Sorani
Sorani ', also called Central Kurdish''', is a dialect or a language of the Kurdish languages that is spoken in Iraq, mainly in Iraqi Kurdistan, as well as the Kurdistan Province, Kermanshah Province, and West Azerbaijan Province of western Iran. Sorani is one of the two official languages of Iraq, along with Arabic, and is in political documents simply referred to as "Kurdish".
The term Sorani, named after the former Soran Emirate, is used especially to refer to a written, standardized form of Central Kurdish written in the Sorani alphabet developed from the Arabic alphabet in the 1920s by Sa'ed Sidqi Kaban and Taufiq Wahbi.
History
Tracing back the historical changes that Sorani has gone through is difficult. No predecessors of Kurdish languages are yet known from Old and Middle Iranian times. The extant Kurdish texts may be traced back to no earlier than the 16th century CE.The current status of Sorani as a standardized written language can be traced back to late Ottoman era. In Sulaymaniyah, the Ottoman Empire had created a secondary school, the Rushdiye, graduates from which could go to Istanbul to continue to study there. This allowed Sorani, which was spoken in Silêmanî, to progressively replace Hawrami dialects as the literary vehicle for Kurdish.
Since the fall of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Iraq Region, there have been more opportunities to publish works in the Kurdish languages in Iraq than in any other country in recent times.
As a result, Sorani has become the dominant written form of Kurdish.
Writing system
Sorani is written with a modified Arabic alphabet. However, the other main Kurdish language, Kurmanji, which is spoken mainly in Turkey, is usually written in the Latin alphabet.In the Sorani writing system almost all vowels are always written as separate letters. This is in contrast to the original Arabic writing system and most other writing systems developed from it, in which certain vowels are shown by diacritics above and under the letters, and usually omitted.
The other major point of departure of the Sorani writing system from other Arabic-based systems is that the Arabic letters that represent sounds that are non-existent in Sorani are usually replaced by letters that better represent their Kurdish pronunciation. The Arabic loanword طلاق, for example, is usually written as تهلاق in Sorani, replacing the character for the pharyngealized sound /tˤ/ with the character for /t/. Sorani also uses the four letters "گ", "چ", "پ", and "ژ" which are used in the Persian alphabet but are absent in the original Arabic character inventory.
The Sorani writing system does not used the Tashdeed diacritic found in the original Arabic writing system. Instead, in the few cases where double consonants are found, the consonant is simply written twice, as in شاڵڵا.
Demographics
The exact number of Sorani speakers is difficult to determine, but it is generally thought that Sorani is spoken by about 9 to 10 million people in Iraq and Iran.It is the most widespread speech of Kurds in Iran and Iraq. In particular, it is spoken by:
- Around 5 million Kurds in Iranian Kurdistan. Located south of Lake Urmia that stretches roughly to the outside of Kermanshah.
- Around 5 million Kurds in Iraqi Kurdistan. Most of the Kurds who use it are found in the vicinity of Hewlêr, Sulaymaniyah, Kirkuk and Diyala Governorate.
Subdialects
- Hawleri, spoken in and around the city of Hawler in Iraqi Kurdistan, in Hawler Governorate and Oshnavieh in iran. Its main distinction is changing the consonant /ll/ into /r/ or /l/ in many words, and like Kurmanji it changes /û/ to /î/ in words that end with /û/. It is the most common central Kurdish dialect. It is spoken by 2,000,000 Kurds.
- Mokryani; The language spoken south of Lake Urmia with Mahabad as its center, including the cities of Sardasht, Boukan, Oshnavieh, Piranshahr and the Kurdish speaking more of miandoab and Naghadeh. This region is traditionally known as Mokryan.
- Babani, spoken in Sulaymaniyah and around this city of in Iraq and the city of Baneh, in Iran. This region is known as Baban.
- Garmiani, in Kirkuk and around this city. This region is known as Garmian.
- Ardalani, spoken in the cities of Sanandaj, Saqqez, Marivan, Kamyaran, Divandarreh and Dehgolan in Kordestan province and the Kurdish speaking mores of Tekab and Shahindej in West Azerbaijan province. This region is known as Ardalan.
- Jafi, spoken in the towns of Javanroud, Ravansar, Salase Babajani and some villages around Paveh, Sarpole Zahab and the parts of Kermanshah City.
- Gerrusi, spoken in the town of Bijar. This region is known as Gerrus.
Media and education
Some Kurdish media in Iraq seem to be aiming for constructing a cross-border Kurdish identity. The Kurdish-language satellite channel Kurdistan TV, owned by the Kurdistan Democratic Party, for example, employs techniques that expose audiences to more than one Kurdish variety in the same show or program. It has been suggested that continuous exposure to different Kurdish varieties on KTV and other satellite television stations might make Kurdish varieties increasingly mutually intelligible.
A recent proposal was made for Sorani to be the official language of the Kurdistan Regional Government. This idea has been favoured by some Central Kurdish-speakers but has disappointed Northern Kurdish speakers.
In Iran, state-sponsored regional TV stations air programs in both Kurdish and Persian. Kurdish press are legally allowed in Iran, but there have been many reports of a policy of banning Kurdish newspapers and arresting Kurdish activists.
Phonology
Sorani has 9 phonemic vowels and 26 to 28 phonemic consonants.Vowels
The following table contains the vowels of Sorani. Vowels in parentheses are not phonemic, but have been included in the table below because of their ubiquity in the language. Letters in the Sorani alphabet take various forms depending on where they occur in the word. Forms given below are letters in isolation.| IPA | Sorani Alphabet | Romanization | Example Word | Example Word |
| i | ى | î | hiʧ = "nothing" | "beet" |
| ɪ | - | i | gɪr'tɪn = "to take, to hold" | "bit" |
| e | ێ | e, ê | hez = "power" | "bait" |
| ه | e | bɛjɑni = "morning" | "bet" | |
| ا ه | "but" | |||
| æ | ه | â | tænæ'kæ = "tin can" | "bat" |
| u | وو | û | gur = "calf" | "boot" |
| ʊ | و | u | gʊɾg = "wolf" | "book" |
| o | ۆ | o | gor = "level" | "boat" |
| ɑ | ا | a | gɑ = "cow" | "balm" |
Consonants
Letters in the Sorani alphabet take various forms depending on where they occur in the word. Forms given below are letters in isolation.| IPA | Sorani Alphabet | Romanization | Example Word | Example Word | Notes |
| b | ب | b | بووڵ bûł | b in "bat" | |
| p | پ | p | پیاو pyâw | p in "pat" | |
| t | ت | t | تهمهن taman | t in "tab" | |
| d | د | d | دهرگا dargâ | d in "dab" | |
| k | ک | k | کهر kar | c in "cot" | |
| g | گ | g | گهوره gawra | g in "got" | |
| q | ق | q | قووڵ qûł | Like Eng. k but further back in the throat | |
| ʔ | ا | ' | ئاماده âmâda | middle sound in "uh-oh" | |
| f | ف | f | فنجان finjân | f in "fox" | |
| v | ڤ | v | گهڤزان gavzân | v in "voice" | |
| s | س | s | سوور sûr | s in "sing" | |
| z | ز | z | زۆر zor | z in "zipper" | |
| x | خ | kh | خهزر khazr | Like the ch in German "Bach" | |
| ʕ | ع | ` | عراق ‘irâq | Pharyngeal fricative | This sound is only present in Arabic borrowed words, it's non existent in Kurdish words |
| ɣ | غ | gh | پێغهمهر peghamar | Like the sound above, but voiced | Mostly in borrowed words, usually pronounced |
| ʃ | ش | sh | شار shâr | sh in "shoe" | |
| ʒ | ژ | zh | ژوور zhûr | ge in "beige" | |
| ʧ | چ | ch | چاک châk | ch in "cheap" | |
| ʤ | ج | j | جوان jwân | j in "jump" | |
| ħ | ح | ḥ | حزب ḥizb | More guttural than the English h | Presence of this is regional |
| h | ھ | h | ههز haz | h in "hat" | |
| m | م | m | مامر mâmir | m in "mop" | |
| n | ن | n | نامه nâma | n in "none" | |
| w | و | w | ولات wiłât | w in "water" | |
| j | ى | y | یانه yâna | y in "yellow" | |
| ɾ | ر | r | رۆژ rozh | t in Am. Eng. "water" | |
| r | ڕ | ř, rr | ئهمڕۆ amřo | Like Spanish trilled r | |
| l | ل | l | لهت lat | l in "let" | |
| ɫ | ڵ | ł | باڵ bâł | l in "all" |
As in certain other Western Iranian languages, the two pharyngeal consonants /ħ/ and /ʕ/ exist in most Iraqi dialects of Sorani. However, they are rare in the Iranian dialects of Central Kurdish.
An important allophonic variation concerns the two velar sounds /k/ and /g/. Similar to certain other languages of the region, these consonants are strongly palatalized before the close and mid front vowels in Central Kurdish.
Syllable
Sorani allows both complex onsets and complex codas. However, the two members of the clusters are arranged in such a way that, in all cases, the Sonority Sequencing Principle is preserved. In many loanwords, an epenthetic vowel is inserted to resyllabify the word, omitting syllables that have codas that violate SSP. Originally mono-syllabic words such as /hazm/ and /zabt/ therefore become /ha.zim/ and /za.bit/ respectively.Primary stress always falls on the last syllable in nouns, but in verbs its position differs depending on tense and aspect. Some have suggested the existence of an alternating pattern of secondary stress in syllables in Sorani words.
Grammar
Word order
The standard word order in Sorani is SOV.Nouns
Nouns in Sorani may appear in three general forms. The Absolute State, Indefinite State, and Definite State.Absolute State
A noun in the absolute state occurs without any suffix, as it would occur in a vocabulary list or dictionary entry. Absolute state nouns receive a generic interpretation, as in "qâwa rash a." and "wafr spî a.".Indefinite State
nouns receive an interpretation like English nouns preceded by a, an, some, or any.Several modifiers may only modify nouns in the indefinite state. This list of modifiers includes:
- chand "a few"
- hamu "every"
- chî "what"
- har "each"
- ... i zor "many"
| Singular | Plural | |
| Noun Ending with a Vowel | -yek | -yân |
| Noun Ending with a Consonant | -ek | -ân |
A few examples are given below showing how nouns are made indefinite:
- پیاو pyâw 'man' > پیاوێک pyâwèk 'a man'
- نامه nâma 'letter' > نامهیهک nâmayèk 'a letter'
- پیاو pyâw 'man' > پیاوان pyâwân ' men'
- دهرگا dargâ 'door' > دهرگایان dargâyân ' doors'
Definite State
Nouns in the definite state take the following endings:
| Singular | Plural | |
| Noun Ending with a Vowel | -ka | -kân |
| Noun Ending with a Consonant | -aka | -akân |
When a noun stem ending with is combined with the definite state suffix the result is pronounced
Verbs
Like many other Iranian languages, verbs have a present stem and a past stem in Sorani. The present simple tense, for example, is composed of the aspect marker "da" followed by the present stem followed by a suffixed personal ending. This is shown in the example below with the verb نووسین / nûsîn, the present stem of which is نووس / nûs.| Verb | Meaning |
| دهنووسم danûsim | I write |
| دهنووسی danûsî | You write |
| دهنووسێ danûse | She/He/It writes |
| دهنووسین danûsîn | We write |
| دهنووسن danûsin | You write |
| دهنووسن danûsin | They write |
Note that the personal endings are identical for the second person plural and third person plural.
Similarly, the simple past verb is created using the past stem of the verb. The following example shows the conjugation of the intransitive verb هاتن hâtin in the simple past tense. The past stem of "hâtin" is "hât".
| Verb | Meaning |
| هاتم hâtim | I came |
| هاتی hâtî | You came |
| هات hât | She/He/It came |
| هاتین hâtîn | We came |
| هاتن hâtin | You came |
| هاتن hâtin | They came |
Sorani is claimed by some to have split ergativity, with an ergative-absolutive arrangement in the past tense for transitive verbs. Others, however, have cast doubt on this claim, noting that the Sorani Kurdish past may be different in important ways from a typical ergative-absolutive arrangement. In any case, the transitive past tense in Sorani is special in that the agent affix looks like the possessive pronouns and usually precedes the verb stem. In the following example, the transitive verb نووسین / nûsîn is conjugated in the past tense, with the object "nâma". The past stem of the verb is "nûsî".
| Verb | Meaning |
| نامهم نووسی nâma-m nûsi | I wrote a letter. |
| نامهت نووسی nâma-t nûsi | You wrote a letter. |
| نامهی نووسی nâma-y nûsi | She/He/It wrote a letter. |
| نامهمان نووسی nâma-mân nûsi | We wrote a letter. |
| نامهتان نووسی nâma-tân nûsi | You wrote a letter. |
| نامهیان نووسی nâma-yân nûsi | They wrote a letter. |
Note in the example above that the clitics attaching to the objects are otherwise interpreted as possessive pronouns. The combination "nâma-m" therefore is translated as "my letter" in isolation, "nâma-t" as "your letter", and so on.
The agent affix is a clitic that must attach to a preceding word/morpheme. If the verb phrase has words other than the verb itself, it attaches to first word in the verb phrase. If no such pre-verbal matter exists, it attaches to the first morpheme of the verb. In the progressive past, for example, where the aspect marker "da" precedes the verb stem, the clitic attaches to "da". This is shown in the examples below with the verb "xwârdin".
- da-m xwârd
- da-t xwârd
Gender
Dictionaries and translations
There are a substantial number of Sorani dictionaries available, amongst which there are many that seek to be bilingual.English and Sorani
- English–Kurdish Dictionary by Dr. Selma Abdullah and Dr. Khurhseed Alam
- Raman English-Kurdish Dictionary by Destey Ferheng