Sorani
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Sorani is a group of Central Kurdish dialects and as such is part of the Iranian languages. It is spoken by a total of approximately 8 million0 people in Iraq and Iran. It is the most widespread speech form of Iraqi Kurds, and is the language of a plurality of Kurds in Eastern Kurdistan (Kurdistan in Iran).
- In Iran: 60% of the Iranian Kurds. Located south of the Urmia-lake that stretches roughly to the city of Kermanshah.
- In Iraq: 55% of the Iraqi Kurds. Most of them in the vicinity of Hawler and Sulaymaniyah.
Sorani is usually written in the Arabic script, from right to left, in contrast to the other main Kurdic language (or dialect), Kurmanji, which is spoken mainly in Turkey and in all other parts of Kurdistan and is usually written in the Roman alphabet (but sometimes Cyrillic or Armenian alphabets).
Major subdialects of Central Kurdish dialects are Mukrí, Erdelaní, Germíyaní, Soraní, Xushnaw, Píjhder, Píraní, Wermawe, and Hewlérí (or Soraní proper). A line can be drawn to divide Soraní-speaking areas into a Persianized southeastern section and a more orthodox northwestern section, running from Bíjar to Kifrí, (See the map). The ergative con-struction in the Persianized Soraní has begun to disappear, while it is being retained in the non-Persianized northwestern section. Also, under the influence of Arabic and Neo-Aramaic languages, the northwest section of Soraní has acquired two fricative sounds (faucalized pharyngeal fricative 'ayn, and hâ), absent from other Kurdish, and in fact Indo-European languages.
Soraní is a recent labelling after the name of the former principality of Soran. In Silémaní, the Ottoman Empire had created a secundary school (Rushdíye), the graduates from which could go Istanbul to continue to study there. This allowed Soraní, which was spoken in Silémaní, to progressively replace Hewramí as the litterary vehicle. Mackenzie writes that the present Kurdish standard called Soranî is in fact a idealized version of the Silémaní dialect, which uses the phonemic system of the Píjhdar and Mukrí dialects. Objections have been made to th name Soraní on the grounds that the name of one dialect, Sonarí, spoken in the region Soran should not br extended to cover a group of dialect (E. M. Rasul, Núserí Kurd, No. 4, Nov. 1971).
See also
- Kurdish Autonomous Region in Iraq
Sources
- Dr. A. Hassanpour, Nationalism and Language in Kurdistan 1918 - 1985, Mellen Research University Press, USA, 1992
- Jemal Nebez, Toward a Unified Kurdish Language, NUKSE 1976
- Prof. M. Izady, The Kurds, A Concise Handbook, Dep. of Near Easter Languages and Civilization Harvard University, USA, 1992
- KAL: The Kurdish Academy of Language (http://www.KurdishAcademy.org)
External links:
- KAL: The Kurdish Academy of Language (http://www.KurdishAcademy.org)
- the New Testament in Sorani (http://www.gospelcom.net/ibs/bibles/kurdish/index.php)