Kurdish (Kurmanji) Beginners Course at SOAS

[paper-tiger]

School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London, UK, has a Kurdish lanugage course called Kurdish (Kurmanji) Beginners Course

I have tried to get hold of the teacher of this course many many times but without luck (he never seems to be in his office!!). I wanted to ask whether what he teaches will be appropriate to the dialect of Kurdish my parents speak, they are from Zakho. Is Kurmanhi suitable?

I was London born and dropped Kurdish when I was 5 years old because it was then that my mother started learning English and decided to practice on me. So now I cannot speak more than 5 words of Kurdish and since I've never visited Zahko, am very very keen to go in spring next year.

Is it worth taking this course, even though it probably is not 100% the dialect spoken in Zakho (this is my guess, please correct me if I am wrong). Am I making more trouble for msyelf? Should I just wait to go to Zakho and learn as I go along?

Has anyone taken this course at SOAS? How was it? Anyone want to take the course with me? It costs £280 and lasts 10 weeks.

[Kulka]

i think i heard about it from DR Jawad Mella from Kurdish Museum. as i guess in zaxo people speak badhini, which is in fact kurmandji - or very very similiar, but i am really not 100% sure, so i think my wise Brothers or Sisters here should help to answer to this problem.

[heval.s]

I am a native born Zaxo guy. Yes, we speak Bahdini, I do not know if its the same as Kurmançi or a different dialect of Kurmançi. As Diri mentioned in another thread, we southern Kurdistan natives have mixed Arabic words in our language. So it is different than Sorani.

From page 12 of the book "Kurds and Kurdistan", shared in this thread http://northerniraq.info/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=5278:

Sixth: (The Kurdish Language Dialects)
1) Northern Kermanji:
It is spoken in Kurdistan of Turkey, Syria, North Kurdistan of Iran, and West Kurdistan of Iraq.
The Northern Kermanji is also commonly known as Bahdini (Badini) in Iraqi Kurdistan.
2) Southern Kermanji:
It is spoken in East and South Kurdistan of Iraq, and in the mid region of Kurdistan of Iran.
The Southern Kermanji is also commonly known as Sorani in Iraqi Kurdistan.
3) Kermanshahi (including Faili):
It is spoken in South Kurdistan of Iraq, and South Kurdistan of Iran.
4) Hawramani (Hawrami) and Gorani:
It is spoken in the middle part of eastern Kurdistan of Iraq and the middle part of western Kurdistan of
Iran. Also the Gorani is spoken in one part of West Kurdistan of Iraq.
5) Zaza:
It is spoken in Northwest Kurdistan of Turkey.

hope that helps. Sidenote: the easiest Sorani dialect to understand by my father and relatives is Sulamaniyah Sorani dialect, the others are usually too difficult to understand. It's weird that Kurds have so much dialects but it makes us more interesting, cultured people!

[Hawara Kurmanjan]

FYI:

Dear chatters:

I noticed your discussion on the Kurmanji course and the comparison with Bahdini: It is your lucky day that I visited this web site .
I am a Kurdish linguist and a Ph.D student in Indo-European languages emphasis.

For the young student who is inquiring whether his/her parents speak the same dialect since they are from Zaxo:
Yes. Absolutely! Bahdini is a region in Southern Kurdistan, Zaxo does not fall under Bahdinan region, it falls under the Botan region. This dates back to the Kurdish principalities during Prince Bedirxan. Therefore, people in Zaxo speak closest to the standard northern Kurmanji which is the Botani dialect of the greater northern Kurmanji. So please go ahead and take the class. Your language is your identity. You will be proud of your identity and learning an Indo-European language that is one of the riches languages among the languages of the world. It is indeed, an honor to be a speaker of a language that was the official language of the Median Empire (northern Kurmanji).

Further, Bahdini is a sub-dialect of the greater northern Kurmanji and in fact it still holds some of the oldest and most original linguistic features that the standard Kurmanji has lost over the years. We must treasure it. Even different towns of London have certain accents and vocabulary that differ from the other towns, but overall it is still English. So we can speak Botani, Bahdini, and so on, it is still northern Kurmanji.

[Kulka]

thank you dear friend for your information. but i am still looking for my lucky day when i will be able to find a sorani teacher who will live near Wolverhampton

[kurd-sthanam]

FYI:

Dear chatters:

I noticed your discussion on the Kurmanji course and the comparison with Bahdini: It is your lucky day that I visited this web site .
I am a Kurdish linguist and a Ph.D student in Indo-European languages emphasis.

For the young student who is inquiring whether his/her parents speak the same dialect since they are from Zaxo:
Yes. Absolutely! Bahdini is a region in Southern Kurdistan, Zaxo does not fall under Bahdinan region, it falls under the Botan region. This dates back to the Kurdish principalities during Prince Bedirxan. Therefore, people in Zaxo speak closest to the standard northern Kurmanji which is the Botani dialect of the greater northern Kurmanji. So please go ahead and take the class. Your language is your identity. You will be proud of your identity and learning an Indo-European language that is one of the riches languages among the languages of the world. It is indeed, an honor to be a speaker of a language that was the official language of the Median Empire (northern Kurmanji).

Further, Bahdini is a sub-dialect of the greater northern Kurmanji and in fact it still holds some of the oldest and most original linguistic features that the standard Kurmanji has lost over the years. We must treasure it. Even different towns of London have certain accents and vocabulary that differ from the other towns, but overall it is still English. So we can speak Botani, Bahdini, and so on, it is still northern Kurmanji.

xêr hatî kekê Hawara Kurmancan, nice to meet linguist here I speak also kurmanji, but very different from standart, dialect spoken in central anatolia, adiyaman, maras, malatya, urfa. I could not understand standart kurmanji before, but I have learned a little to speak and understand it almost complete now. But i have still problems. I have found this on wikipedia:

Ezê nanê di xwum (Present continuous)
I am eating the meal

Min nan di xuard (Past continuous)
I was eating the meal

Min nanê xwardi (Presnt perfect)
I have eaten the meal

Min nan xwardi (Past perfect)
I had eaten the meal

but it is correct?? I always use this in every day (i have standardized the words for better understand):

Ezê nanê di xwum (Present continuous) ------ ez nanê dixwume
I am eating the meal

Min nan di xuard (Past continuous) ------ same
I was eating the meal

Min nanê xwardi (Presnt perfect) ------- Min nan xward
I have eaten the meal

Min nan xwardi (Past perfect) ------ Min nan xwarî bû
I had eaten the meal

(1) Present simple tense : I go = Ez di çim ---- ez di rê me / ez dicime
(2) Past simple tense : I went = Ez çum -----
(3) Future simple tense : I shall go = Ez dê çim ------- ez herime
(4) Future simple in the past : I should go = Ez dê bi çim ------- ezê bichuyama

should I‌ use bedir xan's easy kurmanji? or do you prefer other books/sources?? ji nihada spas