Alfabé Kurdí

New Alphabet

For first grade at primary school

Preface

Children are the true prosperity of a nation. The future of a nation depends on how its youngest members are raised and educated. Many aspects of society and culture are targeted towards children through the educational system. This is a major contribution, which helps the children to find a cultural, religious and linguistic identity on a nationally unified platform. Well-educated children are the messengers, with a newly developed personal identity, for the next generation.

The effect of linguistic as well as cultural heritage in preserving personal and national identity is well known among political and social scholars. The mother tongue is one of the core factors that an individual uses to define her or his identity. It will also create a stronger bond among individuals in a given society. This might explain the Kurdish national aspiration for an educational system and Kurdish linguistic rights.

People with constitutional political power use many different specific and targeted methods to educate their children. The children will be educated in a way that the political system perceives as necessary for its future social, political and cultural survival. The education policy in schools and educational institutes is used to secure the future of unified, national integrity and identity. This means that the political system can make a major contribution by focussing on the education of children.

The approximately 40 million Kurds are probably the largest ethnic minority in the world with no national political power to educate their children in any sort of culturally specific lifestyle. It is clear that Kurdish children will not be educated in the development and progression of the Kurdish culture and language. This is why Kurdish society does not have any true national agenda for its future social structure, as our Persian, Turkish and Arab neighbours do.

The human society with complex lifestyles, takes a different courses every day. There is much research and study behind every change in people's lifestyles and they will adopt a course depending on their needs. Obviously, those people who do not follow any course will fall behind in many aspects of the new world order in the world. Modern society will choose new solutions based on prospective knowledge. The question will arise: if a society does not have a constitutional political power, will it be able to find an identifiable place in today's world?

The Kurds have spent too much time fighting powerful enemies and have fallen behind in forging a modern identity. For instance, in south Kurdistan, there is still not any clear, scientifically-based educational system to cultivate children according to Kurdish lifestyle.

This book is an attempt to create a solid foundation for Kurdish language education in the southern Kurdish dialect. The language learning process is a starting point for education in culture, history, geography and many other sciences of the modern world.

Writing in the Latin alphabet may create some obstacles for new users. Answers to many of these difficulties might be found in the history of Kurdish scripting systems, and in modern communication tools, like the Internet and computer-based activities. The Arabic scripting system, from a religious point of view, is closer to Arabic and Iranian culture and is visually more accepted, but writing in the Latin alphabet, which has a common root with the Arabic scripting system, is more suitable for the Kurdish language. The results of much pedagogical research shows that children learn faster with a Latin-based alphabet system, and the new technology of common communication media has been a major factor in choosing the Latin-based alphabet for a unified Kurdish scripting system.

The Kurdish language has never had one common, unified alphabet system. This is the first primary school book of its kind. Elfúbéy Nú is only a drop in an ocean of opportunity for experiencing the Kurdish writing system. We hope that this book will contribute in some small way to a unified alphabet system for Kurdish, and to an overall revitalisation for the Kurdish language.

This book takes into account new pedagogical methodology on children¹s education. The lessons talk about the daily life of Kurdish families in different environments. The lessons gradually become more extensive and complex, and any new letter is marked in red. Each lesson practices the previous letters plus one or two new letters. For any new or coined words, a small dictionary at the end of the book has been prepared.

We hope that this book will make the learning process easier and more enjoyable. We take this opportunity to thank all the people who have helped us in writing Elfúbéy Nú.

Dílan Roshaní ú Hémin Zehawí