How do Kurds communicate among each other?

[MarX]

Hello!

How do you do? I'm new here.

I'm wondering, since I read that the Kurdish dialects are very different from each other, how do Kurds communicate among themselves, say, someone from Central Anatolia and another from Northeastern Iran (Khorasaan)?

Thank you!


MarX

[Diri]

Hello MarX

Welcome to Roj Bash Kurdistan!

Please be sure to check out the "Introduce Yourself" section - I've started a welcome thread for you there...

Now - as for your question:

Kurds from Central Anatolia: Haymana, Konya, Cehanbeyli etc. speak a very disrupted Kurmancî. It's been watered with Turkish words and has developed for hundreds of years without contact with the Kurdistanî Kurmancî speakers - thus is hard for Kurdistanî Kurmancî speakers to understand - and most of the time vice versa...

The Xoresanî Kurmancî speakers are in the same situation as that of the Central Anatolian Kurmancî speakers - because they've been detatched from Kurdistan for hundreds of years, they've in some parts developed their own style. In the Xoresanî case, their Kurmancî has been watered with Persian words - and thus is hard for an uneducated Kurmancî speaker to understand - but it's much nearer to it's root than the Central Anatolian Kurmancî... This has a lot to do with the fact that Persian itself is an Indo-Iranian language, as is Kurdish...

Whereas Turkish is Ural-Altaic and Kurdish is Indo-Iranian - thus they are of separate language families, ergo any borrowed words from Turkish to Kurdish, would be "strange" to those who are used to the original Kurdish words/names and verbs used as opposed to the Persian words which often are shared by Kurds and often much more "logical" than Turkish words to Kurdish ears...

Now it is interesting that you bring up these two extremes, it makes me think you know quite alot about the Kurds before hand...

And also, it's interesting how you should pick these two as examples, when they are the two largest exclaves of Kurds outside of Kurdistan... We can draw parallels to Spanish and English:

Spanish spoken in Argentina and Mexico are quite their own style and dialects compared to Spanish spoken in Spain...

And likewise, English spoken by Americans and Australians are their own respective dialects of English, which are distinct from British English... And even closer to England, we have the Irish and Scotish dialects of English...

Still these Latino and Anglo speakers understand and eachother quite easily without much effort... Why is that?

It can all be traced back to education: the people of these countries are all educated in a school system - and for the minimum of 10 years will learn their language/mother tongue and also learn about the structure and grammar of their language... In addition to this, they have state TV and media which help educate the people - by practicing the local language and through developing it - coining new expressions and borrowing whenever needed... They have books and magazines and print in their own language and also speak their own language freely and without barriers or handicaps in their homes, at work and at official gatherings...

As you may have guessed, these are all factors which are practically non-existant in Kurdistan and to Kurds world wide... There are limited sources for Kurds to learn their language... There only recently appeared a number of Kurdish TV channels - and the first one was started in the middle of the 90's... It's banned from/in Iran, Syria and Turkey... Anybody caught watching the channel may face prosecution... As mentioned, more recently a few more Kurdish channels have aired and established themselves on Sattelite as well as through local broadcasting in their respective regions...

But as I said, you chose "extremes" - Anatolian and Xoresani Kurds apart, Kurmancî speaking Kurds understand other Kurmancî speaking Kurds without any problem - and there's 25 more than million of them (not counting the Xoresanî and Anatolian Kurmancîs)... Moreover, there are about 12 million speakers of Soranî who've no problem communicating with eachother either... And most of these will understand Kurmancî too (although constrained), and vice versa...

And furthermore, there are 3-4 million Kirmanckî speakers who've no problem communicating with eachother and most of these also speak Kurmancî, which enables them to speak with Kurmancî speakers...

There are the Goranî speakers who should number around 3 million and who also mostly in addition to Goranî speak Soranî - and thus can communicate with Soranî speakers...

Yes we have a problem when it comes to communication - and most of it is not because our languages are so "hard" or "difficult" or "different" from one another, but because we have no state aparatus or system to educate our people... We have few sources beyond the internet to educate the masses - and even then, most Kurds don't see the internet as a tool for education, but rather for communication... The Kurds in Iraqi Kurdistan however, have since 1992 instated their own educational system which teaches Kurdish in Soranî in Arabic script... There is an expanding media there - and all state aparatus opperates in Kurdish...

If other parts of Kurdistan were liberated/free they'd also be able to teach their children and educate them in their mother tongue... But alas, we live in dark times - and human rights are dearly missed...

If anything of what I've written is unclear or if you have any more questions or would like to comment anything, please do...

Again: welcome to Roj Bash Kurdistan!

Ps: Check out the "Introduce Yourself" section...

[Mamma Mia]

They use Turkish!

Couple of months ago Kurdistan Autonomous Region officials came from Northern Iraq to visit pro-Kurdic DTP party members in Turkey. They spoke Sorani, and DTP people spoke Kirmanci and of course nobody understood each other. Later on, one Kurdish official from Northern Iraq who knows Turkish translated from Kurdish (Sorani) to Kurdish (Kirmanci), so they can communicate with their Kurdish brothers and sisters.

[Emanoelkurdistani]

“Hello!

How do you do? I'm new here.

I'm wondering, since I read that the Kurdish dialects are very different from
each other, how do Kurds communicate among themselves, say, someone from Central
Anatolia and another from Northeastern Iran (Khorasaan)?

Thank you!


MarXMarX”

Dirot! (Salute!)

The difference between dialects is normal. The certain problem is the lack of educating in Kurdish. Therefore everyone speaks in his/her own dialect and the issue gets complicated. But usually eastern and southern Kurds (of Iranian and Iraqi Kurdistan) are fluent in Soranî and communicate via it. While the northern and western Kurds are native Kurmancî speakers (excluding abt 1.5 million Zaza speakers). Today in Iraqi and Iranian Kurdistan Soranî and Kurmancî (Behdînanî, Şekakî, Herkî) speaking Kurds communicate in their own dialects without any significant problems. We use English, German, Persian, Turkish or Arabic, when one of us isn’t fluent in Kurdish and can speak the official language better than his/her mother tongue. As I said the lack of educating in Kurdish, due to the assimilating policies of the Middle Eastern governments, is the biggest block before Kurds. The lingual minorities of Zaza-Goranî speaking Kurds (which contain around 10% of Kurds) are fluent in either Kurmancî or Soranî.

Also in respect to your example, if there were two Kurds one from Kurdish enclaves of Central Anatolia and another belonged to Khorasani Kurdistan and they were fluent in their mother tongues, they could easily communicate since their homesteads are Kurmancî speaking areas.


@ Mamma Mia

“They use Turkish!

Couple of months ago Kurdistan Autonomous Region officials came from Northern
Iraq to visit pro-Kurdic DTP party members in Turkey. They spoke Sorani, and DTP
people spoke Kirmanci and of course nobody understood each other. Later on, one
Kurdish official from Northern Iraq who knows Turkish translated from Kurdish
(Sorani) to Kurdish (Kirmanci), so they can communicate with their Kurdish
brothers and sisters.”

After this, therefore becuz of this all Kurds use Turkish for communication. Maybe we are already communicate in Turkish here!! Mamma Mia the brainless stupid Gray-Worm fascist!!