Kurdish writing systems

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Kurdish writing systems include various alphabets that are used by the Kurdish population in the various states to write their language (s) ( Kurmanji , Sorani , South Kurdish ).

There are currently three writing systems:

developed by Celadet Bedir Khan , Bedirxan font or after the magazine Hawar Hawar font called. It is used by Kurds in Turkey, Armenia and Syria ;
used by Kurds in Iraq and Iran;
  • Yekgirtu
recently developed alphabet that tries to unify both.

The Hawar alphabet

The alphabet of the Kurdish Kurmanji dialect consists of 31 letters:

A, B, C, Ç, D, E, Ê, F, G, H, I, Î, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, Ş, T, U, U V W X Y Z

a, b, c, ç, d, e, ê, f, g, h, i, î, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, ş, t, u, U V w x y z

In introducing this alphabet in his Hawar magazine , Celadet Ali Bedirxan suggested ḧ, ẍ and 'instead of forغ, ح and عto use, which he saw as "non-Kurdish". These three glyphs do not have the status of letters and are only used to represent these sounds if this is essential for understanding.

The Turkey recognizes this alphabet only since September 2013, as the use of not in the Turkish alphabet occurring letters Q , W , X was forbidden.

The Sorani alphabet

The Kurdish dialect Sorani is mainly written with a modified Persian alphabet (33 letters). Unlike the standard Arabic alphabet , which is an Abdschad , the Sorani is a real alphabet in which vowels are mandatory and make the writing easy to read. However, it is not a complete representation of Kurdish sounds, as it lacks the short / i /, and it does not differentiate between / w / and short / u / or between / y / and / î /. Nevertheless, it has the two pharyngals and a voiced velar fricative , which are used by Kurdish.

ى, ێ, ە, ﮪ, ﻭﻭ, ﻭ, ﯙ, ﻥ, ﻡ, ڵ, ﻝ, ﮒ, ﮎ, ﻕ, ڤ, ﻑ, ﻍ, ﻉ, ﺵ, ﺱ, ﮊ, ﺯ, ڕ, ﺭ, ﺩ, ﺥ, ﺡ, ﭺ, ﺝ, ﺕ, ﭖ, ﺏ, ﺍ

Kurds in Iraq and Iran mainly use this alphabet, although the Kurdish Latin alphabet is also in use.

The Kermaschani alphabet

The Kermaschani alphabet is an alphabet for southern Kurdish dialects of the Kermanshah region .

The phonetic assignment of the consonants largely corresponds to the Hawar alphabet and expands it with additional letters ł for [ɫ] ("dark" l), ň for [ŋ] and ř for a "rolled" r. These sounds are also written in other Kurdish dialects with the double letters ll, ng, and rr.

The assignment of the vowels differs from Kurmanji. A stands for [ɑ] (“dark” a), e for [a] (open a), i for [e] , î for [i] , u for [o] , û for [u] and ü for [y] . The letters ê and o are missing.

The Cyrillic alphabet

Another system for the few (Kurmanji-speaking) Kurds in the former Soviet Union uses a modified Cyrillic alphabet consisting of 32 letters:

А, Б, В, Г, Г ', Д, Е, Ә, Ә', Ж, З, И, Й, К, К ', Л, М, Н, О, Ӧ, П, П', Р, Р ', С, Т, Т', У, Ф, Х, Һ, Һ ', Ч, Ч', Ш, Щ, Ь, Э, Ԛ , Ԝ

The Armenian alphabet

Between 1921 and 1929, the Armenian alphabet was used for the Kurdish languages in the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic .

This was then replaced by the Janalif (also: Jaŋalif or Yañalif) similar Latin alphabet during the Latinization campaign ( Romanization (script) ).

The unified Turkish alphabet: Adaptation for Kurdish

In 1928, the Kurdish language throughout the USSR , including the Armenian SSR , was changed to Latin script, which includes some additional Cyrillic characters:

a, b, c, ç, d, e, ә, f, g, г, h, i, ь, j, k, ʀ, l, m, ɴ, o, ө, w, p, n, q, ч, s, ш, ц, t, u, y, v, x, z, ƶ

In 1929 it was reformed and replaced by:

A a B b C c Є є Ç ç D d E e Ә ә
Ә́ ә́ F f G g Ƣ ƣ H h Ħ ħ I i J j
K k K̡ k̡ L l M m N n O o Ö ö P p
Ṕ ṕ Q q R r S s Ş ş T t T̡ t̡ U u
Û û V v W w X x Y y Z z Ƶ ƶ Ь ь

Yekgirtu

The Yekgirtú (Yekgirtí, yekgirig, also Kurdish Unified Alphabet called) alphabet is a writing system developed recently by the Kurdish Language Academy Academy of Kurdish language (Kurdish Academy of Language, in short: KAL). It has many advantages compared to the Kurmanji and Sorani alphabets. It is tailored to all Kurdish dialects and not just for one and hence its name Yekgirtú , which means "uniform". It is also better adapted to the vowel-rich Kurdish than the Arabic script.

The Kurdish Language Academy was aware that the existing Kurdish writing systems fall short. This included the manageability, its cross-dialect use and the lack of an international standard based on information technology with representation of Kurdish.

To avoid communication barriers caused by the existence of various Kurdish writing systems, the KAL has developed the Yekgirtú , which is based on the international ISO 8859-1 standard. This modern Kurdish alphabet with International Standard (IS) contains some small changes in contrast to the already existing Latin-based alphabet and introduces new characters.

These were introduced to improve the flexibility of the Kurdish writing system. This effort was made as part of KAL's wide-ranging efforts to revitalize and promote the use of the Kurdish language for the benefit of adolescent Kurds. The system developed by KAL and presented here is simple and appropriate for communication purposes on the Internet as well as for any electronic media.

The development of the uniform Kurdish alphabet (Yekgirtú) followed three principles:

1. One sound - one letter

(Exception: digraphs e.g. velares [ll], vibrantes [rr], "jh" and "sh").

2. Less diacritical marks

Only characters from ISO 8859-1 were chosen to ensure that all characters can also be used on systems that do not support the Unicode standard.

3. Loan words are naturalized

You have to follow the general global Kurdish spelling rules, dialectal ways of speaking are also allowed.

The Yekgirtú contains 34 characters, including 4  digraphs (jh, ll, rr, sh) and 4 characters with diacritics (é, í, ú, ù). It contains 9 vowels (a, e, é, i, í, o, u, ú, ù) and 25 consonants.

A, B, C, D, E, É, F, G, H, I, Í, J, Jh, K, L, ll, M, N, O, P, Q, R, rr, S, Sh, T, U, Ú, Ù, V, W, X, Y, Z

It has recently been used more often on Kurdish television than the Arabic script.

Comparison of the writing systems Kurmanji, Yekgirtú and Sorani

Kurmanji (Latin) Yekgirtu Kurmanji (Cyrillic) Sorani - Isolated Sorani - initial Sorani - Medial Sorani - Final IPA
A, a A, a А, а ا ئا - ـا [aː]
B, b B, b Б, б ﺏ ﺑ ـبـ ـب [b]
C, c J, j Щ, щ ﺝ ﺟ ـجـ ـج [d͡ʒ]
Ç, ç C, c Ч, ч چ ﭼ ـچـ ـچ [t͡ʃ]
D, d D, d Д, д ﺩ - ــد [d]
E, e E, e Ә, ә ە ئە - ﮫ [ɛ]
Ê, ê É, é Е, е (Э, э) ێ ئێـ ـێـ ـێ [e]
F, f F, f Ф, ф ﻑ ﻓ ـفـ ﻒ [f]
G, g G, g Г, г ﮒ ﮔ ـگـ ـگ [ɡ]
H, h H, h Һ, һ ﻫ ﻫ ـهـ ـهـ [H]
Ḧ, ḧ H ', h' Һ ', һ' ح حـ ـحـ ـح [H]
- ' Ә ', ә' ع عـ ـعـ ـع [ʕ]
I, i I, i Ь, ь - [ɪ]
Î, î Í, í И, и ﯼ ﺋﯾ ـيـ ﯽ [iː]
J, j Jh, jh Ж, ж ﮊ - ـژ [ʒ]
K, k K, k К, к ﮎ ﮐ ـکـ ﮏ [k]
L, l L, l Л, л ﻝ ﻟ ـلـ ـل [l]
- ll Л ', л' ڵ, ڶ ڵــ, ڶــ ـڵـ, ـڶـ ـڵ, ـڶ [lˁ]
M, m M, m М, м ﻡ ﻣ ـمـ ـم [m]
N, n N, n Н, н ﻥ ﻧ ـنـ ـن [n]
O, o O, o О, о ۆ ئۆ - ـۆ [O]
P, p P, p П, п پ پــ ـپـ ـپ [p]
Q, q Q, q Ԛ, ԛ ﻕ ﻗ ـقـ ـق [q]
R, r R, r Р, р ﺭ - ـر [ɾ]
- rr Р ', р' ڕ, ڒ, ڔ - ـڕ, ـڒ, ـڔ [ɽ]
S, s S, s С, с ﺱ ﺳ ـسـ ـس [s]
Ş, ş Sh, sh Ш, ш ﺵ ﺷ ـشـ ـش [ʃ]
T, t T, t T, т ﺕ ﺗ ـتـ ـت [t]
U, u U, u Ö, ö ﻭ - ـو [ʊ] / [ʉ]
Û, û Ú, ú У, у ﻭﻭ, ۇ - ـوﻭ, ـۇ [uː]
- Ù, ù - ۈ - ـۈ [ʉː]
V, v V, v B, в ڤ, ۋ ڤـ ـڤـ ـڤ, ـۋ [v]
W, w W, w Ԝ, ԝ ﻭ - ـو [w]
X, x X, x Х, х ﺥ ﺧ ـخـ ـخ [x]
Ẍ, ẍ X ', x' Ѓ, ѓ ﻍ ﻏ ـغـ ـغ [ʁ]
Y, y Y, y Й, й ﯼ يـ - [j]
Z, z Z, z З, з ﺯ - ـز [z]

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Elfabêya kurdî & bingêhen gramera kurdmancî. nefel.com (PDF, pp. 12, 13).
  2. ^ Caleb Lauer: The competing worlds of written Turkish. In: The National. December 12, 2013, accessed March 20, 2015 .
  3. ↑ Kirmaşanî Kurdish Phrasebook
  4. ↑ Elifbay Kurdî Kirmaşanî
  5. ↑ Курдский язык Krugosvet.ru (Russian, Kurdish language)
  6. ↑ Культура и письменность Востока (Eastern Culture and Literature). 1928, №2.
  7. ↑ a b Celadet Ali Bedirxan: Elfabêya kurdî & bingêhen gramera kurdmancî . Nefel, Stockholm 2002, ISBN 91-973195-1-1 ( nefel.com [PDF]).