Kurmanji | ||
---|---|---|
Northern Kurdish | ||
کورمانجی, Kurmancî | ||
Native to | Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Turkey[2] | |
Region | Autochthonous to Kurdistan, Kurdish diaspora[1] | |
Ethnicity | Kurds | |
Native speakers | 16 million (2021–2023)[2] | |
Dialects |
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Official status | ||
Official language in | ||
Recognised minority language in | ||
Language codes | ||
ISO 639-1 | ku | |
ISO 639-3 | kmr | |
Glottolog | nort2641 | |
Linguasphere | 58-AAA-a | |
Geographic distribution of the Kurdish languages spoken by Kurds
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Kurmanji (Kurdish: کورمانجی, romanized: Kurmancî, lit. 'Kurdish', ⓘ),[5][6][7][8] also termed Northern Kurdish,[1][9][10] is the northernmost of the Kurdish languages, spoken predominantly in southeast Turkey, northwest and northeast Iran, northern Iraq, northern Syria and the Caucasus and Khorasan regions.[11] It is the most widely spoken form of Kurdish.
Kurmanji is also the common and ceremonial language of Yazidis.[12] Their sacred book Mishefa Reş and all prayers are written and spoken in Kurmanji.[13]
Ethnologue reports that the use of Kurmanji is declining in Turkey even when the language is used as a language of wider communication (LWC) by immigrants to Turkey, and that the language is threatened because it is losing speakers.[14]
As for their language, the Yezidis themselves, in an attempt to avoid being identified with Kurds, call it Ezdiki.