Alternate Names: Kermancî, Kirmancî, Kurdi, Kurdî, Kurmancî, Kurmanji
Population: 15,000,000 in Turkey (McCarus 2009), decreasing. About 20% monolingual, especially in Hakkari and Shirnak provinces. Very provisional figures for Northern Kurdish speaker population. Population total all countries: 20,210,872.
Location: Adiyaman, Agri, Batman, Bingol, Bitlis, Diyarbakir (Amed), Hakkari (Colemerg), Kars, Mardin, Shirnak, Siirt, Shanliurfa, and Van; also Ganziantep, Elazig, Erzincan, Erzurum, Kahramanmarash, Kayseri, Malatya, Sivas, Tunceli (Dersim), and other provinces; central Turkey, Konya, Cankiri and Cihanbeyli; many in Istanbul, Adana, Ankara, Izmir. Also in Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Netherlands, Norway, Russian Federation, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Turkmenistan, United Kingdom, United States.
Language Maps:
Azerbaijan
Iraq
Jordan and Syria
Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan
Language Status:
3 (Wider communication).
ClassificationIndo: European, Indo-Iranian, Iranian, Western, Northwestern, Kurdish
Dialects: Ashiti, Bayezidi, Boti (Botani), Hekari, Marashi, Mihemedî, Shemdinani, Shikakî, Silivî. Dialect differences but all use the same written form.
Language Use: Home, market, political situations. Many are adults above age 30. Positive attitudes. Most also use Turkish [tur].
Language Development: Literacy rate in L1: Overall about 83%, but not differentiated by L1 or L2 usage. While overall speakers are decreasing, literates are increasing. Many literary works from 16th and 17th centuries onward. Poetry. Magazines. Newspapers. New media. Radio programs. Films. TV. Videos. Dictionary. Grammar. Bible: 2008.
Writing: Arabic script, used in Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon. Cyrillic script, used in Russia and Armenia. Latin script, developed in 1932, used in Turkey.
acemi birliğini adanada yaptığını öne sürerek kürtçe bildiğini iddia eden insanların arasında büyüdüm. impossible is tinne.
bizim apartmanda bi abi vardı, benim gibi okula bile gitmeyen aklı ermeyen çocukları toplayıp askerde siktigi kızları anlatırdı. küfür etmeyi ve kadınların sikilmek için yaratıldığını murat abiden öğrenmiştim