Kurds and Kurdish Language

The word Kurd is a name used both as a common noun and ethnonym in Turkish language since DLT. It can be thought that the word Kurd may be a proper noun used for Kurds who are a hybrid community and come from different origins, just like the word Bulgar, which is a Turkish word, has been accepted as a name for today’s Slavic Bulgarian community. Meanwhile some argue that Kurds come from Arabic, Iranian, Yaphetic, Armenian and Anatolian native tribes. It is known that the area which is called Kurdistan is around Zagros mountains. The Kurds in Turkey are Kurmanç. The history of the Kurds in Anatolia has a parallel time line with the sovereignty of Turks in Anatolia. At the result of the Shia-Sunni fighting between Ottoman State and Iran, Alewi Turkmens in Anatolia went to Iran and Sunni Turkmens and Kurds came to Anatolia. The population of the Kurds is not known exactly and quite different numbers are claimed. Kurdish language is generally thought to be a member of Indo-European family of languages. But it is argued by many researchers that Kurds have changed their language and their first language was rather different than the current one. Both vocabulary and grammatical structure show that Kurdish is a hybrid language. Kurmanci and Sorani are the most important dialects of Kurdish. Zazaki is not a dialect of Kurdish, it is a different language. According to the results of general census in 1965, native language of 7% of the people in Turkey is Kurdish.

Keywords

Kurd, Origin of Kurds, Kurdistan, Kurdish language, Dialects of Kurdish