Soranî
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Soranî (سۆرانی) is name of the standard form of a group of Central Kurdish dialects also called southern Kurmanji (Kurmanji jêrû) and as such is part of the Iranian languages. Soranî belongs to the Kurmanji branch of dialects that make up the Kurdish language, and is most correctly referred to as Southern Kurmanji.
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[edit] Name
To refer to southern Kurmanji dialects as Soranî is a recent naming by linguists after the name of the former principality of Soran. Mackenzie writes that the present Kurdish standard called Soranî is in fact an idealized version of the Silêmanî dialect, which uses the phonemic system of the Píjhdar and Mukrî dialects. Objections have been made to the name Soranî on the grounds that the name of one dialect, Soranî, spoken in the region Soran should not be extended to cover a group of dialect (E. M. Rasul, Núserí Kurd, No. 4, Nov. 1971).
[edit] As a literary dialect
In Sulaymaniyah, the Ottoman Empire had created a secondary school (Rushdíye), the graduates from which could go to Istanbul to continue to study there. This allowed Soranî, which was spoken in Silémaní, to progressively replace Hewrami as the literary vehicle.
[edit] Alphabet
Soranî is usually written in the Arabic script, from right to left, called Kurdo-Arabic script. This is in contrast to the other main Kurdish dialect, Kurmanji or Kurmancî, which is spoken mainly in Turkey and in all other parts of Kurdistan and is usually written in the Latin alphabet.
However, since the recent decade, official TV in Iraqi Kurdistan mostly use latin script for Sorani.
[edit] Extent
It is spoken by a total of approximately 8 - 10 million people in Iraq and Iran. It is the most widespread speech form of Iraqi and Iranian Kurds
- 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 Hewlêr (Arbil) , Sulaymaniyah (Silêmanî) , Kerkuk and Diyala governates.
A line can be drawn to divide Soranî-speaking areas into a Persianized southeastern section and a more orthodox northwestern section, running from Bíjar to Kifrí, (See the map). The ergative construction in the Persianized Soranî has begun to disappear, while it is being retained in the non-Persianized northwestern section.
[edit] Colloquial subdivisions
Following includes a traditional internal subdivisions of Soranî however nowadays due to media and communications most of them are regarded as an accent of standard Soranî:
- Mukrî; it is the language spoken in south of Lake Urmia with Mehabad as its center including cities: Bokan, Sardasht, Piranshahr, Oshnowiya, Naxede. A region traditionally called Mukrian.
- Erdelanî, the region coresponding to modern Kurdistan province of Iran
- Germíyanî, Kirkuk area
- Xoşnaw
- Píjhder
- Wermawe
- Hewlêrî, It is spoken around and/or in the city of Hewlêr (Arbil) in Iraqi Kurdistan. Its main particularity is changing consonant /l/ into /r/ in many words.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Hassanpour, Dr. A. (1992). Nationalism and Language in Kurdistan 1918 - 1985. USA: Mellen Research University Press.
- Nebez, Jemal (1976). Toward a Unified Kurdish Language.
- Izady, Prof. M. (1992). The Kurds. A Concise Handbook. USA: Dep. of Near Easter Languages and Civilization Harvard University.
[edit] External links
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