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|name=Kurdish |nativename=كوردی Kurdî |familycolor=Indo-European |states= Turkey , Iraq , Iran , Syria , Armenia , Lebanon |region= Middle East |speakers=20–40 million (''disputed'') |rank=33 (''disputed'') |fam2= Indo-Iranian |fam3= Iranian |fam4= Western Iranian |fam5= Northwestern Iranian |script= Arabic (Iraq and Iran), Latin (Turkey and Syria), Cyrillic (the former USSR) |nation= Iraq |iso1=ku |iso2=kur |lc1=kur|ld1=Kurdish (generic)|ll1=none |lc2=ckb|ld2=Central Kurdish|ll2=Sorani |lc3=kmr|ld3=Northern Kurdish|ll3=Kurmanji |lc4=sdh|ld4=Southern Kurdish }} The Kurdish language is an , though it is used in the local media and newspapers, only a few schools teach the language. Kurdish education is protected by the Iranian constitution. Kurdish Language Education in Iranian Universities The Kurdish language belongs to the western sub-group of the Iranian Languages which belong to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European Languages family. The most closely related language to Kurdish is Talysh . History The prehistory of Kurds and hence their original spoken language is poorly known, but their ancestors have inhabited the same upland region for millennia. Most linguists assume that the Kurdic language is West Iranian, i.e. related to Modern Persian. It is assumed that the extinct language of the Medes , who lived in the area later occupied by the Kurds, was also West Iranian. Accordingly, is seems safe (if not proven) that the Kurds are descendants of the Medes. Some have challenged this traditional view claiming that the original language of ancestors of Kurds might have been the predecessor of Caucasian languages; after development of agriculture, they spread to the area where we later find Caucasian language's origin.''[citation needed '' They were from very beginning up to pre-Islamic age in contact with ancient Indo-Europeans such as Hittites and immigrant Indic Mitannis and later with Iranic Medes and Persians which gradually and as a whole all had a significant influence on the vocabulary of language of Kurds. At any rate, even if the Kurds may have pre-Indo-European ancestors related gentically to the ancestors of the people speaking the Caucasian languages, the Kurds are still perfectly Indo-European and Iranian from a linguistic point of view. Similarly, the Europeans and Americans are no less Indo-European, even though most of their ancestors probably spoke non-Indo-European languages. Yet, in all likelihood, the Kurds are the heirs of the Iranian-speaking people of the western part of the Medic, Persian and Parthian empires both linguistically and culturally, and probably also for the larger part genetically. Another linguistic group linguistically influent on the Kurds but in a lesser degree were Semitic-speakings such as their historical neighbouring Aramaics and later in post-islamic era their new neighbouring Arabic-speaking immigrants. Yet more than three-quarters of Kurdish clan names and roughly two-third of topographical and urban names are of Hurrian (Khurrite) origin '' needed '', e.g., the names of the clans of Bukhti, Tirikan, Bazayni, Bakran, Mand; rivers Murad, Balik and Khabur, lake Van; the towns of Mardin, Ziwiya, Dinawar and Barzan...etc. (There have been attempts in recent century especially by Turkish government to change Kurdish names into Turkish). In post-Islamic era many Kurdish scholars tended to use Arabic instead of Kurdish in their works. In the beginning of the 20th century those countries who control over Kurdistan refused to accept Kurdish as an official language and made restrictions on its use. Today while in Iraq Kurdish is an official language there are restrictions in Turkey and Iran although a limited usage is allowed but Syria still opposes to the use of Kurdish in the country. In March 2006, Turkey allowed private Television channels to begin airing Kurdish language programs. However, the Turkish government said that they must steer clear of showing children's Cartoon s, educational programs that teach the Kurdish language, and can only broadcast for 45 minutes a day or four hours a week. The programs must carry Turkish subtitles. Turkey to get Kurdish television So it is safe to say that the Kurdish language has its own historical development, continuity, grammatical system and living vocabularies in comparison to other members of the Iranian language family Grammar The Kurdish language is a typical example of an ergative language. There are many variations of ergatitviy such as split-ergativity of ergative-absolutive especially in the past tense forms in the Kurdish language. In Kurdish ''object'' agrees with the ''subject'' and the ''verb'' agrees with the ''object'' and this is unlike Persian, Turkish and Arabic in which ''object'' has an accusative marker and the verb in all tenses agrees with the ''subject'' of the sentence. Kurdish shows also a clitic reversing in all tense forms in sentences. Linguists believe Kurdish has inherited this attribute of ergativity from language of Hurrians (Khurrites) who are believed as a main ancestor of the Kurds. :Some simple examples of ergative-absolutive in Kurdish (Sorani):
In the above example the word ''pênûs(-eke)'' (the) pen which is the object of the sentence agrees with the subject in case and becomes ''pênûseke-yan'', and the verb ''hêna'' (brought) agrees with the indirect object of the sentence in case and becmoes ''hêna-yn''. :Another example:
In the example above the word ''sheep'' which is the object of the sentence agrees with the subject in case and accepts the suffix ''-yan'' , the same goes with the word ''stone'' and its subject ''soldier''. The verb ''brought'' can optionally agree with the word ''sheep'', while the verb ''pêda da'' agrees with it in case. In addition to these, Kurdish uses various adpositions i.e. both prepositions and postpositions marking at the same time on a head noun. None of its neighbouring languages do it. Dialects Kurdish dialects can be divided into three main groups: the Northern Kurdish group of dialects also called Kurmanji and Badínaní, the Central Kurdish group of dialects also called Sorani , the Southern Kurdish group of dialects. Some linguists consider two other branches for Kurdish language: the Dimílí group, also called Zaza , and the Auramani group, also called Gorani However, some other linguists consider Zaza-Gorani as a different sub-group of Northwestern Iranian languages [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=90021 . The detailed classification of Kurdish dialects is problematic. There is no widely-accepted appellative system for the various Kurdish dialects; not only in Western scholarly opinion, but even among the Kurds themselves. This often prompts arguments if these four different dialects are a language on their own or not. All of the native designators for local language and dialects are based on the way the spoken language of one group sounds to the unaccustomed ears of the other. For instance, Dimila and their vernacular, Dimili, are called "Zaza" by the Badínaní speakers, with reference to the preponderance of Z sounds in their language (Nikitin 1926). Meanwhile, the Dimila call the Badínaní dialect and its speakers "Xerewere". The Gorans refer to the Soraní as "Kurkure" and "Wawa". The Soraní speakers in turn call the Gorans and their vernacular, Goraní or "Mechû Mechû", and refer to the tongue and the speakers of Badínaní as "Je Babu". A proposed system for the classification of the dialects is as follows '' needed '':
Indo-European linguistic comparison Due to the fact that Kurdish language is an Indo-European language, there are many words that are Cognate s in Kurdish and other Indo-European languages such as Avestan , Persian , Sanskrit , German , English , Latin and Greek . (Source: ''Altiranisches Wörterbuch (1904)'' for the first two and last six.) Writing system See Also: Kurdish alphabet The Kurdish language uses three different writing systems. In Iran and Iraq is written using a modified version of the . There is also a proposal for a unified international recognised Kurdish alphabet based on ISO-8859-1 . The Kurdish Unified Alphabet Phonology According to the Kurdish Academy of Language, Kurdish has the following phonemes: Consonants : Non-Latin scripts also have letters for , , and . These may indicate variation among dialects in phoneme inventory, language change, or influence from nearby languages. : Just as in many English dialects, the velarized lateral does not appear in the onset of a syllable. Vowels The vowel pairs and , and , and and contrast in length and not quality. This distinction shows up in the writing system; long vowels have a circumflex ( ^ ) and short vowels do not. As it is with most languages, Kurdish short vowels are not represented at all in the Arabic script.. Dictionaries Kurdish-only dictionaries
:Vol. I, 1960, 380 p. :Vol. II, 1964, 388 p. :Vol. III, 1976, 511 p. Kurdish-English dictionaries
References See also
External links
Religious texts Kurdish broadcast programs
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