Southern Kurdish (Kurdish: کوردی باشووری ,کوردی خوارگ, romanized: Kurdî Başûrî, Kurdî Xwarig)[2] is one of the dialects of the Kurdish language, spoken predominantly in eastern Iraq and western Iran.[3] The Southern Kurdish-speaking region spans from Khanaqin in Iraq to Dehloran southward and Asadabad eastward in Iran.[4]

Southern Kurdish
کوردی باشووری
Native to	Eastern Iraq, Western Iran
Region	Kurdistan
Native speakers	3 million in Iran, 350,000 in Iraq[1]
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Iranian Western Northwestern Kurdish Southern Kurdish
Writing system	Kurdish alphabet (Perso-Arabic script)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	sdh
Glottolog	sout2640
Linguasphere	58-AAA-c
Geographic distribution of Kurdish dialects and other Iranian languages spoken by Kurds   Kurmanji   Sorani   Southern   Zaza   Gorani   mixed areas

Name

Southern Kurdish is a new term coined by some Western linguists in order to refer to a group of dialects in Western Iran. According to the same linguists, the speakers of these dialects are not familiar with the term "Southern Kurdish" and do not use that.[5] According to the linguists: "When consulted about what kind of Kurdish they speak, respondents generally refer first to a very local variety (Kurdish of a given village), or a mid-level variety such as “Ardalāni” or “Garūsi”".[5]

Variants

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

• Bicarî
  • The most septentrional variety of Southern Kurdish spoken in and around Bijar in Iran. Bicarî is the only Southern Kurdish variety detached from the greater Southern Kurdish-speaking region.[6]
• Qorwa (Chahar Dawli xarbi)
  • The Qorwa variety is spoken around Ghorveh in Iran and is related to the variety spoken in Asadabad and other Kurdish-speaking areas in Hamadan Province.[7]
• Kolyayî
  • The Kolyayî 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.[8]
• Bilawar
  • The principal Southern Kurdish variety in Poshtdarband Rural District in Kermanshah.[9]
• Dinawar
  • About 83 villages in Dinavar District speak the Dinawar variety. The differences between the Dinawar and the Kolyayî varieties are anodine.[10]
• Sahana / Lekî-Kirmaşanî
  • The Sahana variety, or lakî-kirmashanî has many similar characteristics with Laki and is spoken in Harsin County and in Sahneh. What distinguishes it most from Laki is the lack of the ergative case.[10]

• Kordali a.k.a. Palai is quite distant, and may be a distinct language.[11]

Other variants include: Bîstûnî, Çihrî, Hersîn, Payrawand, Kirmaşanî, Sanjabî, Xalesa, Çemçemal, Qasirî Şîrîn, Serpuli Zuhawî, Harasam, Kelurî, Îwan, Erkewazî, Şêrwanî, Îlamî, Salihabad, Rîka, Badraî, Melikşahî, Mêxasî, Mihran, Xaneqînî, Mendilî, Duşêxî, Kaprat, Warmizyar, Zurbatiya and Feylî.[12]

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.

See also

• Kalhor
• Khulam Rada Khan Arkawazi
• Sanjâbi
• Şêxbizin (tribe)
• Zangana

Notes

Biography

• Fattah, Ismaïl Kamandâr (2000), Les dialectes Kurdes méridionaux, Acta Iranica, ISBN 9042909188

External links

Southern Kurdish test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator

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

На других языках

[de] Südkurdische Sprache

[fr] Kurde du Sud

[ru] Южнокурдский (диалект курдского языка)