Kurdish is often portrayed as a linguistic unity, but an examination of phonological structures in the language reveals substantial internal variation. In this study, we examine the geographic distribution of vowels and consonants in the phonological inventories of 125 Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji) and Central Kurdish (Sorani) varieties in the Database of Kurdish Dialects, and their patterning in individual words from all of these data sets. The data reveal a stable set of core vowels and consonants, along with peripheral phonemes of both types that demonstrate a high level of variation in geographic distribution and frequency. Segments with significant distributional restrictions include front rounded vowels, uvular consonants, a contrastive aspirated stop series, emphatic alveolar obstruents, and pharyngeals ʕ and ħ. An analysis of these patterns gives modest confirmation of the well-known Northern vs. Central Kurdish dialect division, but shows that the phonological distinction between the two is best characterized in terms of tendencies rather than exact, regular correspondences. Beyond many other individual isoglosses in the data that cross-cut one another, there is a weak pattern of transition between the two major dialect areas; limited diffusion of phonological innovations to varieties at the geographic periphery of the language; and more direct influence of language contact on the phonological structures in certain regions. Alongside these various configurations of areal distribution, and in contrast to them, there is a strong, overarching pattern of non-directional phonological variability among varieties, which points to the local nature of phonological changes across the language area.
Archives
Les dialectes kurdes méridionaux
Current issues in Kurdish linguistics
This volume contains a selection of contributions originally presented at the Third International Conference on Kurdish Linguistics (ICKL3), University of Amsterdam, in August 2016
Kurdish
Untersuchungen zum Westkurdischen: Bōtī und Ēzädī
Forschungen über die Kurden und die Iranischen Nordchaldäer
Grammaire kurde (dialecte kurmandji)
The History of Kurdish and the Development of Literary Kurmanji
This chapter tackles several interrelated issues around the Kurdish language. It provides a general internal classification of Kurdish varieties, proposing also a theoretically informed distinction between language history and collective identity perceptions of speakers to resolve the classification disputes around Zazaki and Gorani varieties. ‘Kurdish’ in this sense is considered more a sociolinguistic unit than a purely linguistic entity. The chapter then provides summary discussion of the position of Iranian philology on the history of Kurdish, whereby it is shown that Kurdish is not in a direct descendant relationship with any of the known languages of the Old and Middle Iranian periods. The chapter traces the history of written and literary Kurmanji Kurdish. The rise of literary or written code in Kurmanji is shown to have taken place in late sixteenth century within the wider sociopolitical context of, on one hand, the emergence of powerful Kurdish principalities and widespread madrasa education, and, on the other hand, a general trend in the vernacularization of local community languages in Kurdistan. Finally, the development of modern Kurmanji as a polycentric variety is discussed and the current approximation of written norms are projected to merge in a more comprehensive plurinormative Kurmanji standard.
Syllable structure and stress in Bahdinani Kurdish
This paper presents some facts related to the syllable structure and the stress system of Bahdinani, a subdialect of Kurmanji Kurdish spoken in Iraq. Bahdinani does not have a complicated syllable structure or stress system. The strict conditions on complex consonant combinations and the high compliance of the available clusters with the sonority principle make its syllable structure rather simple. The strict ultimacy principle of stress placement, the binary iambic pattern of feet and the quantity-insensitive nature of stress assignment are basic characteristics of Bahdinani stress system. These facts are presented within the framework of distinctive features and Optimality Theory.
Kurmanji complementation
Kurmanji clause-linking devices are generally a) finite, and b) subject to variation in respect of the choice of morphological device that marks the link. There are several options for marking complement clauses in the language: zero-marking (paratactic apposition of clauses), mood, simple and complex complementisers, and reinforcement of subject agreement through deictics and anaphora. The paper discusses the distribution of clause-linking devices, based on their occurrence in a corpus of tape-recorded and transcribed conversational narratives. The findings are related to the predictions on semantic-typological universale of complementation. A brief discussion of the areal position of Kurmanji follows, in conclusion of which I propose that the principal isogloss shared by the languages under discussion is their reliance on finite verbs even in the most tightly-integrated complex constructions.