Kurdish alphabets

The Kurdish people have several ways to write their language, which helps them share their stories and culture. One common way is the Bedirxan alphabet, which uses letters from the Latin alphabet, just like the one you're reading now. This was created by a person named Celadet Alî Bedirxan in 1932 and became popular in a magazine called Hawar magazine. Another way is the Kurdo-Arabic alphabet, which uses letters from the Arabic script.

Different places often use different alphabets. For example, the Hawar alphabet is mainly used in Syria and Turkey, while the Kurdo-Arabic alphabet is used more in Iraq and Iran. In the Kurdistan Region, people have agreed on a standard way to write Central Kurdish, and this can be used on computers thanks to special coding rules.

There were also other alphabets used in the past, like ones based on Armenian and Cyrillic scripts. These were used in places like the Soviet Union, especially in areas such as the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic and Kurdistansky Uyezd. Even today, Southern Kurdish does not have one main way to write it, so people sometimes use different methods.

Hawar alphabet

The Hawar alphabet is used to write Kurdish languages like Zazaki and Kurmanji. It uses the regular Latin alphabet, which has 26 letters, plus 5 extra letters with special marks, making a total of 31 letters. This helps show the different sounds in Kurdish words.

When Celadet Alî Bedirxan introduced this alphabet in his magazine called Hawar, he added special marks to some letters to show sounds from Arabic. These marks help make sure words from other languages are written clearly.

Turkey did not accept this alphabet at first. Letters like Q, W, and X were not part of the Turkish alphabet until 2013. Now, these letters are allowed in Turkish. The Hawar alphabet was created in 1932 by Celadet Bedirxan and his brother Kamuran Alî Bedirxan to make it easier for Kurds in Turkey to read and write their language.

Kurdo-Arabic alphabet

Many Kurdish languages, especially Sorani, use a special writing style based on the Perso-Arabic script with 33 letters created by Sa'id Kaban Sedqi. This writing style treats vowels almost the same as consonants, which is different from the Persian alphabet. It helps show the sounds of Central Kurdish clearly.

The Kurdish Academy suggested a new order for these letters as the standard, and all of them are included in the Central Kurdish Unicode Keyboard:

This alphabet has 34 letters, including a special one for وو. People in Iraq and Iran use this alphabet. Even though the Kurdistan Region uses a specific letter for kaf, some people and groups still use a different version.

Vowels

Central Kurdish has eight vowels, and most of them are shown with special letters:

Just like in English, the letters و (u) and ی (î) can sometimes act like consonants. In words like وان (Wan) and یاری (play), و and ی are consonants. Central Kurdish needs at least one vowel in each part of a word, but no more than two vowels are allowed.

Historical alphabets

Purported old Kurdish script

An old book from the 9th century talks about a Kurdish alphabet and books written in Kurdish. However, many people think this book might not be totally true, and there are no other books that prove Kurdish was written back then.

Cyrillic alphabet

A special version of the Russian letters was used by some Kurds in old Armenia. It had 40 letters and was made in 1946.

Armenian alphabet

From 1921 to 1929, Kurds in old Armenia used a changed version of Armenian letters to write their language.

Soviet Latin alphabet

In 1928, Kurds in the old Soviet Union started using letters from the Latin alphabet, but with some Russian letters added.

In 1929, the alphabet was changed again.

This Soviet Latin alphabet is not used anymore.

Yezidi script

See also: Yezidi (Unicode block)

The Yezidi script is written from right to left and was used for a special Kurdish language. Some think it is very old, from the 1300s or 1400s, while others think it was made later, in the 1700s or 1800s. We do not know who made it, but it was used in two important books.

In 2013, leaders of the Yazidi people decided to bring back this special writing for prayers and religious books. Today, it is used in a temple in Tbilisi for writing the names of important Yazidi people. A book of Yazidi prayers was also written using this script.

Comparison of Kurdish alphabets

See also: IPA for Kurdish