Kürtçe

Kürtçe is a group of West Iranian languages spoken by the Kurdish people. It is spoken in a region often referred to as Kurdistan, which includes parts of southeastern Turkey, northern Iraq, northern Syria, and northwestern Iran. While often referred to as a single language, Kürtçe is better understood as a dialect continuum, with significant variations between different regions. The main dialect branches are Kurmanji, Sorani, and Southern Kurdish. Kurmanji is the most widely spoken, primarily in Turkey, Syria, and parts of northern Iraq. Sorani is prevalent in Iraqi Kurdistan and parts of Iran. Southern Kurdish dialects are spoken mainly in western Iran and parts of Iraq.

Kürtçe belongs to the Indo-European language family and the Iranian branch. It shares commonalities with other Iranian languages such as Persian and Pashto. The grammatical structure often features a split ergative case marking system. Vocabulary and pronunciation can vary considerably between the different dialects, sometimes making mutual intelligibility a challenge. Historically, Kürtçe has been written in several alphabets, including the Latin alphabet (most commonly used for Kurmanji), the Arabic script (often used for Sorani and Southern Kurdish), and historically, Armenian and Cyrillic scripts have also been employed. Efforts to standardize Kürtçe and promote its use in education and media are ongoing in various Kurdish regions.