Kurdish Language Guide

Where it's spoken

Kurmanji — the Kurdish variety used in this app — is spoken by the vast majority of Kurds in Turkey, Syria, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, and by a few in Iraq and Iran. Iraq's constitution names Arabic and Kurdish as the country's two official languages.

Kurdish also has other varieties. Sorani, spoken by most Kurds in Iraq and Iran, is not mutually intelligible with Kurmanji and differs from it at the basic structural level as well as in vocabulary and idiom. Sorani is also written differently: in its own Arabic-based system, the Kurdo-Arabic alphabet, rather than the Latin alphabet used here for Kurmanji.

Sources

• The Permanent Constitution of the Republic of Iraq (2005) — Article 4 (1), English text
• Thackston, W. M. (2006). Kurmanji Kurdish: A Reference Grammar with Selected Readings. — Preface (Kurmanji and Sorani speakers; mutual intelligibility)
• Thackston, W. M. (2006). Sorani Kurdish: A Reference Grammar with Selected Readings. — The Writing System (Kurdo-Arabic alphabet)

Script & pronunciation

Kurmanji, as used in this app, is written in a Latin alphabet based on the Turkish adaptation of the Latin alphabet. A circumflex distinguishes otherwise separate vowels: î is like the "ee" in "beet," while plain i is like the "i" in "bit"; ê is like the "ai" in "bait"; û is like the "oo" in "boot," while plain u is like the "u" in "put."

The consonant x is likewise a separate sound from h: x is pronounced like the "ch" in German "Bach" and the Arabic خ, while h is a plain "h," as in "Bi xatirê te" ("Goodbye"), shown in the app with syllable breaks as "Bi xa-ti-rê te". ç is the aspirated "ch" of "church," and ş is like the "sh" in "ship."

Sources

• Thackston, W. M. (2006). Kurmanji Kurdish: A Reference Grammar with Selected Readings. — Alphabet and pronunciation

Grammar essentials

Basic word order in Kurmanji is subject, object, verb. Kurmanji nouns are linked to a following possessor or adjective by the construct case (Thackston's term). This app's notes label the link between "veguheztina" and "otomatîk" in "Ma GPS û veguheztina otomatîk heye?" ("Does it have GPS and automatic transmission?") an ezafe.

In Kurmanji's present tense, the prefix di- is replaced by na- to negate the verb, as in "Sarkêşiya hewayê / germker naxebite." ("The air conditioning / heating isn't working."); a different prefix, ne-, negates the subjunctive and past instead.

In the simple past, Kurmanji's transitive verbs are ergative: the agent takes the oblique case and the verb agrees with the object rather than the agent, as in "Polîsan ez rawestandim — divê ez çi bikim?" ("I've been stopped by traffic police — what should I do?"), where "polîsan" (the police) is oblique and the verb agrees with "ez" (I).

Sources

• Thackston, W. M. (2006). Kurmanji Kurdish: A Reference Grammar with Selected Readings. — Word order; the construct; §14 The Present Tense; subjunctive; ergativity in the simple past

Politeness & etiquette

Kurmanji distinguishes tu, used with people the speaker knows well, from hûn — the plural "you" — used with strangers, as in "Hûn bi Îngilîzî diaxivin?" ("Do you speak English?"). Set greetings include "Merheba," an Arabic-derived word for hello, and "Spas" for thank you, which can also be said more fully as "Spas dikim."

Sources

• Thackston, W. M. (2006). Kurmanji Kurdish: A Reference Grammar with Selected Readings. — §7 Personal pronouns (hun / hûn, you pl.)