The Kurmanji, Sorani and Zaza dialects – and others

📖 A linguistic mosaic anchored in the mountains

In the vast mountainous expanse of the Middle East, between the confines of eastern Anatolia, the highlands of Iran, and the valleys of northern Iraq, a language is whispered, sung, sometimes written—but never forgotten. Or rather… languages. Kurdish is not a monolithic idiom: it is a constellation of dialects, sub-varieties, registers, sometimes so different that two Kurdish speakers cannot understand each other without effort. Kurmanji, Sorani, Zaza, Hawrami, Badinani, Kelhuri… These names evoke both identities and struggles, legacies and invisible borders.

Understanding Kurdish dialects means understanding part of the political, cultural, and historical complexity of Kurdistan, a territory divided between several states that have never recognized its linguistic unity or its national legitimacy.

🧭 Kurmanji: between popular tradition and diasporic revival

Kurmanji (or Kurmanji) is by far the most widely spoken Kurdish dialect. It covers a vast territory: southeastern Turkey, northern Syria (particularly the Rojava region), pockets of northern Iraq, and as far as the Caucasus. It is also the language of the majority of the Kurdish diaspora in Europe. Kurmanji uses the Latin alphabet, in a version adapted in the 1930s by linguist Celadet Bedirxan.

Long transmitted orally, Kurmanji saw its modern literature blossom in exile. Poets like Cegerxwîn or Ehmedê Xanî (the latter writing in classical Kurmanji in the 17th century) are today the leading figures of a language long banned in Turkish or Syrian schools. This dialect is strongly associated with popular Kurdish identity, rurality, but also with determined cultural resistance.

In rural areas of Botan, tales are told in Kurmanji. On the streets of Berlin, young Kurds are rapping and reinventing it. Its resilience is impressive, thanks in part to its transmission through family and community.

🏛️ Sorani: the state dialect

Sorani, spoken primarily in Iraqi Kurdistan and partly in western Iran, is often considered the "official dialect" of Kurdish. It is taught in schools in the Kurdistan Autonomous Region and used in institutions, newspapers, and television. Unlike Kurmanji, it is transcribed using a modified version of the Arabic alphabet.

The history of Sorani is linked to politics. Since the 1990s, after the establishment of Kurdish autonomy in Iraq, local elites have adopted Sorani as a standardized language.

This has had the effect of marginalizing other dialects, including Iraqi Kurmanji, which is very present in the north (especially in Duhok). This linguistic choice, useful for unifying the administration, has also deepened internal divisions.

But Sorani is also a rich literary center. It carries the classical poetry of bards like Nalî and Mahwî, and continues to inspire writers and journalists. It has even undergone more advanced grammatical standardization than other dialects, facilitating its formal transmission.

🎭 Zazaki: language on borrowed time or forgotten pillar?

Often overlooked and sometimes controversial, Zazaki (or Dimili) is spoken in the provinces of Dersim, Bingöl, Elazığ, and Sivas in Turkey. Some linguists believe it is not a Kurdish dialect, but a distinct Iranian language, albeit one with close ties to Kurdish. The question of its affiliation is also political: some speakers identify as Kurds, while others claim to be Zazas without any affiliation.

Zazaki is grammatically very different from Kurmanji or Sorani. It has a specific conjugation, particular declensions, and a distinct intonation. Although it has produced an extremely rich oral poetry, its transmission is threatened: few young people speak it fluently.

In the Dersim region, however, it symbolizes a unique identity, often associated with Alevism, mountain traditions, and a painful memory marked by the massacres of 1938.

🧬 Hawrami, Gorani, Kelhuri: the secret survivors

Beyond the major known dialects, other Kurdish dialects populate the mountains. Hawrami and Gorani, for example, are spoken in the border regions between Iran and Iraq. These dialects have long been associated with Yarsan religious traditions (ahl-e haqq) and mystical poetry. Their grammatical structures are reminiscent of older forms of Persian and other ancient Iranian languages.

Kelhuri is spoken in the Iranian province of Kermanshah. Although sometimes classified as a sub-dialect of Sorani, it has its own specificities.

These dialects are rarely written down, being transmitted primarily orally. They survive in isolated villages, in the songs of dervishes, in the prayers of elders. Their gradual disappearance is a silent tragedy: these are often the dialects richest in symbolic expressions, metaphors, and unique poetic turns of phrase.

📉 A constant threat: diglossia and pressure from states

Kurdish dialects suffer from a double pitfall: their lack of standard unification and their repression by states. In Turkey, the use of Kurdish was long banned in public spaces. In Iran, Kurdish schools do not exist. In Syria, despite a recent opening in Rojava, educational structures remain fragile. Only Iraqi Kurdistan offers regular instruction in Kurdish—but primarily in Sorani.

This situation creates diglossia: Kurds speak one language at home and another (often Arabic, Turkish, or Persian) at school and in institutions. As a result, the Kurdish language is losing ground, especially among younger generations.

Added to this is the technical issue: there is no unified standard for Kurdish. Efforts at standardization (such as the attempt at a unified Kurdish or Navkurdî ) have failed due to a lack of political and academic consensus. Each dialect continues to exist, but often in isolation, without bridges to the others.

📺 Diaspora, technology and cultural renaissance

However, a new dynamic is emerging: that of the diaspora and digital media. In Paris, Stockholm, and Berlin, YouTube channels, Saturday schools, Facebook groups, and TikTok in Kurdish are flourishing. The Kurdish diaspora—especially Kurmanji-speaking ones—has successfully equipped itself with modern means of communication.

Online dictionaries, Kurdish textbooks, online courses... This movement of self-education has led to a linguistic renaissance. Collaborative projects like Wîkîferheng (the Kurdish Wiktionary), or the Kurdish version of Wikipedia, are contributing to this dynamic.

Musicians, rappers, and online comedians use Kurdish as a powerful identity marker, across all dialects. Far from institutions, an informal but powerful vitality is emerging.

🧑🏫 What transmission for tomorrow?

The central challenge remains transmission. While adults speak Kurdish, many do not teach it to their children, fearing that it will "hinder their academic success" in countries where Kurdish is still stigmatized. It's a vicious circle: the less the language is transmitted, the more it fades away.

Some Kurdish NGOs are campaigning for bilingual education. Researchers are working to create common corpora. But the road ahead remains long. The diversity of dialects, a linguistic richness, also poses a challenge to codification efforts. Should Sorani, Kurmanji, or a standardized form be taught? No one has yet decided.

📚 Dialects as living archives

Each dialect is a world. Sorani is that of scholarly literature and institutions. Kurmanji is that of popular memory and the mountains. Zazaki is the secret song of forgotten valleys. Hawrami is the mystical breath of the dervishes. Kurdish dialects are not just ways of speaking: they are ways of existing, of dreaming, of remembering.

They contain untranslatable expressions, ancestral proverbs, and verbal forms that convey unique ways of thinking. At a time when minority languages are dying out at an alarming rate, preserving Kurdish dialects is an act of resistance, but also of love.

📝 Conclusion

The Kurdish dialectal diversity is not a weakness, but a wealth. It reflects the history of a stateless people, fragmented but tenacious, persecuted but vibrant. In the face of global linguistic standardization, maintaining Kurdish dialects is a matter of cultural justice.

Because a language that disappears is like a library that burns. And in the Kurdish case, it's a whole part of Middle Eastern memory that risks being erased.

📚 Sources

Izady, Mehrdad R. The Kurds: A Concise Handbook , Taylor & Francis, 1992, Haig, Geoffrey & Matras, Yaron. Kurdish Linguistics: A Brief Overview . University of Manchester, 2002, MacKenzie, D.N. Kurdish Dialect Studies , Oxford University Press, 1961–1962, UNESCO Observatory for Endangered Languages — Linguistics Database, KurdîLit (www.kurditgroup.org) — Database of Kurdish literature, Academic articles from JSTOR, Encyclopaedia Iranica, and Bianet.org (independent Turkish website on minorities)