SOME USEFUL PHRASES IN KURMANJI FIVE REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD KURMANJI Silav. Navê min Bawer e. LEARN MORE ABOUT KURDS [sɨˈlav. ˈnave mɨn baˈwæɾɛ] AND THEIR LANGUAGE /sih-LAHV. NAHV-ey mihn bah-WEHR eh./ Hi. My name is Bawer. 1. Kurmanji is the most widely-spoken Kurdish language, with approximately Navê te çi ye? 15 million speakers worldwide. The [ˈnave tæ ˈtʃijɛ] largest population of Kurmanji speakers /NAHV-ey teh CHEE yeh?/ can be found in eastern and southeastern What is your name? Turkey, a land often referred to by Kurdish nationalists as Northern Kurdistan. Çawan î? / Çawan in? (sing./plur.) 2. A member of the Indo-Iranian branch of the [tʃaˈwani] or [tʃaˈwanɨn] Indo-European language family, Kurmanji /chah-WAHN ee?/ or /chah-WAHN in?/ shares many structural features with other How are you? Indo-Iranian languages, such as verb-final word order and split ergativity. Ez ji te hez dikim. [æz ʒɨ tæ ħæz dɨˈkɨm] 3. Kurmanji uses a modified version of the /azz zhih teh HAZZ dih-kim/ Latin script, like English, so you don’t have I love you. to learn a new writing system (or download a new font system!) in order to read and Pûşîya te pir xweş e! write (or type) in Kurmanji. [puˈʃija tæ pɨr ˈxʷæʃæ] 4. Kurds have had strained relationships with /poo-SHEE-yah teh pirr KHWASH eh/ the various states that have ruled over them Your houndstooth scarf is really nice! for the past millennium and a half. Avdestxane li kû derê ye? 5. Kurds have a rich history, oral literature, [avdæstˈxanæ lɨ kʰu ˈdæɾejɛ] and culture, all of which are woefully understudied, and Kurds are enthusiastic /ahv-dast-KHAH-neh lih KOO DEH-rey yeh/ about sharing their histry and culture with Where is the restroom? others! Gelek spas! ABOUT US [ˈgɛlæk spas] The Center for Languages of the Central Asian Region /geh-LEHK spahss/ (CeLCAR) at Indiana University develops materials for learning and teaching a wide variety of Central Asian Thanks very much! languages. For more information, go to celcar.indiana.edu. Bi xatirê te. / Bi xatirê we. (sing./plur.) [bɨ xaˈtɨɾe tæ] or [bɨ xaˈtɨɾe wæ] 238 Eigenmann Hall, 1900 East 10th Street, /bih khah-TIHR-ey teh/ or /bih khah-TIHR-ey weh/ Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47406 Good-bye. Phone: (812) 856-1230 E-mail : [email protected] Center for Languages of the Special thanks goes to Nicholas Kontovas Website: https://celcar.indiana.edu for his contributions to this pamphlet. Central Asian Region (CeLCAR) WHO ARE THE KURDISH PEOPLE referred to as ‘Kurdish’ include Kermanshahi, Laki, Gorani, and Zazaki. No two of these are mutually WHAT IS KURDISH CULTURE LIKE? AND WHERE DO THEY LIVE? intelligible, but learning one will help to learn the Kurmanji (or Kurmancî, others. Kurmanji speakers have also referred to as Kurmanji itself is composed of a number of dialects historically had close Northern Kurdish) is which are mutually intelligible. Most of these dialects contacts with speakers the most widely spoken are named after the place in which they are spoken, of Aramaic, Armenian, Kurdish language and though the dialects of certain tribes or religious sects Arabic, Persian, and more the mother tongue have their own special names, e.g. Shikakî. Written recently Turkish. Their of about 80% of all Kurmanji is based on the Botanî dialect, spoken in culture shares aspects people who identify as and around the modern Turkish city of Hakkâri. This with all of these, but is Kurds. Most Kurmanji was an important center of Kurdish culture during especially close to those speakers live in eastern and southeastern Turkey, Ottoman times, and was the site of the composition of other Iranian speaking a land often referred to by Kurdish nationalists as of the first major works of Kurmanji literature, such groups. Northern Kurdistan. However, there are also large as the Kurdish epic love story Mem and Zîn by the Most Kurmanji speakers populations of Kurdish speakers who have migrated 17th century Kurdish intellectual Ehmedê Xanî. now practice Sunni Islam, though there are sizable to cities in western Turkey; Istanbul now boasts Kurmanji shares a number Alevi, Christian, and Jewish minorities. There are the largest Kurdish population of any city in the also some Kurmanji speakers who profess the Yezîdî world. Overall, there are approximately 10 million of features with the majority of other Iranian languages, faith, a syncretic religion particular to Kurds. Because native speakers of Kurmanji throughout the Turkish of centuries of persecution, its practitioners tend Republic. Outside of Turkey, there are about 5 such as Subject-Object- Verb word order, and the to be very secretive; however, according to the few million more Kurmanji speakers, bringing the total existing accounts, it centers on the worship of angels number of speakers worldwide to about 15 million. use of both prepositions and postpositions -- and resembles many of the other religions -- old and sometimes in conjunction new -- which have passed through Kurdistan. WHAT KIND OF LANGUAGE IS KURMANJI? with one another on Throughout history, Kurds have played a crucial the same word. (These Kurmanji is part of the Northwest sub-branch of role in the formation of various Armenian, combinations are referred to Byzantine, Persian, and Turkish states and empires. the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian group of as ‘circumpositions’.) Kurmanji shares with Sorani an the Indo-European language family, though it has Kurds commemorate their history with a rich oral archaic system of split ergativity, in which the cases storytelling tradition. Through the most popular undergone considerable mixing with Southwest of subjects and objects of transitive verbs are reversed Iranian as well. The terms ‘Kurd’ and ‘Kurdish’ style of epic recitation -- called dengbêj -- Kurds in the past tenses. However, unlike Sorani, Kurmanji have passed down the stories of their ancestors, like have been used by a number of groups throughout also preserves a robust system of grammatical gender. history. In general, they can refer to any of a number the Kurdish hero Saladin who founded the great of groups indigenous to the area of Eastern Anatolia Ayyubid dynasty. and Mesopotamia who speak Northwest Iranian WHAT ALPHABET DO THE KURDS USE? Kurds espouse a strong sense of community, languages, though not all such groups expressed in their communal celebration of use these terms to Standard Kurmanji is written in the Latin script important traditional and religious festivals. Among refer to themselves. in Turkey and in most of the Kurdish diaspora, the most important Not all languages however there are also standard Cyrillic and aspects of Kurdish spoken by Kurds are Arabic alphabets for Kurmanji used in the former celebratory culture is mutually intelligible. Soviet states and the Middle East, respectively. the gowende -- a large All these standard alphabets were first codified dance performed The major language and popularized by the Kurdish aristocrat and closest to Kurmanji in a circle, usually intellectual Celalet Bedirxan in the early half of the led by an important is Sorani (the official 20th century. However, there has been no standard language of Northern member of the conformity because the Kurds have never had a community. Iraq), but other nation state of their own. languages sometimes .