Southern Kurdish Explained

Southern Kurdish should not be confused with Sorani.

Southern Kurdish
Nativename:	کوردی خوارین
States:	Iran, Iraq
Region:	Kurdistan
Ethnicity:	Kurds
Speakers:	million in Iran
Date:	2021
Ref:	e27
Speakers2:	unknown number in Iraq
Familycolor:	Indo-European
Fam2:	Indo-Iranian
Fam3:	Iranian
Fam4:	Western
Fam5:	Northwestern
Fam6:	Kurdish
Iso3:	sdh
Glotto:	sout2640
Glottorefname:	Southern Kurdish
Lingua:	58-AAA-c
Script:	Kurdish alphabet (Perso-Arabic script)
Map:	SOUTHERN KURDISH.JPG
Map2:	Kurdish languages map.svg
Mapcaption2:	Geographic distribution of Kurdish dialects and other Iranian languages spoken by Kurds
Dia1:	Feylî
Dia2:	Kelhurrî
Dia3:	Lekî
Dia4:	Xaneqînî
Dia5:	Gerrûsî (Bîcarî)
Dia6:	Kermanshahî
Dia7:	Kolyai
Dia10:	Bayray
Dia11:	Kordalî

Southern Kurdish (Kurdish: کوردی خوارین|Kurdî Xwarîn)^[1] is one of the dialects of the Kurdish language, spoken predominantly in northeastern Iraq and western Iran.^[2] The Southern Kurdish-speaking region spans from Khanaqin in Iraq to Dehloran southward and Asadabad eastward in Iran.

Name

'Southern Kurdish' is a linguistic term for a group of related dialects in Western Iran. Speakers are not familiar with the term and do not refer to the language as such. They generally identify the kind of Kurdish they speak as a local dialect (the Kurdish of a given village), or as a regional variety such as "Garūsi".^[3]

Variants

Southern Kurdish has many variants, linguist Fattah divides them into 35 varieties. These include:

Bîcarî
- The most septentrional variety of Southern Kurdish spoken in and around Bijar in Iran. Bîcarî is the only Southern Kurdish variety detached from the greater Southern Kurdish-speaking region.
Qurweyî (Chahar Dawli Xarbi)
- The Quwreyî variety is spoken around Ghorveh in Iran and is related to the variety spoken in Asadabad and other Kurdish-speaking areas in Hamadan Province.
Kulyayî
- The Kulyayî variety is spoken northeast of Kermanshah, principally in Sonqor County and surrounding counties. The variety also spans into the Kolyai Rural District in Hamadan Province.
Bîlewerî
- The principal Southern Kurdish variety in Poshtdarband Rural District in Kermanshah.
Dînewerî
- About 83 villages in Dinavar District speak the Dînewer variety. The differences between the Dînewerî and the Kulyayî varieties are anodine.
Sehne / Lekî-Kirmaşanî
- The Sehne variety, or Lekî-Kirmaşanî has many similar characteristics with Lekî and is spoken in Harsin County and in Sahneh. What distinguishes it most from Lekî is the lack of the ergative case.
Kurdelî Pahlavi is quite distant, and may be a distinct language.^[4]

Other variants include: Bîstûnî, Çihrî, Hersîn, Payrawend, Kirmaşanî, Sencabî, Xalesa, Çemçemal, Qesri Şîrînî, Serpuli Zehawî, Harasam, Kelhurrî, Îwan, Erkewazî, Şêrwanî, Îlamî, Salihabadî, Rîka, Bedreyî, Melikşahî, Mêxasî, Mihran, Xaneqînî, Mendilî, Duşêxî, Kaprat, Warmizyar, Zurbatiya and Feylî.

Alphabet

The Southern Kurdish alphabet is very similar to the Central Kurdish (Sorani) alphabet, which is a derivation of the Arabic alphabet.Southern Kurdish has one additional letter "ۊ"; the Arabic letter waw with two dots above.


17	16	15	14	13	12	11	10	9	8	7	6	5	4	3	2	1

34	33	32	31	30	29	28	27	26	25	24	23	22	21	20	19	18

External links

Kurdish Academy of Language describing Southern Kurdish
Audio recordings of wordlists and narratives in Southern Kurdish, archived with Kaipuleohone
southern Kurdish Wikipedia

Notes and References

Web site: Southern Kurdish . 8 April 2023 . Ethnologue.
Web site: Kurdish language i. History of the Kurdish language . . 25 June 2019.
Book: Anonby, Erik . Current issues in Kurdish linguistics . Mohammadirad . Masour . Sheyholislami . Jaffer . University of Bamberg Press . 299 . 26 . Kordestan Province in the Atlas of the Languages of Iran: Research process, language distribution, and language classification.
Erik Anonby, Mortaza Taheri-Ardali & Amos Hayes (2019) The Atlas of the Languages of Iran (ALI). Iranian Studies 52. A Working Classification