Spreading of the Kurdish Language Dialects and Writing Systems Used in the Middle East

摘要

The Kurdish language belongs to the Indo-Iranian linguistic group, which in turn is a part of the Indo-European linguistic family. Living for centuries in a vast area of the Middle East, where harsh physical-geographic and political environment prevailed, was one of the main causes of division of the Kurdish pra-language into several distinct dialects. These dialects continued to subdivide, which resulted in the appearance of distinguished subdialects. Besides the three main dialect groups (Northern or Kurmanji; Central or Sorani and Southern Kurdish), there are two more languages or dialects - Zaza (Zazaki) and Gorani. They are used in the remotest parts of the Kurdish ethnic region and a number of western and Kurdish specialists even consider them as not related to the Kurdish language. However, the speakers of Zaza and Gorani consider themselves Kurdish. Three dialects developed their own literature and two of them - Kurmanji and Sorani - are competing for superiority. This competition became even more complicated as both of them use different writing systems. Besides, the competition does not occur between the groups living in different states, but in the Kurdish area with quasi-statehood, the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, which was achieved for the first time in the newest history. Such a competition complicates the consolidation of the largest minority in the Middle East.