What is the language of the Kurds. The meaning of the Kurdish language in the encyclopedia of literature

The origin of the Kurdish people is still controversial among scientists, and besides this, it is also highly politicized. The fact is that this people, despite its size, cultural identity and ancient origin, still does not have its own statehood, but the Kurds themselves often call their places of compact residence Kurdistan, which, in their opinion, includes separate territories of Turkey, Syria and Iraq.

Ethnogenesis and Kurdish languages

Despite the numerous hypotheses about the origin of the people, the most reliable for many scientists is the one according to which the people are a descendant of the warlike tribe of the Kurtians, who once lived in the Armenian Highlands and in Atropatene of the Medes.

Clarification of the question of the origin of the Kurds is further complicated by the fact that in Persian literature any Iranian-speaking tribe that lived on the territory of the empire could be called Kurds.

It is believed that the Kurds are an alien people and originate from the Scythians and Sarmatians. In any case, this people, apparently, always represented a rather variegated set of tribes, each of which was named in accordance with the territory of its residence, and often had its own language.

Iranian languages

All the languages \u200b\u200bspoken by the Kurds belong to the northwestern Iranian languages, which in turn are included in the Indo-European language family. The variety of Kurdish languages \u200b\u200bis great and understanding between some of them no longer exists, despite their common origin and a large number of identical roots.

Any Kurdish language has numerous borrowings from the dominant language of the country in which the community lives. And since the Kurds have lived in Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran for a long time, borrowings from these languages \u200b\u200bare very significant, and the process of creating cripples from foreign words continues to this day.

The Kurds never had their own script and used the Arabic alphabet for a long time until the Turkish authorities translated them into Latin in the 20th century. In the same time latin language was adapted for the Soviet Kurds, who lived compactly on the territory of Armenia and Azerbaijan.

However, in 1946, the USSR changed their minds and translated the Kurmanji language into the Cyrillic alphabet, this was probably due to the nationalist turn and coincided with the deprivation of the autonomy of the North Caucasian peoples.

Evolution of languages

The most common, both geographically and in terms of the number of speakers, among Kurds is Kurmanji. This language is found in the southeast and east of Turkey, in the north of Syria and in the northwest of Iran.

But, despite its wide distribution and a long history of its study relative to other Kurdish languages, the evolution of Kurmanji does not seem obvious to scientists.

Today, Kurds-speakers of southern languages \u200b\u200bare deprived of the opportunity to understand their northern counterparts, since the lexical languages \u200b\u200bare too different, in addition, there are significant differences in the morphology of words, as well as in pronunciation.

Some scholars claim that the differences between Kurmanji and Sorani, another very common Kurdish language, are similar to those observed between English and German. However, this statement, while quite colorful, is not entirely true.

Such significant differences in the development of languages \u200b\u200bare associated, not least, with political reasons. After all, not having their own state, the Kurds cannot contribute to the development of their languages \u200b\u200band in any way control this development.

Southern languages

In the Russian-language scientific literature, the South Kurdish language does not have an established name, but the name pehlewani is common in Western historiography. This language is native to three million people, mainly living in the northwest of the Islamic Republic of Iran and in the east of Iraq.

In general, it should be said that various Kurdish tribes living in various provinces tend to name their languages \u200b\u200baccording to their area of \u200b\u200bresidence, and the word Kurmanji denote their ethnicity.

Returning to the Pahlavani language, it should be said that he experienced a very strong influence of the Persian language. This also applies to grammar and, of course, vocabularyas well as pronunciation.

Like other Iranian languages, Pahlavani is quite old and has a history of up to three thousand years. In this regard, it is difficult to trace the history of its development in full, since it experienced the most different influences, because the region of its distribution has a very rich political life.

Politics and language

Starting from the XlX century, the Kurds thoroughly took up the cause of national liberation and began to make attempts to create a national state, getting rid of Ottoman rule.

An opportunity, it would seem, presented itself after the First World War, when the Ottoman Empire weakened, and then completely collapsed. However, the small Kurdish states created on its fragments did not last long, and the chance was lost.

After that, the history of the Kurds of Turkey is a series of unsuccessful attempts achieve at least cultural autonomy... In the mid-eighties, the Kurdish supporters of independence decided to move to the active phase of the struggle for liberation and began an open armed confrontation, which, after twenty long years, ended in an armistice.

However, in 2016, the Kurdistan Workers' Party announced the end of the ceasefire and a wave of terrorist attacks swept across the country again, the victims of which were police and military.

Simultaneously with the military pressure on the Kurdish community, the Turkish authorities sought to limit the cultural realization of the Kurds in every possible way, prohibiting teaching in it in schools and universities.

Kurmanji in the USSR

The first Kurds were on the territory Russian Empire after her conquest of lands in the Caucasus. After that, immigrants from Iran began to appear on the territory of the empire and Ottoman Empirewho spoke different dialects of Kurmanji and Sorani.

However, after the collapse of the empire and the formation of the USSR, the authorities took control cultural sphere and the reform of the Kurdish language, which was first translated into Latin and then into Cyrillic.

In the USSR, newspapers were published in Kurmanji, research was carried out and dictionaries were compiled, which, however, were not of high quality. The Soviet Kurds moved further and further from their fellows in the west, and this process stopped only after the liquidation of the USSR.

KURDISH

(Kurmanji) - refers to the Iranian system, or (according to the still retained terminology of Indo-Europeanists) "family" language, namely - to its western branch. The latter is subdivided into northwestern and southwestern groups of languages, and Kurdish. belongs to the northwestern group, while Persian belongs to the southwestern group. However, the Iranian languages. and the adverbs are not yet sufficiently studied to be able to give their final classification, and within the western group there is a certain mixture and mutual penetration of the southern and northern elements. In addition, the Iranians in their works on the Iranian languages. and dialects are not sufficiently taken into account the possibility of preserving in them the experiences of the pre-Iranian ethnic layer. In particular, some phenomena of the articulatory, as well as morphological and syntactic order are in the Kurdish language. common not only with a number of other Iranian dialects and languages, but also with languages. Caucasus. The vocabulary has its own words that are not found in other Iranian dialects (negation - ??, t?, Preposition 'c' - digel, te? I - full, h? Tin - to come,? Nin - to bring, n? Rd - to send etc.); there are many Persian loanwords to which Kurdish phonetic laws do not apply. In dialects geographically bordering on the settlement of Turks, there are many Turkish words (in particular, participles in mi?). In Kurdish. many more words of the Arabic literary dictionary (through Turkish and Persian) were included; there are also Arabic folk forms and words of Armenian and Aramaic; it is possible that some Armenian and Kurdish words go back to Yaz. local pre-Iranian population. Kurdish dialects have not yet been sufficiently examined and studied, and the final subdivision

754 of them cannot yet be produced. A significant part of the materials of the researcher of the dialects of the Eastern and Persian groups - O. Manna - has not yet been published. A number of Kurdish dialects are collectively called "Kurmanji" and can be divided into two groups: eastern (more precisely, southeastern) and western. The boundary between the two has not yet been clarified. Then a group of Persian Kurdish dialects (Senne-Kermanshah region) should be distinguished, denoted either by the general name "Kurdi", or by the name of the locality (eg Zangana, Kalkhuri, Senna, Kermanshahi), as well as small groups scattered here and there in Persia. An attempt to classify Kurdish dialects was made by E. S. Soane in his "Grammar of the Kurmanji" (L., 1913). Bibliography: II. Justi, Kurdische Grammatik, St. Petersburg, 1880; Socin A., Die Sprache der Kurden, "Grundriss der iranischen Philologie", B. I, 2 Abt., S. 249-286 (both based on the materials of mainly western Kurmanji); Mann O., Die Mundart der Mukri Kurden, Grammatische Skizze, Kurdisch-Persische Forschungen, vol. I, 1906; Soane E. S., Notes on the Phonology of Southern Kurmanji, J. R. A. S., 1922, pp. 199-226. The only dictionary so far: Jaba A. - Justi F., Dictionnaire Kurde-fran? Ais, St. Petersburg, 1879. III. Minorsky W., Kurden, "Enzyclop? Die des Islam" (comprehensive bibliography). B. Miller

Literary encyclopedia. 2012

What is the language of the Kurds?

Kurdish languages \u200b\u200bbelong to the Iranian group. Descended from the Median, but in the Middle Ages were influenced by Arabic, Persian, and later, and At the moment, Kurdish is spoken by about 20 million people. But there are significant differences between them, as they speak different dialects and use different alphabets.

This is explained by the fact that Kurds live in territories belonging to different countries. In Iran, they are used in Turkey, Syria and Azerbaijan - and in Armenia - Armenian (until 1946) and Cyrillic (since 1946). The Kurdish language is divided into 4 dialects - Sorani, Kurmanji, Zazai (Dumili) and Gurani.

Where are Kurdish languages \u200b\u200bspoken?

The Kurdish language is most widely spread in Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Azerbaijan, Jordan and Armenia. 60% of Kurds live in Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq and Syria (Northwestern, Western, Southwestern and Central Kurdistan), speak and write in the Kurmanji dialect. About 30% of the Kurdish population live in western and southeastern Iran, eastern and southeastern Iraq (southern and southeastern Kurdistan) use the Sorani dialect. The rest of them use the Zazai (Dumili) and Gurani (South Kurdish) dialects.

Kurdish language: the basics

For those who want to quickly learn the Kurdish language, the Kurdish language for beginners is suitable, which includes the most basic phrases in Kurmanji, Sorani and South Kurdish.

Dem bashi / Silav / Silam - Hi.

Choni? / Tu bashi? / Hasid? - How are you?

Chakim / Bashim / Hasim - Excellent.

Supas / Sipas / Sipas - Thank you.

Weaving / Tika wild / That hwa - Please.

Hwa laid down / Mal ava / Binishte hvash - Goodbye.

Min tom hosh davet - I love you.

Is that minit hosh crushing? - Do you love me?

Vere bo ere / Vere - Come here / come.

Bo kwe erroy - Where are you going?

What is the deck? / What is the heriki cheat? - What are you doing?

Echim bo ser kar - I'm going to work.

Kei degerrieteve? / Kei deiteve? - When will you be back?

Herikim Demeve; ewe hatmeve / ez zivrim / le pisa tiemesh - I am returning.

Is Kari a wild Karek? - What do you work?

Min errom / min dev birrom - I'm going to ...

Min bashim / ez bashim - I'm fine.

Min bash nim / ez neye bashim / me hves niyim - I'm not all right / - I'm not in the mood.

Min is not good - I feel bad.

Chi ye / eve chiye / eve sanchez? - What is it?

Heech / Chine / Huch - Nothing.

Birit ekem / min birya te kriye / hurit kirdime - I miss you.

Deiteve; Deereiteve / Tu Ye Bi Zirvi / Tiyedev; gerredev? - Will you come back?

Nayemeve; nagerremeve / ez na zivrim / nyetiyemev; nyegerremev - I will not return.

When communicating in an unfamiliar language, do not forget about sign language, which is practically the same in this world, with the exception of some. They can be clarified before traveling to a country where communication with Kurds is to be expected.

Navi min ... uh - My name is ...

Yek / du / se / chuvar / pench / shesh / heft / hasht / no / de / yazde / dvazde / sezde / charde / panzde / shanzde / hevde / hejde / nozde / bist - one / two / three / four / five / six / seven / eight / nine / ten / eleven / twelve / thirteen / fourteen / fifteen / sixteen / seventeen / eighteen / nineteen / twenty.

Duchemme / duchemb / ducheme - Monday.

Sheshemme / sheshemb / shesheme - Tuesday.

Chuvarshemme / charshemb / chvarsheme - Wednesday.

Penschemme / penschem / penscheme - Thursday.

Jumha / Heini / Jume - Friday.

Shemme / Shemi / Sheme - Saturday.

Yeksheme / Ekshembi / Yeksheme - Sunday.

Zistan / Zivistan / Zimsan - Winter.

Behar / Bihar / Vekhar - Spring.

Khavin / Khavin / Tavsan - Summer.

Payez / Payiz / Payikh - Autumn.

Resources for learning Kurdish

The best way to learn Kurdish languages \u200b\u200bis through constant practice, and the best kind of practice is.It can be either a teacher or ordinary peoplefor whom Kurdish is native.

You can find such people in groups in social networksdedicated to the Kurdish language and culture. Usually there you can find video tutorials for beginners, a dictionary and a phrasebook, look at pictures with inscriptions in Kurdish, read verses in the original and, if something is not clear, ask native speakers.

If you want to get to know the Kurdish culture better, you can also find groups dedicated to Kurdish music and cuisine.

If it is not possible to communicate with a native speaker, then you can find courses for self-study of the Kurdish language.

Along with Assyrians, Armenians, partly Turks and Jews, the Kurds are the descendants of peoples belonging to the Hurrian-Urartian (Alarodian) language group. Historically, Kurdistan was part of the states of Assyria, Urartu, Mitanni, Manney. In 850 BC. e. Hurrian dialects were finally superseded by Iranian (in particular, Median). The influence of Hurrian dialects can be traced in the ergative structure of sentences in the modern Kurdish language and in Kurdish place names.

In the VI-V centuries BC. e. the Achaemenid dynasty seized the territory of the Upper Mesopotamia and established power over the peoples living there. For several centuries of the dominance of Iranian culture, the local population adopted the Iranian religion (Zoroastrianism) and the Median language. At the beginning of the 1st millennium A.D. e. Kurdistan was part of the Sassanid Empire, in the IV-V centuries AD. e. its territory was captured by Byzantium, in the 6th century it passed into the possession of the Arabs. At this time, the northwestern Iranian languages \u200b\u200bbegan to develop, later spreading to the southeast of Iran. In the 7th century, the Arab state disintegrated, and Kurdistan passed to the Baghdad Caliphate, in the 11th century this territory was captured by Iran, and then by the Mongols. Since the 10th century, Kurdish communities have spread in the Transcaucasus and Iran. In the XIII century, Kurdistan became part of the Seljuk Empire. Close contacts of the Kurds with the Turks took place in Asia Minor and in the Caspian, as a result of which some of the Kurdish clans became Turkicized, and some tribes of the Turks went over to the Kurdish clans.

In the 16th century, Safavid Iran and the Ottoman Empire launched a struggle for Kurdish territory. In 1639, the Zohab Peace was concluded, according to which the north of Kurdistan was ceded to the Ottoman Empire, and the south to Iran. At the end of the 19th century, Kurdistan was divided among themselves by Syria, Turkey, Iran and Iraq. At that time, for the first time, the concept of "Kurd" (from Persian Gurdjistan - Country of Wolves) was heard, which was used in the Middle East to designate tribes that spoke northwestern Iranian languages, originating from the Median. According to another version, "kur-manj" can be translated as "son of Media".

From 1923 to 1929, the Kurdish ASSR existed as part of the Azerbaijan SSR. In 1942, several thousand Kurds, along with the Meskhetians, were resettled to Central Asia, from where they returned only ten years later, settling in Azerbaijan and Armenia, but many migrated to Turkey and Iran. In 1946, the Kurdish republic of Mahabad was created in Iran, which did not last very long. In 1979, on the territory of Turkey, under the leadership of the Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan, the Kurdish Workers' Party was formed, advocating for the rights of the people. Since 1985, the “Kurdish Parliament in Exile” has been operating in Brussels.

Additional information about the Kurdish language:

On cultural and linguistic grounds, the Kurdish peoples can be divided into Kurds, Zaza-Goran, Lurs, Zoroastrians and Kurdish Jews. The Kurds themselves speak three dialects: literary Kurmanji, Sorani and transitional. According to the classification of the English Kurdish scholar D.N.Mackenzie, Kurmanji is a northern dialect, Kurdi is central, Sorani is southern. The Kurmanji and Sorani dialects are two literary forms of the Kurdish language, grammatically identical, but phonetically and lexically different. Kurdish dialects are characterized by an ergative structure, word order such as SOV ( Subject - Object - Verb), a developed system of prepositions and postpositions.

Kurmanji. The number of people speaking this dialect is 8 million people, of which 3.9 million live in Turkey, 938 thousand - in Syria, 200 thousand - in Iran, 58 thousand - in Armenia, 20 thousand - in Azerbaijan. This dialect has undergone strong Armenian (phonetically) and Turkish (lexically) influences, but it is generally quite archaic. Its literary form had developed by the 14th century.

Sorani and Kurdis. These dialects are spoken by 6 million people: 3.25 million in Iran; 2.79 million in Iraq. They live separately in Iraq and Iran. They use Arabic script, and the vocabulary has a significant Arabic influence. The literary form of dialects emerged in the 18th century.

Individual Kurdish languages \u200b\u200binclude the following tribal dialects: Mukri, Surchi, Herki and Shekkaki. Surchi, herki and shekkaki are similar to Kurmanji, but more conservative. Mukri is often associated with Sorani. In Europe, the Kurdish language began to be studied after the publication in Rome in 1787 of the first grammar of the Kurdish language M. Garzoni. It contained basic data on parts of speech as well as a 200-page Italian-Kurdish dictionary. At the beginning of the 20th century, interest in the Kurdish language increased. From 1913 to 1926, several more works on grammar were published with fairly extensive glossaries (mainly in the Kurmanji dialect). Among the authors of these works were E. Soun, R. Jardine, P. Beidar, Ali Badirkhan Kamuran, I.I. Zuckerman and Ch.Kh. Bakaev.

According to one of the famous Zaza linguists Seidkhan Kuriz, the creation of a standardized literary form of the Kurdish language is a complex and time-consuming process. Attention must be paid to the standardization and development of all Kurdish dialects. In order to create a common terminological base, researchers of the Kurdish language are trying to reduce the differences between the dialects of Kurmanji and Zaza, as well as to introduce common terms.

It should also be noted that Kurdish has been recognized as one of the languages \u200b\u200bof the international education system. The American service of educational tests assigned the corresponding code to the Kurdish language, now it is numbered 342 among the languages \u200b\u200bof the world. According to the head of the English Department of the University of Sulaymaniyah Mustafa Abbas, the assignment of this code confirms the fact that the Kurdish language is recognized in the world scientific community.

Sources:

http://randevu-zip.narod.ru/caucase/kurd.htm
http://www.kurdist.ru/index.php?option\u003dcom_content&task\u003dview&id\u003d285
http://www.kurdist.ru/index.php?option\u003dcom_content&task\u003dview&id\u003d323

33 Classification () : Western Iranian subgroup : , Language codes : chickens 350 : ku : kur : kur; ckb, kmr, sdh See also:

Kurdish (كوردی, Kurdî) - the language of the Kurds, one of the representatives of the Western Iranian subgroup. Distributed in the region informally called.

History

Linguistic characteristics

Writing

Ah	B b	In in	G g	G "g"	D d	Her	Ә ә
Ә́ ә́	F f	Z z	And and	Th y	K k	K "k"	L l
M m	N n	Oh oh	Ö ö	N n	P "p"	P p	P "p"
With	T t	T "t"	U u	F f	X x	Һ һ	Һ" һ"
H h	H "h"	W w	U u	B b	Uh uh	Q q	W w

IN recent times former Soviet Kurds have almost completely switched to the Latin alphabet. The question of the transition to the Latin alphabet is also constantly raised in, including at the government level; however, in reality, steps in this direction are being made very slowly.

Phonological information

Vocalism is represented by the following phonemes:

	short	short	short
	front	central	back
close
mid
open

Syllable

Morphological type of language

Composition and nature of morphological categories

The main ways of word formation

Kurdish is one of the languages \u200b\u200bwith a system.

Sentence structure

Genetic and areal characteristics of vocabulary

Dialect information

Kurdish is divided into several major dialects, one of which is the Kurmanji dialect, spoken by the Kurds of the former Soviet Union... The main area of \u200b\u200bits distribution is the Turkish, Iranian and Syrian parts of Kurdistan. The vast majority of Kurds in these regions call themselves "Kurmanji", while clearly recognizing themselves as ethnic Kurds. Famous Kurdish historians Sharaf Khan Bidlisi (2-82), Mah Sharaf-Khanum Kurdistani (3-47) and Khusraw ibn Muhammad Bani Ardelan (4-100) divide the Kurds into four groups ( taife), "Whose language and customs differ": in "Kurmanji", "Lur", "Kalkhor" (Mah Sharaf-Khanum and Khusrav ibn Muhammad call "Bani Ardelan" instead of "Kalkhor", meaning by the latter all the Ardelan Kurds) and " guran "(" gorany "). The Ardelani Kurds called their immediate neighbors, the Baban Kurds, "Kurmanj" or "Kurmanji", and they called themselves Kurds. In scientific literature, the dialect spoken by the Baban Kurds is called Sorani (Sorani), in contrast to Kurmanji, the language of the Kurds of North-West Kurdistan (3-194). Despite the fact that the Sorani dialect is included in the southern Kurdish dialect group, the Babans continue to call themselves "Kurmanji", and this arouses the special curiosity of scholars - and.

In Kurdish history, there are cases when speakers of one Kurdish dialect switched to another. At the beginning of the century, in the Leylah (or Eilak) district of Senenjen Kurdistan, where the former population was exclusively Goran, the Gorghe, Sheikh-Ismaili, Baylavand and Jaf tribes settled - speakers of the Kurmanji dialect, which replaced the Gorani (3-195). We observe the same intra-Kurdish dialect assimilation process in the case when in the region of Biwanij, located in the middle of the Zagros Mountains near Zohab, the old Biwanij Kurdish dialect, which was observed in the mid-fifties of our century by the famous Kurdish philologist from Iran, Dr.Muhammad Mukri, came Sorani dialect (5-153).

The Kurds of the Mukri tribe also call themselves "Kurmanji", although their spoken dialect is Sorani and belongs to the South Kurdish dialects. In written sources we find one more meaning - in addition to the dialect and self-designation of the Kurds - the word "Kurmanji". The Kurdish historian-ethnographer Mela Mahmud Bayazidi understood the word “Kurmanji” only as sedentary Kurds, as an alternative to the ethnonym “Kurd” in the meaning of “nomad” (6-80). In contrast to this, the remarkable Russian scientist T.F. Aristova in the word "Kurmanji", in addition to "reflecting the self-name of the Kurds" and the name of one of the Kurdish dialects, also saw a third meaning - "Kurdish nomadic population" (7-12).

Thus, we observe an interesting fact when tribes speaking the Sorani dialect (Babans, Mukri, etc.) call themselves Kurmanji, using as a self-name the word denoting the North Kurdish dialect (27), and emphasize at the same time that they belong to Kurdish ethnic group. The word “Kurmanji” also means either “settled” or “nomadic” Kurdish population. The fact of the absence of a clearly defined meaning of the word "kurmanji" is evident. So what is the true meaning of this word? What is behind it? We will try to answer this question.

In fairness, it should be noted that the Armenian scientist Gr. Was very close to solving the meaning of this word. Kapantsyan. Referring to the Hittite Code of Law, dating back to the XIV century BC, which reported on the Manda and Sila tribes exempted from the special duty lurii (ahhan), the scholar wrote: “In connection with the topic of the mandahs, I would like to scientifically raise the question here and about the ethnic name "Kurmanj", as most of the Kurds call themselves. I regard this kurmanj as a complex word kurmanj, and I take the first part for kur, and I deduce the second part from the name mаnda, this ancient warlike people spread in different places, or , more precisely, tribes, although there is still a Kurdish tribe mаndaka without changing "d" in "j" ("dz"). Here the concept of "son" becomes, as it were, a formal word for belonging to a tribe, like the suffix "ak" ... Formation of the Kurdish national name undoubtedly based on this ancient ideology ... It would be less successful to deduce Kurmanj from the addition of "Kurd" and "Manj", that is, to understand as "Kurds (from the tribe) manj" (that is, Manda). In both cases, there is big influence in the ancient times of the manda tribes. I leave the question of the similarity of the name manda with the Matiena and Madame (\u003d Medes), as discussed by many scholars (8-140).

G. Kapantsyan, having perspicaciously connected the words “manda” with the Kurds, a little earlier on the pages of his work, speaking about the tribes of manda and sala, he seeks to see their reflection in the princely families mandakuni and salkuni from ancient Armenian sources, and explains the meaning of the words mandak as ets "and" sal-ets "(8-136).

We see the key to unraveling the meaning of the word "Kurmanji" in the following: at the dawn of mankind, when there was still no written language, primitive drawings played the role of a message. These drawings are considered the first step of humanity in creating all kinds, as it was the easiest way to transfer simple concepts... For example, the image of a human figurine meant "a man" if he had a picture in his hands or so - it meant "warrior", if there was an image of a gazelle, etc. - we already have a "hunter" in front of us. And if a warrior is depicted fighting some predatory and powerful beast or mythical creature, then we see the already famous hero