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Kurmanji

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Kurmanji
Northern Kurdish
کورمانجی,Kurmancî
Kurmanji Kurdish written in both scripts
RegionAutochthonous toKurdistan,Kurdish diaspora[1]
EthnicityKurds
Native speakers
16 million (2021–2023)[2]
Dialects
  • Botani (Boti)
  • Marashi
  • Ashiti
  • Bayezidi
  • Hekari
  • Shemdinani
  • Badini
  • Shikaki
  • Silivi
  • Mihemedi[1]
Official status
Official language in
Recognised minority
language in
Language codes
ISO 639-1ku
ISO 639-3kmr
Glottolognort2641
Linguasphere58-AAA-a
Geographic distribution of the Kurdish languages spoken by Kurds

Kurmanji(Kurdish:کورمانجی, Kurmancî,lit. 'Kurdish'),[5][6][7][8]also termedNorthern Kurdish,[1][9][10]is the northernmost of theKurdish languages,spoken predominantly in southeastTurkey,northwest and northeastIran,northernIraq,northernSyriaand theCaucasusandKhorasanregions.[11]It is the most widely spoken form of Kurdish.

Kurmanji is also the common and ceremonial language ofYazidis.[12]Their sacred bookMishefa Reşand all prayers are written and spoken in Kurmanji.[13]

Ethnologuereports that the use of Kurmanji is declining in Turkey even when the language is used as a language of wider communication (LWC) by immigrants to Turkey, and that the language is threatened because it is losing speakers.[14]

History

Pre-modern Kurmanji

Although Kurds are mentioned in the pre-Islamic period, there is no information of the Kurdish language before the Islamic period. The first mention of Kurmanji Kurdish is by the medieval Chaldean authorIbn Wahshiyya(d. 930/1) in his treatise about Alpha bets. OrientalistJoseph Hammeralso purported the existence of an Alpha bet for the language.[15]

Kurmanji may have potentially been a literary language from the 10th to the 12th century with the formation of manyKurdish dynastiessuch as theHasanwayhids,Rawadids,Ayyubidsand especially under theMarwanidswho commanded sizeable economic and cultural prosperity. However, the language of Marwanid administration and culture life was reported to be exclusively Arabic. Under the Ayyubids, many scholars note that Kurmanji gained a privileged status but admit that there is a paucity of evidence due to the lack of written Kurmanji documents from the Ayyubid court.[16]

The first known written attestation of Kurmanji is from the geographical work Mu'jam ul-Buldān byYaqut al-Hamawiin which few words have been identified in a mostly indecipherable text. The first proper text in Kurmanji is aChristian missionary prayerin theArmenian scriptfrom the first half of the 14th century.[17]

A growing interest in the use of Kurmanji in literature began from the 14th century on when Kurdistan had relative political stability and economic prosperity. However, it was not until the 16th century, that a Kurmanji literary tradition arose. During this era,Sharafkhan Bidlisifrom thePrincipality of Bitlis,wrote that a certain leader of theDerzin Castlewrote most of his poetry and theological commentaries in Kurmanji. Furthermore, during his trips to Kurdistan,Evliya Çelebipraised the educational institutions of theAmediandAkreregions and quoted a Kurmanji poem by local poet in his work. Prominent scholars from this period, whose works are preserved today includeMelayê Cizîrî,Feqiyê Teyran,Elî TeremaxîandEhmedê Xanî.Unlike his peers, Xanî consciously worked to codify Kurmanji as a written language.[18]Pre-modern Kurmanji began to decline in the 19th century simultaneously with decline of the Kurdish principalities.[19]

Phonology

Further information:Kurdish phonology

Phonological features in Kurmanji include the distinction betweenaspiratedandunaspiratedvoiceless stopsand the presence of facultative phonemes.[20][21]For example, Kurmanji Kurdish distinguishes between aspirated and unaspiratedvoiceless stops,which can be aspirated in all positions. Thus/p/contrasts with/pʰ/,/t/with/tʰ/,/k/with/kʰ/,and the affricate/t͡ʃ/with/t͡ʃʰ/.[21]

Dialect continuum

Kurmanji forms adialect continuumof great variability. Loosely, six dialect areas can be distinguished:[22]

Ezdîkî and Yazidi politics

Among someYazidis,theglossonymEzdîkî is used for Kurmanji to differentiate themselves from Kurds. While Ezdîkî is no different from Kurmanji,[12][24][25][26][27]some attempt to prove that Ezdîkî is an independent language, including claims that it is aSemitic language.This has been criticized as not being based on scientific evidence and lacking scientific consensus.[28]

On January 25, 2002, Armenia ratified theEuropean Charter for Regional or Minority Languagesand placed Kurdish under state protection.[29]However, because of the dividedYazidi community in Armeniaand after strong criticism from parts of the community, the authorities chose to ratify the charter by mentioning both "Kurdish" and "Yezidi" as two separate languages.[30]This resulted in the term Êzdîkî being used by some researchers when delving into the question of minority languages in Armenia, since most Kurdish-speakers in Armenia are Yazidis.[31]As a consequence of this move, Armenian universities offer language courses in both Kurmanji and Êzdîkî as two different dialects.[32]

Kurmanji among other groups

During the end of theOttoman era,AssyriansinTur Abdinshifted from speaking their traditionalTuroyolanguage to either Kurmanji orArabic.[33]KurdophoneArmeniansalso exist and there were prior to theArmenian genocidearound 110 Kurmanji-speaking Armenian villages inBeşiriandSilvan.[34][35]

Bulgarian,[36]ChechenandCircassian[37]immigrants in Turkish Kurdistan also speak Kurmanji.

See also

References

  1. ^abcdef"Ethnologue - Kurmanji Kurdish".Retrieved3 February2018.
  2. ^KurmanjiatEthnologue(27th ed., 2024)Closed access icon
  3. ^"Social Contract - Sa-Nes".Self-Administration of North & East Syria Representation in Benelux. Archived fromthe originalon 9 December 2018.Retrieved22 March2019.
  4. ^"Rojava could be a model for all Syria".Salih Muslim.Nationalita. 29 July 2014.Retrieved22 March2019.
  5. ^Captain R. E. Jardine (1922).Bahdinan Kurmanji - A grammar of the Kurmanji of the Kurds of Mosul division and surrounding districts of Kurdistan.Baghdad: Government Press. p. ii.
  6. ^Ayfer Gokalp (August 2015)."Language and Literacy Practices of Kurdish Children Across Their Home and School Spaces in Turkey"(PDF).Arizona State University. p. 146. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 30 March 2019.Retrieved19 March2019.
  7. ^Paul, Ludwig (2008)."Kurdish language I. History of the Kurdish language".InYarshater, Ehsan(ed.).Encyclopædia Iranica.London and New York: Routledge.Retrieved28 August2013.
  8. ^Georg Krotkoff (1997).Humanism, Culture, and Language in the Near East.p. 299.
  9. ^"Ethnologue - Kurdish".Retrieved19 March2019.
  10. ^E. S. Soane (1909).Notes on Kurdish Dialects.Asian Educational Services. p. 906.ISBN9788120617506.Retrieved22 March2019.
  11. ^Philip G. Kreyenbroek, Stefan Sperl (2005).The Kurds: a Contemporary Overview.Routledge.ISBN1134907656.
  12. ^ab"Yazidis i. General".Retrieved19 March2019.
  13. ^Arakelova, Victoria (2001). "Healing Practices among the Yezidi Sheikhs of Armenia".Asian Folklore Studies.60(2): 319–328.doi:10.2307/1179060.ISSN0385-2342.JSTOR1179060.As for their language, the Yezidis themselves, in an attempt to avoid being identified with Kurds, call itEzdiki.
  14. ^"Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji)".Ethnologue.RetrievedNovember 26,2023.
  15. ^Sheyholislami (2021),pp. 611–612.
  16. ^Sheyholislami (2021),pp. 612–613.
  17. ^Sheyholislami (2021),p. 613.
  18. ^Sheyholislami (2021),p. 614-617.
  19. ^Sheyholislami (2021),pp. 620–621.
  20. ^Khan, Celadet Bedir;Lescot, Roger (1970).Grammaire Kurde (Dialecte kurmandji)(PDF).Paris: La librairie d'Amérique et d'Orient Adrien Maisonneuve.Retrieved28 October2017.
  21. ^abHaig, Geoffrey; Matras, Yaron (2002)."Kurdish linguistics: a brief overview"(PDF).Sprachtypologie und Universalienforschung.55(1). Berlin: 5. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 10 October 2017.Retrieved27 April2013.
  22. ^Öpengin, Ergin; Haig, Geoffrey (2014), "Regional variation in Kurmanji: A preliminary classification of dialects",Kurdish Studies,2,ISSN2051-4883
  23. ^"The Kurdish language".previous.cabinet.gov.krd.Retrieved13 August2019.
  24. ^"The Human Rights Situation of the Yezidi Minority in the Transcaucasus"(PDF).Refworld. May 2008. p. 5.Retrieved23 March2019.
  25. ^Sebastian Maisel (2017).Yezidis in Syria: Identity Building among a Double Minority.Lanham: Le xing ton Books. p. 123.
  26. ^Coene, Frederik (2009-10-16).The Caucasus - An Introduction.Routledge.ISBN9781135203023.
  27. ^Tork Dalalyan (2011)."Construction of Kurdish and Yezidi Identities among the Kurmanji-speaking Population of the Republic of Armenia, in: Changing Identities: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia – 2011".Changing Identities: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia (Collection of Selected Works, Edited by V. Voronkov, S. Khutsishvili, J. Horan), Heinrich Böll Stiftung South Caucasus:6.Retrieved23 March2019.
  28. ^Majid Hassan Ali (15 February 2019). "The identity controversy of religious minorities in Iraq: the crystallization of the Yazidi identity after 2003".British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies.47(5). Routledge: 8.doi:10.1080/13530194.2019.1577129.ISSN1353-0194.S2CID150358224.
  29. ^Witzlack-Makarevich, Kai; Wulff, Nadja (2017-08-08).Handbuch des Russischen in Deutschland: Migration – Mehrsprachigkeit – Spracherwerb(in German). Frank & Timme GmbH.ISBN9783732902279.
  30. ^"Kurds (Kurdmanzh)".Minority Rights Group International.19 June 2015.Retrieved22 March2019.
  31. ^Schulze, Ilona."Methodologische Überlegungen zur soziokulturellen Dokumentation von Minderheiten in Armenien. Iran and the Caucasus Vol. 18, 2, pp. 169-193"(in German).
  32. ^Serinci, Deniz (28 May 2014)."The Yezidis of Armenia Face Identity Crisis over Kurdish Ethnicity".Rudaw.
  33. ^Gaunt, David (2006).Massacres, Resistance, Protectors: Muslim-Christian Relations in Eastern Anatolia During World War I.Gorgias Press. p. 4.ISBN978-1-59333-301-0.
  34. ^Galip, Özlem Belçim (2020).New Social Movements and the Armenian Question in Turkey: Civil Society vs.Springer. p. 161.ISBN9783030594008.
  35. ^Kévorkian, Raymond (2011).The Armenian Genocide: A Complete History.Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 355.ISBN9780857730206.
  36. ^"Türkçe için getirilen Bulgarlar Kürtçe konuşuyor".Rûdaw. 17 May 2017.Retrieved21 May2019.
  37. ^Aşiretler raporu(1st ed.). İstanbul: Kaynak Yayınları. 2000.ISBN9753432208.

Bibliography

Further reading

Kurmanji Kurdish editionofWikipedia,the free encyclopedia
Wikivoyage has a phrasebook forKurdish.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kurmanji&oldid=1236545438"