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Mother Language Day How many Kurds Teach Kids Kurdish???

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Mother Language Day How many Kurds Teach Kids Kurdish???

PostAuthor: Anthea » Wed Feb 22, 2017 12:28 am

On Mother Tongue Day, Kurds hope to maintain Kurdish identity through their language

UNESCO (The United Nations’ Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) has recognized February 21st as ‘Mother Language Day’ since 1999, and the day is particularly relevant to native Kurdish speakers, as many consider the language an essential part of their identities.

The organization describes one purpose of the day as “To foster sustainable development, learners must have access to education in their mother tongue and in other languages.”

The Kurdish language, which is the 59th-most used in the world, is primarily spoken in the four parts of Kurdistan which include areas of Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Iran. Although exact numbers are unknown, estimates put Kurdish populations worldwide at just over 30 million. About half are in Turkey, with 6 million in Iran, over 5 million in Iraq, and less than 2 million in Syria prior to the civil war. Millions of Kurdish speakers also live in diaspora in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Germany, as well as in Europe and North America.

Over the years, Kurds, geographically surrounded by large Arab, Turkish and Persian populations, have struggled to defend the identity of their language, which is classified by scholars as Indo-European.

In Iraq, the Kurdish language is recognized as the second official language and the Kurdistan Regional government uses it as the language of education and politics.

Some of the many Kurdish language dialectics are on the verge of disappearing including Hawrami. And in an effort to raise awareness regarding this danger, a number of intellectuals staged a gathering calling on the government to put one of those dialects into the curriculum of elementary schools.

Dr. Najih Golpy organized a gathering today in the Kurdish city of Sulaimani regarding the Hawrami dialect, which is mostly spoken in the areas along the Iran-Iraq border.

"Language is an identity for every individual, communities and nations,” Golpy told Rudaw. “We, as Hawramis, feel like our language is slowly going to disappear and therefore today we are a number of intellectuals and loyal people holding a gathering calling for the protection of the language.

“Our demand is for the government to put some books for elementary curriculums into Hawrami. Every kid must know and practice their mother tongue so as to prevent it from diminishing. The disappearance of language means the diminishment of a culture, of a history, of art, music and other things.”

As the Kurdistan Region has enjoyed greater autonomy from Iraq, so too has its education system which has published books in the Sorani and Badini dialects. Additionally, students in the region are taught Arabic and English.

In the southern city of Kirkuk, the administration’s municipality marked the occasion by issuing an official written paper in the Kurdish language.

Kirkuk Central Mayor Kamil Salaiy commended recognition of the day and announced that the Kurdish language will now be used to “issue their written documents and statements for other apparatus and in the provincial council.”

However, just to the south, in the ethnically-mixed town of Tuz Khurmatu using Kurdish for public purposes remains impractical.

“If the banners were in Kurdish, nobody would understand it since more people here know Arabic and our schools nowadays are all in Arabic,” said Shamil Kamil, a Kurdish resident of the town.

In Tuz Khurmatu as many as 8,000 Kurdish students in 53 schools learn in the Kurdish language; however, the town’s only cultural center is located in a Turkman area, where many Kurds now say they are unable to visit, as it’s now under the authority of Shiite Hashd al-Shaabi paramilitary forces.

The language in the north

The Kurdish language is at risk of diminishing in northern Kurdistan, an area home to more Kurds than any other region. The language is studied in just a handful of universities and schools in the largest Kurdish city of Amed, and it is not permitted to be used as the main teaching language for primary students in public schools.

In 2014, Handan Caglayan, an independent researcher and writer whose father is Kurdish and mother Turkish, published her findings on the death of the Kurdish language in Turkey in a book entitled ‘Same Home Different Languages, Intergenerational Language Shift Tendencies, Limitation, Opportunities: The Case of Diyarbakir.’

Among the observations and findings, she had noted that Kurds in Turkey were losing 17 percent of their population, each generation, to Turks as children abandon Kurdish for Turkish because of the money, jobs and success which come with knowing the Turkish language. At that alarming rate, very few Kurdish-speaking Kurds will be left in Turkey by 2050.

Many parents in Turkey give Kurdish names to their children in a bid to prevent the disappearance of their mother tongue, yet many young Kurds are never fully taught the language.

Shana Arkan has named her two sons Amed and Sharvan. She described the challenges facing Kurds in Turkey.

“[The boys] were speaking in Kurdish until they turned to five. As soon as one started schools, he was cut from Kurdish language. His friends and teachers are all Turks. Sometimes when I would ask them in Kurdish, they would answer in Turkish. If they had studied in Kurdish, they would not have forgotten Kurdish,” Arkan told Rudaw.

The Kurdish language was banned until 1991 in Turkey, and the country’s large minority population of Kurdish people still widely complains of persecution.

But another Kurdish mother, Darya Chatiner, said everything is on children’s parents to not allow their kids to forget the mother tongue.

“We always speak in Kurdish. When Rozarin [her little daughter] meets with her friends, we encourage even her friends to know Kurdish because when we talk to them they all speak in Turkish…” Chatiner said. “My daughter knows Kurdish and Turkish.”

In 2009, the Turkish government launched the Kurdish channel TRT-6.

In 2013, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan launched the democracy package, which among other things gave the Kurds the right to Kurdish education in private schools, and to use the letters ‘q, w and x,’ which do not exist in the Turkish alphabet, but do in Kurdish.

Turkey’s Interior Ministry shut down the Kurdish Institute of Istanbul in January, which the founders said had been a resource to the Kurdish language and culture for a quarter century.

“I was learning from that institute,” one student who was speaking outside of the closed building told Rudaw TV. “I was trying to improve my Kurdish, to the extent that I could speak Kurdish with my grandfather. All is gone now.”

Kurdish Language Day is celebrated in Turkish Kurdistan on May 15, the day in 1932 when Kurdish linguist Celadet Ali Bedirxan began publishing the Kurdish culture magazine, Hawar.


The language in the east

In the Kurdish parts of Iran, or eastern Kurdistan, the language is not recognized and it is most often studied only in academic institutions and schools.

“Kurdish political parties in Iran are very often criticized for being reckless towards Kurdish language,” Abdullah Hassan Zada, a translator and writer told Rudaw.

Zada added that Kurdish political parties in Iran have maintained the Kurdish language and published in this language.

“At all different stages, the Kurdistan Democratic Party has served the language and literature of Kurdish language and printed publications in Kurdish language. They have also worked on translations from Farsi and Turkish to Kurdish,” Zada said.

He assured that Kurdish language cannot be eradicated in Iran entirely despite pressures on the language.

“Islamic Republic of Iran has to some extent allowed the publication of newspapers and magazines in Kurdish language, therefore a number of Kurdish people work on Kurdish literature,” Zada said. “In the meantime, there are TV and radios stations operating in Kurdish. Even if liberties are limited, the freedom of Kurdish language cannot be prohibited.”

Rudaw reported in September 2016 that schools in the Kurdish towns of Bana, Saqiz and Mariwan had planned on implementing a Kurdish language curriculum, but at the beginning of the school year, none of the Kurdish language classes had begun.

“Despite that this year there was a decision that at least some of the classes would be permitted to learn in the Kurdish language, no steps have been made to implement it and students’ study plans are like previous years,” an activist from Saqiz said.

Article 15 of the Iranian Constitution allows Kurdish and other spoken languages in the country to be used as languages of study, but it has been increasingly difficult to implement the article since the constitution was approved in a referendum in October 1979.

Despite limitations, Kurds have found ways to continue learning in their mother tongue in Iran.

A cultural center in Mariwan is using new books to provide supplementary learning to children and adults during the summer in the Sorani and Kurmanji dialects of Kurdish.

“The book is modern. It contains conversation, reading and writing,” one instructor explained to Rudaw. “It means the children will learn both how to read and write very well. It also has a very special graphic and drawing design. It is a very modern book. I think such a book has not been designed for children (in Iranian Kurdistan) before.”

http://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/210220176
Last edited by Anthea on Wed Feb 20, 2019 11:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Mother Language Day How many Kurds Teach Kids Kurdish???

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Re: Kurds and International Mother Language Day 21/02/17

PostAuthor: Anthea » Wed Feb 22, 2017 1:45 am

Sadly and shamefully, the VAST majority of Kurds living in the UK do NOT teach their children Kurdish X(

Those Kurds whose country of origin is Turkey, put a great deal of effort into teaching their children Turkish :shock: rather like slaves lovingly following their cruel slave-masters :ymsick: X(

In fact they do not just teach them Turkish. They sit their young children in front of the Turkish TV and allow them to become brainwashed little TURKS

Kurds, who supposedly fled Turkey in order to escape from the violent Turkish regime and ALWAYS state the fact that they were not allowed to use Kurdish as one of the most important factors in their flight, are turning there children into TURKS
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Re: Kurds and International Mother Language Day 21/02/17

PostAuthor: Piling » Wed Feb 22, 2017 8:16 am

At least they could put them front of UK TV for they speak a good English.
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Re: Kurds and International Mother Language Day 21/02/17

PostAuthor: Anthea » Wed Feb 22, 2017 8:36 pm

Piling wrote:At least they could put them front of UK TV for they speak a good English.


:)) =)) :)) =)) :))

Most of the men do not want their wives to learn English because they like to be in control

Several times I have been asked to help children with their English but NOT to teach their wives English :shock:
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Re: Kurds and International Mother Language Day 21/02/17

PostAuthor: Benny » Sat Feb 25, 2017 6:05 am

Many many thanks Anthea, this was super interesting, I learned a lit here! I did not know about the situation in Iran, I thought this was one of the few areas where the Kurdish culture could prosper. And in Turkey, losing 17 percent per generation.
Again many thanks !

/B

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Re: Kurds and International Mother Language Day 21/02/17

PostAuthor: Anthea » Sat Feb 25, 2017 9:34 pm

The Iraqi Kurds in the Croydon, South London area, used to run Kurdish lessons for their children

Sadly, the lessons have recently closed down due to lack of funding and the good Kurds in the area will NOT give up one packet of cigarettes each week in order to pay for the classes X(

Not only were the class important for the children, they were also, extremely important for the wives/mothers, for whom it was their only chance to meet with other wives. The ladies greatly enjoyed their once a week get together

The supposedly good Muslim men - many of whom speak fluent Kurdish - would not help to run the classes themselves without being paid, even though many do not work on a Saturday

So the children do without their lessons and the poor wives sit at home feeling miserable X(

These same men spend almost the entire day on Fridays praying and saying how good they are :shock:
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Re: Kurds and International Mother Language Day 21/02/17

PostAuthor: Benny » Sun Feb 26, 2017 6:11 am

Thank you Anthea! Sad story! :sad:

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Re: Kurds and International Mother Language Day 21/02/17

PostAuthor: Anthea » Wed Feb 20, 2019 10:58 pm

International Mother Language Day

International Mother Language Day (IMLD) is a worldwide annual observance held on 21 February to promote awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity and promote multilingualism

First announced by UNESCO on 17 November 1999, it was formally recognized by the United Nations General Assembly in a resolution establishing 2008 as the International Year of Languages.

The idea to celebrate International Mother Language Day was the initiative of Bangladesh. In Bangladesh the 21 February is the anniversary of the day when Bangladeshis fought for recognition for the Bangla language.

I knew it could not have started in Northern Kurdistan =))

Kurds complained enough about not being allowed to speak their own language while they were inside Turkish borders

What happened to those same Kurds once they had left Kurdistan ???

They still teach their children TURKISH

They sit their children in front of TURKISH TV

In fact many of these same Kurds often have TURKISH TV on almost NON-STOP

Kurds have NO SHAME

They speak the language of their enemy

The enemy that has slaughtered their people non-stop for 100 years

The enemy that has destroyed Kurdish homes and villages

The enemy that has destroyed Kurdish farmlands and forests

The enemy that keeps destroying all that is Kurdish

Kurds need to set a good example for their children

Not turn into then into BARBARIC TURKS

NEVER FORGET DERSIM
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