Kurdish alphabet

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The Kurdish alphabet is a writing system for the Kurdish language. Three systems currently exist. The form used in Turkey was derived from the Latin alphabet by Jeladet Ali Bedirkhan in 1932, and thus is also called the Bedirxan script or more properly Hawar. It is used by Kurds in Turkey and Syria. The Sorani alphabet is used by Kurds in Iraq and Iran, and there is also a recent alphabet called Yekgirtú which attempts to unify these.

Contents 1 Hawar alphabet 2 Soraní alphabet 3 Cyrillic alphabet 4 Armenian alphabet 5 Uniform Turkic Alphabet adaptation for Kurdish 6 Yekgirtú 7 Comparison of Kurmanji, Yekgirtú and Sorani alphabets 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Hawar alphabet

The alphabet of the Kurmanji Kurdish dialect contains 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, Û, 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, û, v, w, x, y, z

A: The "o" in Above or the "U" in Up

B: The "b" in ball

C: The "j" in Job

Ç: The "Ch" in Check

D: The "D" Door or Desk

E: The "e" in Pest

Ê: the "i" in Hit or "ai" in Fail

F: The "F" in Far

G: The "G" in Grass

H: The "H" in Hot

I: THe "e" in Open

Î: The "ee's" in Flee

J: The "s" in Pleasure or persian

K: The "C" in Cop or "K" in Kangaroo

L: The "L" in Love

M: The "M" in Men

N: The "N" in Never

O: The "O" in Old

P: The "P" in Police

Q: No English equivalent The "Q" in Qazî in Kurdish

R: The "R" in Rapid

S: The "S" in Star

Ş: The "Sh" in Shoes

T: The "T" in Tower

U: The "u" in Kurt

Û: The "oo's" in Boot Or Broom

V: The "V" in Vehicle or Valve

W: the "W" in Water or Wood

X: No English equivalent. German "Ch"

Y: The "Y" in Yes

Z: The "Z" in Zero

There are eight vowels in this alphabet -- three short and five long. For the vowels that can be both short and long, the long vowels are represented using a circumflex. The short vowels are (E, I, U) and the long ones are (A, Ê, Î, O, Û).

When presenting this alphabet in his magazine "Hawar", Jeladet Ali Bedirkhan proposed using ḧ, ẍ and ' for غ ,ح, and ع, sounds which he judged to be "non-Kurdish" (see [1] page 12,13). These three glyphs do not have the status of letter and serve to represent these sounds when they are indispensable to comprehension.

The Turkish state does not recognise the alphabet, and use of the letters Q, W, X which do not exist in the Turkish alphabet has led to persecution in 2000 and 2003 (see [2], p.8, and [3]). Since September 2003, many Kurds have applied to the courts seeking to change their names to Kurdish ones written with the letters Q, W, and X but eventually failed.^[1]

[edit] Soraní alphabet

The Soraní Kurdish dialect is mainly written using a modified Arabic-based alphabet with 33 letters. Unlike the standard Arabic alphabet, which is an abjad, Soraní is a true alphabet in which vowels are mandatory, making the script easy to read. Yet it is not a complete representation of Kurdish sounds, as it is missing short /i/ (as in English bit), and is also unable to differentiate between /w/ and short /u/ as well between /y/ and /î/. However it does show the two pharyngeal consonants, as well as a voiced velar fricative used in 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, though the Kurdish Latin alphabet is also in use.

[edit] Cyrillic alphabet

A third system, used 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, Ö, П, П', Р, Р', С, Т, Т', У, Ф, Х, Һ, Һ', Ч, Ч', Ш, Щ, Ь, Э, Q, W

[edit] Armenian alphabet

From 1921 to 1929 the Armenian alphabet was used for Kurdish languages in the Soviet Armenia.^[2]

Then it was replaced to Janalif-like Latin alphabet during Latinisation campaign.

[edit] Uniform Turkic Alphabet adaptation for Kurdish

In 1928 Kurdish language in all USSR, including Armenian SSR, was switched to Latin alphabet, containing 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 was replaced by ^[3]:

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

[edit] Yekgirtú

The Yekgirtú alphabet is a recent creation. It has many advantages compared to the Kurmanji and Sorani alphabets. It is adapted for all Kurdish dialects and not exclusive to just one, and is therefore called Yekgirtú, which means "unified." It is also better adapted to the vowel-rich Kurdish language than is the Arabic script. Recently it has been used more than the Arabic script on Kurdish TV.

The Yekgirtú alphabet consists of 34 letters:

A, B, C, D, E, É, F, G, H, h', I, Í, J, Jh, K, L, ll, M, N, O, P, Q, R, rr, S, Sh, T, U, Ú, Ù, V, W, X, xh, Y, Z

[edit] Comparison of Kurmanji, Yekgirtú and Sorani alphabets

Kurmanji	Yekgirtú	Sorani - Stand-alone	Sorani - Initial	Sorani - Medial	Sorani - Final	IPA
A,a	A,a	ا	ئا	—	ـا	[aː]
B,b	B,b	ﺏ	ﺑ	ـبـ	ـب	[b]
C,c	J,j	ﺝ	ﺟ	ـجـ	ـج	[ʤ]
Ç,ç	C,c	چ	ﭼ	ـچـ	ـچ	[ʧ]
D,d	D,d	ﺩ	—		ــد	[d]
E,e	E,e	ﮦ	ﺋﮫ	—	ﮫ	[ɛː]
Ê,ê	É,é	ێ	ئێـ	ـێـ	ـێ	[e]
F,f	F,f	ﻑ	ﻓ	ـفـ	ﻒ	[f]
G,g	G,g	ﮒ	ﮔ	ـگـ	ـگ	[g]
H,h	H,h	ﻫ	ﻫ	ـهـ	ـهـ	[h]
Ḧ,ḧ [4]	H',h'	ح	حـ	ـحـ	ـح	[ħ]
—	'	ع	عـ	ـعـ	ـع	[ʕ]
I,i	I,i	—				[ɯ]
Î,î	Í,í	ﯼ	ﺋﯾ	ـيـ	ﯽ	[iː]
J,j	Jh,jh	ﮊ	—		ـژ	[ʒ]
K,k	K,k	ﮎ	ﮐ	ـکـ	ﮏ	[k]
L,l	L,l	ﻝ	ﻟ	ـلـ	ـل	[l]
—	ll	ڵ, ڶ	ڵــ, ڶــ	ـڵـ, ـڶـ	ـڵ, ـڶ	[lˁ]
M,m	M,m	ﻡ	ﻣ	ـمـ	ـم	[m]
N,n	N,n	ﻥ	ﻧ	ـنـ	ـن	[n]
O,o	O,o	ۆ	ئۆ	-	ـۆ	[o]
P,p	P,p	پ	پــ	ـپـ	ـپ	[p]
Q,q	Q,q	ﻕ	ﻗ	ـقـ	ـق	[q]
R,r	R,r	ﺭ	—		ـر	[r]
—	rr	ڕ, ڒ, ڔ	—		ـڕ, ـڒ, ـڔ	[r]
S,s	S,s	ﺱ	ﺳ	ـسـ	ـس	[s]
Ş,ş	Sh,sh	ﺵ	ﺷ	ـشـ	ـش	[ʃ]
T,t	T,t	ﺕ	ﺗ	ـتـ	ـت	[t]
U,u	U,u	ﻭ	—		ـو	[œ]
Û,û	Ú,ú	ﻭﻭ, ۇ	—		ـوﻭ, ـۇ	[uː]
Ü,ü	Ù,ù	ۈ	—		ـۈ	[ʉ:]
V,v	V,v	ڤ, ۋ	ڤـ	ـڤـ	ـڤ ,ـۋ	[v]
W,w	W,w	ﻭ	—		ـو	[w]
X,x	X,x	ﺥ	ﺧ	ـخـ	ـخ	[x]
Ẍ,ẍ [5]	Xh,xh	ﻍ	ﻏ	ـغـ	ـغ	[ʁ]
Y,y	Y,y	ﯼ	يـ	—		[j]
Z,z	Z,z	ﺯ	—		ـز	[z]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• A table of the various Kurdish alphabets
• Kurdish language, alphabet and pronunciation
• Kurdish Unicode Fonts

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