Soranî
Sorani: سۆرانی / Soranî
Spoken in	Iran  Iraq
Region	Middle East
Native speakers	5 million  (date missing)
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Iranian Western Iranian Northwestern Iranian Kurdish Soranî
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ckb
Linguasphere	58-AAA-cae

Soranî (سۆرانی; also called Central Kurdish) is the name of a Kurdish language that is spoken in Iran and Iraq. Soranî is one of the main Kurdish languages, which are a branch of the Iranian languages.

Name[link]

To refer to southern Kurmanji dialects as Soranî is a recent naming by linguists after the name of the former principality of Soran. Mackenzie^[who?] writes that the present Kurdish standard called Soranî is in fact an idealized version of the Silêmanî dialect, which uses the phonemic system of the Píjhdar and Mukrî dialects.^{[citation needed]} Objections have been made to the name Soranî on the grounds that the name of one dialect, Soranî, spoken in the region Soran should not be extended to cover a group of dialect (E. M. Rasul, Núserí Kurd, No. 4, Nov. 1971).

History[link]

Ottoman Times[link]

In Silemani (Sulaymaniyah), the Ottoman Empire had created a secondary school (Rushdíye), the graduates from which could go to Istanbul to continue to study there. This allowed Soranî, which was spoken in Silémaní, to progressively replace Hewrami (Gorani) as the literary vehicle.

Modern[link]

Since the fall of the Ba'athist regime in Iraq, there have been more opportunities to publish works in the Kurdish language in Iraq than in any other country in recent times.^[1] as a result Sorani Kurdish has become the dominant written form of Kurdish.^[2]

Alphabet[link]

Sorani Kurdish is written with a modified Perso-Arabic script; This is in contrast to the other Kurdish dialect, Kurmanji which is spoken mainly in Turkey and is usually written in the Latin alphabet.

However, since the recent decade, official TV in Iraqi Kurdistan uses mostly the Latin script for Sorani.

Demographics[link]

The exact number of Sorani speakers is difficult to determine, but it is generally thought that Sorani is spoken by about 6 million people in Iraq and Iran.^[3] It is the most widespread speech of Kurds in Iran and Iraq. In particular, it is spoken by:

Around 3 Million of the Kurds in Iran. Located south of the Urmia Lake that stretches roughly to the outside of Kermanshah.

Around 3 million of the Kurds in Iraq, including the Soran clan. Most of the Kurds who use it are found in the vicinity of Hewlêr (Arbil) , Sulaymaniyah (Silêmanî) , Kerkuk and Diyala governorate.

Colloquial subdivisions[link]

Following includes the traditional internal variants of Soranî. However, nowadays, due to widespread media and communications, most of them are regarded as dialects of standard Soranî:

• Mukriyani; The language spoken south of Lake Urmia with Mahabad as its center, including the cities of Piranshahr, Bokan, Sardasht, Oshnavieh and the Kurdish speaking parts of Naghadeh and Miandoab. This region is traditionally known as Mukriyan.
• Ardalani, spoken in the cities of Sanandaj, Marivan, Kamyaran, Divandarreh, Ghorveh and Dehgolan in Kordestan province and the Kurdish speaking parts of Tekab and Shahindej in West Azerbaijan province. This region is known as Ardalan.
• Garmiani, in and around Kirkuk
• Arbili, spoken in and around the city of Hawler (Arbil) in Iraqi Kurdistan.Its main distinction is changing the consonant /l/ into /r/ in many words.
• Babani, spoken in and around the city of Sulaymaniya in Iraq and the cities of Saghez and Baneh in Iran.
• Jafi, spoken in the towns of Javanroud, Ravansar and some villages around Sarpole Zahab and Paveh.

As an official language[link]

A recent proposal was made for Soranî to be the official language of the Kurdistan Regional Government.This idea has been favoured by some Soranî-speaking Kurds but it has disappointed Kurmanjis.^[4]

Grammatical features[link]

There are no pronouns to distinguish between masculine and feminine and no verb inflection to signal gender.^[5]

After publishing The Persian Today Corpus (The Most Frequent Words of Today's Persian), as a main program, the writer, Iranian Kurdish-language scholar, Hamid Hassani, is supposed to prepare a Soranî Kurdish Language Corpus, consisting of one-million words.

Dictionaries and translations[link]

There are a substantial number of Soranî dictionaries available, amongst which there are many that seek to be bi-lingual.

English and Sorani

• English-Kurdish Dictionary by Dr. Selma Abdullah and Dr. Khurhseed Alam
• Raman English-Kurdish Dictionary by Destey Ferheng

As a main program, Iranian Kurdish-speaker scholar, Hamid Hassani, is supposed to compile a Soranî Kurdish Language Corpus, consisting of one-million words.

The standard word-order in Sorani is SOV (subject-object-verb).^[6]

Sorani and Kurmanji (Northern Kurdish) comparison[link]

See also[link]

• Kurdish language
• Kurdish alphabet
• Sorani grammar
• Northern Kurdish
• Southern Kurdish
• Soran Emirate

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Hassanpour, Dr. A. (1992). Nationalism and Language in Kurdistan 1918–1985. USA: Mellen Research University Press. 
• Nebez, Jemal (1976). Toward a Unified Kurdish Language. NUKSE. 
• Izady, Mehrdad (1992). The Kurds: A Concise Handbook. Washington, D.C.: Taylor & Francis. 

External links[link]

Soranî edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Central Kurdish at Ethnologue (16th ed., 2009)
• the New Testament in Soranî
• the Kurdish Academy of Language (unofficial)
• Working with Sorani Speaking Patients NHS (UK) Guide

This article is an orphan, as few or no other articles link to it. Please introduce links to this page from related articles; suggestions may be available. (January 2012)

Dilshad Said (born in Dohuk, Iraqi Kurdistan in 1958) is a prominent Iraqi Kurdish musician and composer,^[1] who is considered to be a significant influence on contemporary Kurdish music.^[2]

Biography[link]

After graduating from the music institute of Baghdad, he worked as an assistant of the conductor at Baghdad television and radio orchestra. In 1984, he continued his studies in music at the University of Wales and received his M.A. degree in 1988.

After that he was a diploma-solo-violinist of the Royal Academy of Music, London. He has also studied violin and composition in Eastern Europe. So far, he has worked together with many popular Kurdish musicians. His first CD is titled Variations on Kurdish Melodies for Violin.

Dilshad Said now teaches music & violin in Austria and is considered a bridge between classical Kurdish music and Western Classical-Music.^[3][4] Dilshad now resides in Austria and has arranged musical events for many other musicians and singers such as Sivan Perwer.

Albums[link]

1. Kurdish music for Violin, Stran Music, Sweden.

Research in Music[link]

1. Dilshad, Said, Das Risiko der Erteilung von Exportgenehmigungen nach den Incoterms, verglichen mit dem BGB, Dis. Jur., Trier, 1993.[1]

References[link]

External links[link]

Other kurdish Violinist: Brusk Zanganeh Official Website

Sherko Bekas (Şêrko Bêkes in Kurdish), (2 May 1940), is a prominent contemporary Kurdish poet. He was born on 2 May 1940 in Sulaimaniya in Iraqi Kurdistan as a son of the Kurdish poet Fayak Bekas. He joined the Kurdish liberation movement in 1965 and worked in the movement's radio station (the Voice of Kurdistan). He left his homeland because of political pressure from the Iraqi regime in 1986. From 1987 to 1992, he lived in exile in Sweden. In 1992, he returned to Iraqi Kurdistan.

Literary works[link]

Sherko Bekas takes a prominent role in the modern Kurdish literature. He introduced a new element into the Kurdish poetry, called Rûwange (vision), in 1971 which was a break from the strict traditional rules of poetry, such as Rhyme. The poems translated in "The Secret Diary of A Rose" by Reingard and Shirwan Mirza, with Renate Saljoghi, are examples of this style. For the first time, he introduced the "poster poem" (a term originating from sculpture and painting) in 1975 into the Kurdish poetry. Most of these poems are short, as small or seemingly trivial objects are conveyed into great mysteries. Everything in these poems is alive. In the beginning, thoughts are often depicted vaguely, the poet rousing the reader's curiosity and fantasy. The poem culminates in a surprising and sometimes shocking climax, in which the mystery of the poem is solved. Literary critics in the Orient called the style of such poster poems As-sahil mumtana' , as "the simple unattainable".

Sherko's works are distinguished around the Globe and have been translated into Arabic, Swedish, Danish, Dutch, Italian, French and English. In 1987, he was awarded the "Tucholsky scholarship" of the Pen club in Stockholm and in the same year he was awarded the freedom prize of the city of Florence.

A two-volume collection of his poetry works has been published in Kurdish under the title "Sherko Bekas' Diwan" in Sweden. These two 1000-page volumes contain his poetic works in their entirety. He has read his poems in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, United Kingdom, Russia, and Italy, where he was named honorary citizen of Milan. He visited United States in 1990.

Books[link]

1. Tirîfey Helbest, Salman al-Azami Publishers, Iraq, 1968.
2. Kawey Asinger : Dastanêkî honrawayî sar shanoye le no tabloda, Saydiyan Publishers, Mahabad, Iran, 1971.
3. Marâyâ saghírah, illustrerad by Fuad Ali, 125 pp., Al-ahâli Publishers, Damascus, Syria, 1988.
4. Dall : çîrokî şê'r, Poem, 44 pp., Apec Publishers, Sweden, 1989. ISBN 91-87730-03-0
5. Derbendî Pepûle: A Long Poem, 228 pp., Apec Publishers, Sweden, 1991.
6. Små speglar : dikter 1978-1989. - Norsborg : Publ. House of Kurdistan, 1989. - 108 s. - ISBN 91-87096-05-6
7. Les petits miroirs : poèmes, Translation of his poems in French, by Kamal Maarof, Preface by Guillevic, 95 pp., L'Harmattan Publishers, Paris, 1995. ISBN 2-7384-2059-1
8. Dîwanî Şêrko Bêkes, Collection of Poems, vol. I, 992 pp., Sara Publishers, Stockholm, 1990.
9. Dîwanî Şêrko Bêkes, Collection of Poems, vol. II, 843 pp., Sara Publishers, Stockholm, 1992.
10. Dîwanî Şêrko Bêkes, Collection of Poems, vol. III, 551 pp., Apec Publishers, Stockholm, 1995. ISBN 91-87730-74-X
11. Gulbijêrek ji helbestên (Selected Poems), 110 pp., Apec Publishers, 1991. ISBN 91-87730-28-6
12. Geheimnisse der Nacht pflücken : Gedichte / aus dem Kurdischen von Reingard und Shirwan Mirza und Renate Saljoghi, 95 pp., Unionsverlag Publishers, Zürich, 1993. ISBN 3-293-00187-4
13. Mêrgî zam-, mêrgî hetaw, 182 pp., Kurdistans folkförb., Stockholm, 1996. ISBN 91-972467-2-7
14. Xaç û mar û roj-jimêrî şa'êrê, A poetic novel, 374 pp., Apec Publishers, Stockholm, 1997. ISBN 91-89014-20-0
15. The secret diary of a rose : a journey through poetic Kurdistan, Translated into English by Reingard and Shirwan Mirza ; revised by Luise von Flotow, Ashti Bibani, 1997.
16. Bonname : Şê'r. Binkey Edeb û Rûnakbîrî Gelawêj, Sulaimaniya, Iraqi Kurdistan 1998.
17. Çirakanî ser helemût : pexşan, Sardam Publishers, Iraqi Kurdistan, 1999.
18. Piyawî la-darsew : Şê'r. Sulaimaniya, Iraqi Kurdistan, 2000.
19. Qesîdey Rengdan, Xak Publishing Center, Sulaimaniya, Iraqi Kurdistan, 2001.
20. Ezmûn : 1985-2000, Edited by Yasin Umar, Sardam Publishers, Sulaimaniya, Iraqi Kurdistan, 2001.
21. Jîn û Baran, Poem. Silêmanî Library, 2001.
22. Ji nav Şêrên min. Avesta Publishers, Istanbul, Turkey, 2001. ISBN 975-7112-31-3.
23. Xom ew wextey balindem!, 237 pp., Sardam Publishers, Sulaimaniya, Iraqi Kurdistan, 2002.
24. Kukuxîtya bizêweke, Children's poetry, Sardam Publishers, Sulaimaniya, 2003.

References[link]

1. Unionsverlag, in German
2. Biography and Works of Sherko Bekas
3. The English Translation of Some Poems by Sherko Bekas
4. The works of Sherko Bekas, Immigrant-institutet (in Swedish)