Roj Bash Kurdistan

Hi everybody, I'm Hawk. I'm an Israeli woman of Jewish-Kurdish origin. My grandparents used to live in Dohuk.

I found the forums looking for Kurdish language websites - I'm trying to refresh my Kurmanci skills these days. (I used to speak well as a child, but I've forgotten a lot since then, mostly because I had nobody to talk to.)

Anyway, the forums look interesting and challenging. I'll be reading around a bit.

Welcome and Xêr hatin !

hiya Hawk, welcome on board sis =)
hope u like it here..
im not kumanci speaker, im sorani, but also interested to learn kurmanci, its a nice dilect so, we might learn together lol..
btw, i am somehow kurdish-jewish too from east kurdistan.

again, welcome on board, n if u can plz tell us a bit more bout urself..
enjoy ur stay

hey hawk so nice to see you, be xer haty ...
I hope you enjoy your stay, I will look forwarrd to read your posts .

Bi xêr hatî Hawk!

Nice to have you...

Hope to see your oppinions on matters too...

Enjoy!

Thanks for the warm welcome, everybody

missIndependent - the maternal side of my family speaks Centeral Kurmanji. While my father's family comes from Dohuk, my mother's family is from a village on the southern part of the Zab river. Honestly, I find the Central Kurmanji SO MUCH easier than the Northern dialect. Not having too many genders or tenses sure does simplify life when you learn a language. On the other hand, it seems a bit harder to find learning materials for the Southern and Central dialects than for Northern Kurmanji.

hawk wrote:Thanks for the warm welcome, everybody

missIndependent - the maternal side of my family speaks Centeral Kurmanji. While my father's family comes from Dohuk, my mother's family is from a village on the southern part of the Zab river. Honestly, I find the Central Kurmanji SO MUCH easier than the Northern dialect. Not having too many genders or tenses sure does simplify life when you learn a language. On the other hand, it seems a bit harder to find learning materials for the Southern and Central dialects than for Northern Kurmanji.

When you speak of Central Kurmancî - do you mean Soranî? And then by "Southern dialect" you mean Goranî?

To be honest, I'm not sure if "my" Central Kurdish is Sorani or not. My mother and her family never referred to their language as "Sorani". They always said: "We speak Kurmanci". I only even heard the word "Sorani" when I got older and started looking for books, dictionaries, and so on.

The grammar we use is very "Sorani" in nature. For example, we use "Min" instead of "Ez", and no genders. And still, the vocabulary is the very close to what this website refers to as "Central", not "Southren": http://www.kurdishacademy.org

I have seen references to Sorani as both "Central" and "Southern", which is confusing. Maybe you can try and clarify for me?

hawk wrote:Hi everybody, I'm Hawk. I'm an Israeli woman of Jewish-Kurdish origin. My grandparents used to live in Dohuk.

I found the forums looking for Kurdish language websites - I'm trying to refresh my Kurmanci skills these days. (I used to speak well as a child, but I've forgotten a lot since then, mostly because I had nobody to talk to.)

Anyway, the forums look interesting and challenging. I'll be reading around a bit.

Hello Hawk,

Where in Kurdistan are your parents from? We met an Israeli kurd from Zaxho recently. Apparently he left for Israel in 1951. He spoke very fluent Kurdish, I was amazed. hope you enjoy this forum.

regards

Rubar

Hi Rubar, thanks for the welcome

My father's family is from Dohuk and my mother's family is from a village/town called Baninan, on the Zab river.

Like the person you met from Zaxho, my mother's family also came to Israel in 1951. This was the year that most Jews left Kurdistan and emigrated to Israel. However, my father's family left Kurdistan much earlier than that - in the early 40's.

There's a big community of people from Zaxo over here, as well as people from Suleymania, Irbil, Kirkuk, and many other places . Most Israeli/Jewish Kurds speak the language well (weather it's Kurmanji or Sorani or other dialects). We also listen to folk music from Kurdistan a lot, and at weddings, the brave of us will even wear the traditional clothes...

hawk , is there any place in israel which premotes kurdish language? like can childern of jewish kurds learn kurdish language in schools or is there any Radio.. or newspaper ?
I hope there is and if there is nt there should be some ... Jewish Kurds must remain kurds . we need them so much !

tell us how childern of jewish kurds, think about their identity , do they like to save their kurdish roots or they want to be assimulated ?

hawk wrote:To be honest, I'm not sure if "my" Central Kurdish is Sorani or not. My mother and her family never referred to their language as "Sorani". They always said: "We speak Kurmanci". I only even heard the word "Sorani" when I got older and started looking for books, dictionaries, and so on.

The grammar we use is very "Sorani" in nature. For example, we use "Min" instead of "Ez", and no genders. And still, the vocabulary is the very close to what this website refers to as "Central", not "Southren": http://www.kurdishacademy.org

I have seen references to Sorani as both "Central" and "Southern", which is confusing. Maybe you can try and clarify for me?

Let me help you out with that brother:

Colour code:
Green = North Kurmancî/Kurmancî = North Kurdish
Red = South Kurmancî/Soranî = Central Kurdish
Yellow/Blue = Zazakî/Kirmanckî/Dimilî/Goranî/Lakî/Kelhûrî/Kirmashanî = South Kurdish

Ps. I put the red dots there - because they have "given" too much to North Kurmancî - Hewlêr, Rewandiz (both in South Kurdistan) and Pawe, Shino (both in East Kurdistan) speak the Central Kurdish = Soranî...

And purple (for example Hewler)?

Welcome Hawk!!

UE_kurdophile wrote:And purple (for example Hewler)?

Welcome Hawk!!

Purple: Mixed areas... Places where you find a heavy mix of different dialects... Urban places lik Hewlêr... =)

hawk wrote:Hi everybody, I'm Hawk. I'm an Israeli woman of Jewish-Kurdish origin. My grandparents used to live in Dohuk.

I found the forums looking for Kurdish language websites - I'm trying to refresh my Kurmanci skills these days. (I used to speak well as a child, but I've forgotten a lot since then, mostly because I had nobody to talk to.)

Anyway, the forums look interesting and challenging. I'll be reading around a bit.

Hi Hawk