Kurdish Dialects | Can they Understand Each Other?

Kurdish is primarily categorized into three main groups, each containing several different regional accents and subdialects, and the degree of mutual intelligibility varies among them. In this video, we will take a look at three of them, with Züleyha representing Kurmanji (کورمانجی / Kurmancî) from Mardin, Turkey (ماردین / Mêrdîn), Daphne representing Sorani (سۆرانی) from Sulaymaniyah, Iraq (سلێمانی / Silêmanî), and Roozbeh representing another variety of Sorani from Sanandaj, Iran (سنە / Sine).

Kurdish is classified as a Western Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. The Kurdish language is mainly divided into three groups and each one has its own subdialects. Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji) is the largest, spoken in Turkey, Syria, northern Iraq, and northwest and northeast Iran. Central Kurdish (Sorani) is primarily spoken in Iraqi Kurdistan and the Iranian Kurdistan Province. Southern Kurdish (Pehlewani) is for the most part spoken in Kermanshah and Ilam provinces of Iran and in the Khanaqin district of eastern Iraq.

Literary Kurdish works have been written extensively in Kurmanji and Sorani, as well Pehlewani, Zaza, and Gorani (Hawrami), with many famous poets, such as Mela Huseynê Bateyî, Malaye Jaziri (Nîşanî), Faqi Tayran (Feqiyê Teyran), Ahmad Khani (Ehmedê Xanî‎), and Mahmud Bayazidi who wrote in the Kurmancî dialect; Nalî (نالی‎), Haji Qadir Koyi (Hacî Qadirî Koyî), Sheikh Riza Talabani (شێخ ڕەزای تاڵەبانی), Mahwi (مەحوی) who wrote in the Sorani dialect.

[BahadorAlast]

Happy Nowruz!! Nowruz (Newroz) is very important for the Kurds, just as it is for many other groups! So I hope you enjoy this video on this special day if you speak Kurdish.
For non-Kurdish speakers, depending on the language you speak, there is a chance that you can figure out a lot of what is being said here. As a native Persian speakers, I was able to understand a fair bit of it! It's a very educational video. Hope you all enjoy it!

[anirbellahcen]

I am Amazigh Riffian, I love Kurdish people. They have worked for us here in Rif (Northern Morocco) They were from Syria. they have digged the well for my family and they were so happy when they found water. They were more happier than us. Once, they were eating with us and laughing, when I asked what is funny they said: your traditional bread equals 10 of our breads lol. they were so funny and kind people. Salute to all Kurdish people and all people in general..

[serdar]

I am sorry but Züleyha had a few problems at Kurmanji. As a half Kurmanji I saw several obvious sentences which are so similar but she didn't even noticed. Like be dilî xot, xoshi to xoshi mine. Which is almost the same with Kurmanji bi dile xwe, xweshi te xweshi mine. I am only half Dimli-Zaza and not very fluent there but even in Dimli it is something like bi dile xo, weshi to weshi mi o. It was a very basic sentence. She also didn't noticed some obvious things. When Daphne used zor jiwan for beautiful Züleyha should actually know that it also exists in Kurmanji but Ciwan can mean both beautiful and young.

[afgaviatoravapp]

I am from Afghanistan and I speak both Pashto and Dari and with a bit of explanation from the participants, I had “ah ha” moments and many of the words made sense. Some are essentially the same words we use with phonological variations. I am sure I can learn any of these Kurdish dialects within 6 months.

[mohammadnajibullahahmadzai]

Wonderful video!
Greetings to Kurdish brothers and sisters from Afghanistan!
Happy Nowruz to all celebrating! May the new year bring with lots of joy for you and your family!

[SaladinAlkurdi.]

As a Kurd, I learned Spanish in just 4 months, every day 50 minutes for us is Spanish easy 💚☀️❤️🤝🇪🇸

[shinigamigamer]

I'm an iranian persian and i understood 65-70% of sorani except for the "your happiness is my happiness" sentence which i understood all of it, which made me really happy but unfortunately for me i didn't understood much of kurmanji except for a few words, both sounds equally beautiful though.
Lovely language and people .

[gabikassen]

Love to our Kurdish brothers and sisters, from Armenia 🇦🇲. My mom is actually also from Mardin😍

[sara.othman]

It’s such a shame that we as Kurds have been so estranged and separated that it’s difficult to understand each other! Hopefully one day we can close the gap ❤️

[ahmeddark]

Love from Northern African to all kurdish people

[sadeghmoradi]

Im a kurd from kermanshah and sorani is like our language.but i understand 70 percent of kormanji❤

[sher]

I noticed from the comments that many people have the wrong assumption the difference between Kurdish dialects is soleley because of the countries they live in. But isn't true. Kurdish is divided regionally not by state borders. The Kurdish dialect Züleyha speaks is spoken in all parts of Kurdistan. In West(Syria), South(Iraq), North(Turkey) and East(Iran) Kurdistan. The Kurdish spoken by Daphne and Roozbeh is spoken in South and East Kurdistan. Then there is Pehlewani (Kelhur Leki Feyli ) and Hawrami which are also spoken in South and East Kurdistan over the borders. And in North and pockets of West Kurdistan there is Dimli/Kirmancki(Zazaki) which is in a group with Hawrami. The differences we see between Kurdish dialects or languages is natural and the result of isolation by tribes and kingdoms mostly from early medievil times up until the second half of the 20th century. This is nothing unheard of. To name an example. Some of the Northern Italian dialects are in fact closer to French than to Southern Italian dialects. Or as some others mentioned Yorkshire English subdialects are not mutually intelligible to standardized English. Or Austro-Bavarian or Frisian to standardized German. But in contrast to these people Kurds never had the chance to form a standardized language for obvious reasons.
I think allot of people who are interested in languages actually know this and the persons who actually make a big fuss out of it are the usual suspects who are only here for political agendas.

[Ebru_]

As a Zaza Kurd, i understood Kurmanji 70-75%
Sorani only 50-55%

Kurmanji and Zazaki are gendered languages, but i didn't saw gendered rules in Sorani

Note: when i see sorani+kurmanji on paper i can easily understand, but when they speak it's a little bit hard for me.
Anyways, Bijî Kurdkî💚❤️💛

[mehmetzekitas]

Ortak bir eğtim olmamasına rağmen birbirlerini %80 anlaşılıyor bu çok önemli👏🍀

[soran]

Hi every one . My name is Sora from central Kurdistan. I am a linguist .just want to point out something which is important to your video etc. To speak your language ( Kurdish in this case) is one thing, but to have a wider knowledge in that language is another thing. Kurdish language consist of 5 main dialects and all up 45 sub dialects. So the explanations from our guests are limited, grammatically , everything is there and it's straight forward.
It's somehow like English language different dialect uses different synonym etc..

Eg: work = کار،ئیش
Can : توانین، شیان

So I hope this can help you guys a bit.
Thanks loved your video

[partizanooo]

I am from Afrin and I understood all the sentences 100 percent...😂😂

[sarmadbaloch]

Am astonished we baloch also say kare for work .. and I’ve came across many words which are same in balochi and Kurdish . For this reason I had many Kurdish friends

[radiant]

Kurdish is one of the oldest languages in history but does not have a unified script and worth mentioning that Kurdish does not have a generally agreed on standard dialect. Kurmanji and Sorani have developed separate standard forms.

[armankamal]

Well, so lovely film, remain safe you Kurds, love you from Iran

[KBBelite]

I am kurmanc from mardin/batman too.

It is very difficult. We habe to keep im mind that they are diaspora Kurds, which means that they do not learn Kurdish at school or as an educational language.

Unfortunately, Kurdish is not standardized and dialects can vary from village to village. soranî is maybe (60-70)% understandable for someone without experience. you can tell that the kurmanc woman doesn't have a good knowledge of Kurdish and her English doesn't seem to be that good either.

Her dialect seems to be from nusaybin, in nusaybin they say "tu karê" instead of "tu di-karî", because the "di-" prefix to build the present stem dont exist.

thanks for the video.