arabic script has 29 consonant phonemes some of which have entered the language through borrowing from Arabic.
ﺌ ب پ ت ج چ ح خ د ر ڕ ز ژ س ش ع غ
ف ڤ ق ک گ ل ڵ
ی م ن و ه
|
ﺌ |
as in army |
ئایین |
(religion) |
|
ب |
as in book |
باران |
(rain) |
|
پ |
as in pig |
په پووله |
(butterfly) |
|
ت |
as in tree |
تۆپ |
(ball) |
|
ج |
as in jack |
جێگا |
(place) |
|
چ |
as in chock let |
چاو |
(eye) |
|
ح |
(h) a guttural sound |
حه وز |
(pool) |
|
خ |
(kh) a guttural sound |
خوا |
(God) |
|
د |
as in door |
دایه |
(mama) |
|
ر |
as in room |
دار |
(tree) |
|
ڕ |
as in right |
ڕێگا |
(path) |
|
ژ |
as in measure |
ژێان |
(life) |
|
ز |
as in zoo |
زیره ک |
(smart) |
|
س |
as in sky |
سه یران |
(picnic) |
|
ش |
as in she |
شه و |
(night) |
|
ع |
(a’) a guttural sound |
عه لی |
(Ali) |
|
غ |
(gh) a guttural sound |
غاردان |
(running) |
|
ف |
as in fish |
فێڵ |
(trick) |
|
ڤ |
as in van |
ڤیان |
(Vyan) |
|
ق |
(q) a guttural sound |
قاز |
(swan) |
|
ك |
as in cat |
کلیل |
(key) |
|
گ |
as in go |
گه وره |
(big) |
|
ل |
as in look |
لاواز |
(slim) |
|
ڵ |
as in calm |
گوڵ |
(flower) |
|
م |
as in moon |
مار |
(snake) |
|
ن |
as in noon |
نان |
(bread) |
|
و |
as in win |
وانه |
(class) |
|
ﻫ |
as in horse |
هێلکه |
(egg) |
|
ی |
as in yet |
یاری |
(game) |
|
The short and long vowels are:
|
|||
|
ا |
as in hat |
ئازار |
(pain) |
|
ه |
as in age |
ده ست |
(hand) |
|
ێ |
as in pleasure |
سێو |
(apple) |
|
ی |
as in eel |
شیر |
(milk) |
|
و |
as in put |
کورد |
(Kurd) |
|
ۆ |
as in coffee |
مۆم |
(candle) |
|
وو |
as in moon |
دوور |
( far away) |
Kurdish Grammar
The grammatical structure of the Kurdish language is different from English. The usual word order of a Kurdish sentence is subject–object–verb. In contrast to the English word order of subject–verb–object.
Kurdish Pronunciation
The Kurdish vowel system is similar to English:
[I] close to the vowel in bit
[i:] close to the vowel in beet
[e] close to the vowel in bet, in some dialects closer to bat
[e:] close to the vowel in bait
[a] close to the vowel in box
[u] close to the vowel in put
[u:] close to the vowel in boot
[o] close to the vowel in boat
These are the consonants in Kurdish language with their (rough) English equivalents.
|
[b] as in book
|
[h] as in house |
[t] as in tong |
|
[ch] as in choc let
|
[j] as in jell |
[v] as in victory |
|
[d] as in dog
|
[l] as in look |
[y] as in yes |
|
[f] as in fly
|
[m] as in milk |
[z] as in zero |
|
[g] as in goat
|
[n] as in noon |
[zh] as in pleasure |
|
[p] as in pig
|
[w] as in walk |
|
The following consonants exist in Kurdish but do not have English equivalents:
[x]: like German ach
[gh]: like [x] only pronounced with the vocal cords vibrating
[r]: like the Spanish or Italian [r]
[q]: a k pronounced very far back in the mouth