Ernest N. McCarus, 1958
This study is a description of the Kurdish of the city of Sulaimaniya, Iraq. Kurdish is a member of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Kurdish dialects cover an area embracing parts of eastern Turkey, Soviet Armenia, northern Syria, northern Iraq, and western Iran, as well as Khorasan in Iran. It is difficult to obtain reliable figures on the total Kurdish population in the Near East, estimate ranging from 1.5 to 9 million.
Further study remains to be done on the classification of Kurdish dialects. The most systematic study is Karl Hadank’s Untersuchungen zum Westkurdischen: Böti und Ezädi, in which a limited number of phonological, morphological and lexical isoglosses are used to set up two major areas, West Kurdish and East Kurdish, with the boundary coinciding roughly with a line drawn from Lake Urmia to the junction of the Greater Zab with the Tigris. According to the classification, the Sulaimaniya line Mukri dialect are East Kurdish, and the Zaza, Hakari, and Bahdinan dialect are West Kurdish. The Kurdish of Sulalmaniya is mutually intelligible with Mukri Kurdish, as well as with dialects as far north as Ruwandiz in Iraq and Sujbulak in Iran and as far south as Sinna and Kermanshah in Iran.
Of all the Kurdish dialects In Iraq, that of Sulaimaniya seems to enjoy the greatest cultural prestige, as is acknowledged by speakers of other dialects. It 1s the Sulaimaniya dialect that the central government in Baghdad has chosen to be used in Kurdish textbooks for elementary schools throughout Iraqi. Kurdistan, and for all Kurdish language broadcasts from Radio Baghdad. It is in this dialect too that the United Stats Information Service in Baghdad published (as of 1951) its weekly Kurdish language news bulletin.
This study is a description of the Kurdish of the city of Sulaimaniya, Iraq. Kurdish dialects cover an area embracing parts of eastern Turkey, Soviet Armenia, northern Syria, western Iran, and Khorasan in Iran. The language is described in terms of (1) phonology, (2) morphology, (3) morphophonemics, (4) word formation, and (5) syntax. An appendix, a bibliography, and a glossary are included.
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A Kurdish Grammar
Descriptive Analysis of the Kurdish of Sulaimaniya, Iraq
New York: American Council of Learned Society
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