Southern Kurdish

Southern Kurdish
کوردی خوارگ
Spoken natively in	Eastern Iraq, Western Iran
Region	Main in Western Iran, Kermanshah, Ilam Province, eastern Kurdistan Province, western Hamedan province, Qazvin province, southern kurds diaspora in Tehran province, Alborz province; Eastern Iraq border with those provinces including Xanaqin, Kifri, Mandali, Qorwaq and Baghdad.
Native speakers	6,000,000  (2012)
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Iranian Western Northwestern Kurdish Southern Kurdish
Language codes
ISO 639-3	sdh
Linguasphere	58-AAA-c
Southern Kurdish Area

Southern Kurdish (Southern Kurdish: کوردی خوارگ), also called Kermānšāni, belongs to the Northwestern Iranian languages and is predominantly spoken in western Iran and eastern Iraq. In Iran, it is spoken in the provinces of Kermanshah (Kermānšān) and Ilam. In Iraq it is spoken in the region of Khanaqin (Xaneqîn), all the way to Mandali, Pehle. It has more than one million speakers in the city of Baghdad. It is also the language of the populous Kurdish Kakayî tribe near Kerkuk and the Zengenes near Kifrî. There are also populous diasporas of Southern Kurdish Dialects group found in the Alburz mountains.

Southern Kurdish which is spoken in Iran in Ilam and Kermanshah provinces, is very similar to Laki which is spoken in Lorestan, Hamedan, and Kermanshah. Southern dialects standard written form is like standard Persian and have not been adequately studied.^[1]

Dialects

The dialects of Southern Kurdish are:

• Kermashani, the Standard dialect of Southern Kurdish
• Kalhuri, referring to Kalhor people and region
• Feyli (also known as Ilami) referring to the Feyli tribe and the Ilam Province. It had around 3 million speakers in Iran in 2000.^[2][3][4]
  • Beyrey or Mahaki (which is a sub-dialect of Feyli)
• Kolyaî, Kermanshahi (Kermānšānî)
• Garrusi (Gerrûsî) (Bijari)
• Malekshahi (Melikşay)
• Sanjâbi (Sencabî) referring to the Sanjâbi people. It's a branch of Kalhor language family

Laki is a Northwestern Iranian language. Although it is usually grouped with Southern Kurdish dialects, it is a fourth subgroup of Kurdish with lexical similarity with Luri, Western Persian, and Northern Luri.

See also

• Kermanshahi
• Kalhor
• Gorani, Hewrami
• Central Kurdish
• Northern Kurdish

External links

Southern Kurdish test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator

• Information regarding Southern Kurdish
• Kurdish Academy of Language describing Southern Kurdish

References

1. ^ Medieval Islamic Civilization: A-K, index By Josef W. Meri, Jere L. Bacharach
2. ^ Ethnologue: Languages of Iran
3. ^ Ethnologue: Languages of Iraq
4. ^ Ranjbar, Vahid. Dastur-e Zaban-e Kurdi-ye Kermanshahi. Kermanshah: Taq-Bostan. 1388