The Complicated Task of Standardizing the Kurdish Language
Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2012 8:44 pm
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Though it is the second official language of Iraq, Kurdish is unique among most official state languages in that it has never been standardized into a common linguistic and grammatical system.
Largely organized under two broad dialects -- Sorani, spoken in Iraq and eastern Kurdish areas, and Kurmanji, spoken in western areas including Turkey -- along with other minor dialects, Kurdish has remained a fractured language with varying structural systems, making standard educational curricula, government services and other areas difficult.
Now, efforts are underway through the combined work of academics, non-governmental organizations and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to move the Kurdish language towards standardization. The efforts are geared towards establishing the elements of a “lingua franca,” or a working, communicable language.
“This issue affects every single Kurd no matter where he or she might be,” said Dr. Ahmed Ferhadi, a professor of linguistics at New York University and an expert on the Kurdish language. “From the 3-year-old child to the elderly, it affects every single person … it’s something that every Kurd uses on a daily basis.”
“It is deplorable that more and more Kurds are becoming interested in regionalism, rather than a pan-Kurdish language where you’d have one unified language or at least one language that you can use in any part of Kurdistan,” said Ferhadi, noting that some people have called for two standards – one for Kurmanji speakers, and another for Sorani.
Last September, the KRG Ministry of Youth and Culture hosted a conference attended by academics, lawyers and government officials to identify an effective strategy towards standardizing the Kurdish language.
Nawzad Abdul-Aziz Salih, a senior advisor at the Ministry of Youth and Culture, explained some features of the conference: “We discussed the characteristics of the Kurdish language, including the Kurdish alphabet, Latin and Arabic script … whether studying scientific modules in the Kurdish language would be successful or not, the status of the Kurdish language in other parts of Kurdistan and comparing Turkish Kurdistan’s language with the language of Iraqi Kurdistan.”
Salih pointed out that the process will take more than a conference or series of workshops. “Standardizing the Kurdish language is something that needs time and is closely linked with economic and scientific perspectives,” he said.
While the Ministry of Culture helped organize the conference, Salih emphasized that all debate and negotiations were left to “only the experts; the government does not interfere in that manner.”
However, Ferhadi noted, “Political party affiliation has produced its own trademark of language.” For example, officials might include both the Kurmanji and Sorani version of a word back to back in a public speech, causing unnecessary complications.
“At a time when the [KRG] tries to bring people together and start some dialogue towards a standard Kurdish language, or a lingua franca … they themselves, in the government, have also created a dichotomy,” the professor said.
Last week, a workshop was held in Kurdish Parliament which focused on creating a draft law to organize efforts to standardize the Kurdish language.
“Many articles may be drafted, and one of them may be about teaching Kurdish language in the other parts of Iraq,” Salih noted.
Critics of the efforts towards standardization allege that the measure lacks popular support, and some view the dialects of Kurdish as something to be nurtured.
However, Salih said, “There is no doubt that [people] on the street are with us. The street was the place where language developed, but this development was arbitrary, and now we have to control it.”
Mohammed Palasin, a speaker of the Sorani dialect, is old enough to remember when Arabic was forcibly taught by Saddam Hussein’s regime throughout the 1980s and 90s.
He says, “I never really wanted to learn Arabic, but I spoke it in school when Saddam tried to kill the Kurdish language.”
Today, he believes the only way to ensure the continued existence of Kurdish is to create a standard language.
“Often, we are separated by what dialect someone speaks … instead, we should be making the language stronger for many years to come by creating one system,” Palasin said.
However, Mazin Hawati, a Kurd from Turkey, maintains that efforts should instead focus on developing the dialects themselves, pointing to a wide gulf in the differences that would have to be bridged for a standard language to be effective.
“I don’t think it will ever happen. There are just too many differences, and we should not waste time with this. Maybe we should just organize the dialects,” said Hawati.
Ferhadi believes one possible long-term solution is to try to bring up a generation that speaks both dialects. “It’s not farfetched. Look at the Kurdish leadership … they switch seamlessly from one dialect to the other, and you don’t even feel it. So why not start with that?”
The issue has implications for the whole of Iraq, Ferhadi said, adding, “When they start teaching Kurdish in Basra, what kind will it be?”