Kurdish Language - Kurmanji Kurdish Versus Sorani Kurdish and Kermanshahi Kurdish

Kurmanji Kurdish Versus Sorani Kurdish and Kermanshahi Kurdish

Kurdish has three standardized versions, which have been labelled 'Northern', 'Central' and 'Southern'. The northern version, commonly called Kurmanji, is spoken in Turkey, Syria, and the northern part of the Kurdish-speaking areas of Iraq and Iran, and it accounts for a little over three-quarters of all Kurdish speakers. The central version, commonly called Sorani, is spoken in west Iran and much of Iraqi Kurdistan. The southern version, commonly called Kermanshahi, is spoken in Kermanshah province of Iran.

In historical evolution terms, Kurmanji is less modified than Sorani and Kermanshahi in both phonetic and morphological structure. The Sorani group has been influenced by among other things its closer cultural proximity to the other languages spoken by Kurds in the region including the Gorani language in parts of Iranian Kurdistan and Iraqi Kurdistan. The Kermanshahi group has been influenced by among other things its closer cultural proximity to Persian.

Philip G. Kreyenbroek, an expert writing in 1992, says:

Since 1932 most Kurds have used the Roman script to write Kurmanji.... Sorani is normally written in an adapted form of the Arabic script.... Reasons for describing Kurmanji and Sorani as 'dialects' of one language are their common origin and the fact that this usage reflects the sense of ethnic identity and unity among the Kurds. From a linguistic or at least a grammatical point of view, however, Kurmanji and Sorani differ as much from each other as English and German, and it would seem appropriate to refer to them as languages. For example, Sorani has neither gender nor case-endings, whereas Kurmanji has both.... Differences in vocabulary and pronunciation are not as great as between German and English, but they are still considerable. —

According to Encyclopaedia of Islam, although Kurdish is not a unified language, its many dialects are interrelated and at the same time distinguishable from other western Iranian languages. The same source classifies different Kurdish dialects as two main groups, northern and central. The reality is that the average Kurmanji speaker does not find it easy to communicate with the inhabitants of Suleymania or Halabja.

Sorani differs on six grammatical points from Kurmanji. This appears to be a result of Gorani (Haurami) influence.

• The passive conjugation: the Sorani passive morpheme -r-/-ra- corresponds to -y-/-ya- in Gorani and Zazaki, while Kurmanji employs the auxiliary verb, come;
• a definite suffix -eke, also occurring in Zazaki;
• an intensifying postverb -ewe, corresponding to Kurmanji preverbal ve-;
• an 'open compound' construction with a suffix -e, for definite noun phrases with an epithet;
• the preservation of enclitic personal pronouns, which have disappeared in Kurmanji and in Zazaki;
• a simplified izāfa system.

Some linguistic scholars assert that the term "Kurdish" has been applied extrinsically in describing the language the Kurds speak, while Kurds have used the word "Kurdish" to simply describe their ethnic or national identity and refer to their language as Kurmanji, Sorani, Hewrami, Kermanshahi, Kalhery or whatever other dialect or language they speak. Some historians have noted that it is only recently that the Kurds who speak the Sorani dialect have begun referring to their language as Kurdî, in addition to their identity, which is translated to simply mean Kurdish.