How many dialects are there in Kurdish?
two
Today, the two principal written Kurdish dialects are Kurmanji and Sorani. Sorani is, along with Arabic, one of the two official languages of Iraq and is in political documents simply referred to as “Kurdish”….Kurdish languages.
| Kurdish | |
|---|---|
| Dialects | Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji) Central Kurdish (Sorani) Southern Kurdish (Xwarîn, Palewani) Laki |
Are Kurdish dialects mutually intelligible?
Sorani and Kurmanji account for more than 75 percent of native Kurdish speakers. Although the two languages are closely related, Kurmanji and Sorani are not mutually intelligible in either written or spoken form.
What language is similar to Kurdish?
Kurdish and Persian are linguistically sister languages and both are in the Iranian branch, much like how English and German can be considered sister languages of the Germanic branch. Since Persian is an Indo-European language, it is not linguistically related to Arabic.
Do the Kurds speak Arabic?
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—The number of Iraqi Kurds who speak Arabic fluently has declined significantly since the 1990s, even though Arabic is the second official language in Kurdistan and the primary language of Iraq. The result is a generation where most people under the age of 35 cannot communicate in Arabic.
Which language is spoken in Kurdistan?
Kurdish
ArabicSoranî dialect
Kurdistan Region/Official languages
What language do the Kurds speak in Turkey?
The majority of the Kurds speak Kurmanji (“Northern Kurdish”). The classification of Laki as a sub-dialect of Southern Kurdish or as a fourth dialect of Kurdish is unsettled, but the differences between Laki and other Southern Kurdish dialects are minimal.
What is the influence of Turkish language on Kurmanji language?
Kurmanji is highly influenced by Turkish language because majority of Kurdish speakers come from Turkey. Also, they adopted Latin alphabet and thus they speak like a Latin Kurdish language.
What is the difference between Kurdish and ethnic Kurds?
Some linguistic scholars assert that the term “Kurdish” has been applied extrinsically in describing the language the Kurds speak, whereas some ethnic Kurds have used the word term to simply describe their ethnicity and refer to their language as Kurmanji, Sorani, Hewrami, Kermanshahi, Kalhori or whatever other dialect or language they speak.
What is Kurmanji (Kurdish)?
Each Kurdish dialect has subdialects. Kurmanji (Kurdish كورمانجى Kurmancî) or Northern Kurdish is one of the four Kurdish dialects. About 65\% of all Kurds speak Kurmanji. It is mainly spoken in Turkey and Syria but also in Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Armenia and some other former Soviet republics.