Author(s): John Rigdon

reference

Kurdish is spoken in parts of Iraq, Turkey, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Armenia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Kazakstan and Afghanistan. In 2010 an estimiated 20-30 million people spoke Kurdish. In Kyrgyzstan, 96.4% of the Kurdish population speak Kurdish as their native language. In Kazakhstan, the corresponding percentage is 88.7%. There are a number of dialects of Kurdish, which are not mutually intelligible. - Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji) is spoken in Turkey, Syria, northern Iraq and northwestern Iran by about 15-20 million people. - Central Kurdish (Soran ) is spoken in Iraq Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Province of Iran by about 6-7 million people. - Southern Kurdish (Pehlewani) is spoken by about 3 million people in Kermanshah and Ilam provinces in northwestner Iran, and in the Khanaqin district in eastern Iraq. This dictionary uses the latin script and the Northern Kurdish (urmanji) dialect. We also publish resources for the Sorani dialect. Check our website for availability. Kurdish began to appear in writing in a version of the Persian alphabet during the 7th century AD. However, for much of their history, the Kurds have prefered to use Arabic, Persian or Turkish for their literary works. Since 1932 Kurdish has been written with the Latin alphabet in Turkey and Syria. Before then, it was written with a version of the Arabic script. In parts of the former USSR it is written with a version of the Cyrillic alphabet, and in Soviet Armenia it was written with a version of the Armenian alphabet. When Kurdish is written with the Arabic script, Arabic loan words retain their original spelling, though they are often pronounced quite differently in Kurdish. This dictionary uses the latin script and the Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji) dialect. It contains over 12,000 words in English and Kurmanji with parts of speech and definitions in English with a Kurmanji / English index included. It is excerpted from our Words R Us system which is a derivative of Princeton Wordnet. We also publish a Turkish / Kurdish / English Dictionary and a Kurdish Dictionary in the Sorani script as well as books on Kurdish Grammar. See our website for availability. www.wordsrus.info