Kurdish (Sorani)

Where it’s spoken

Sorani (Kurdish: Soranî, سۆرانی) is the standard literary and administrative Kurdish of the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq, where it has co-official status with Arabic. It is also widely spoken in the Iranian provinces of Kurdistan, Kermanshah, and Ilam. Major dialect varieties include Mukri, Erdelan, and Babani.

What it sounds like

Sorani has lost grammatical gender (unlike Kurmanji) and case marking on nouns, making it more analytic. It distinguishes pharyngeal consonants ḥ and ʿ borrowed from Arabic, plus the uvular qāf. The aspirated/unaspirated stop contrast remains phonemic. Stress is typically on the final syllable.

How it’s written

Sorani uses a modified Arabic script with significant additions: ێ for ē, ۆ for ō, ڕ for ṛ, ڵ for ḷ, plus Kurdish letters ژ, چ, پ, گ. Unlike Persian or Arabic, short vowels are usually written explicitly. The script reads right to left.

History

Sorani took shape as a written language in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, drawing on the literary tradition of the Sulaymaniyah area and the poetry of Nalî, Mehwî, and Hêmin. Iraqi Kurdistan’s autonomy after 1991 enabled major institutional support.