Southern Kurdish

E169403

Southern Kurdish is a major variety of the Kurdish language spoken primarily in parts of western Iran and eastern Iraq, distinguished by its own phonological and lexical features.

All labels observed (3)

Label Occurrences
Southern Kurdish canonical 4
Kurdish, Southern 1
Southern Kurdi 1

How this entity was disambiguated

Statements (50)

Predicate Object
instanceOf Iranian language
Kurdish language variety
Northwest Iranian language
Western Iranian language
language
closelyRelatedTo Central Kurdish (Sorani)
Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji)
linked to: Kurdish language
hasAlternativeName Kurdish, Southern
linked to: Southern Kurdish

Southern Kurdi
linked to: Southern Kurdish

Xwarînî (in some local usage)
hasDialect Bayrayi
Feyli
Ilami
Kalhori
Kermanshahi
linked to: Kermanshah

Laki (often classified with Southern Kurdish by some linguists)
Malekshahi
hasLexicalFeature loanwords from Arabic
many unique lexical items not shared with other Kurdish varieties
strong influence from Persian
hasPhonologicalFeature distinct vowel system compared to Sorani and Kurmanji
preservation of some archaic Iranian phonemes
hasStatus minority language in Iran
minority language in Iraq
hasWritingSystem Latin script (non-standard, occasional use)
Perso-Arabic script
isMutuallyIntelligibleWith partially mutually intelligible with Central Kurdish
partially mutually intelligible with Northern Kurdish
ISO639-3 sdh
languageBranch Northwestern Iranian languages
languageFamily Indo-European languages
Indo-Iranian languages
Iranian languages
partOf Kurdish language continuum
region Baghdad (Feyli Kurdish communities)
Diyala Governorate
Ilam Province
Kermanshah Province
Lorestan Province (parts)
linked to: Lorestan Province

Wasit Governorate
spokenBy Kurdish people
linked to: Kurds

Southern Kurds
linked to: Kurds
spokenIn Iran
Iraq
spokenPrimarilyIn eastern Iraq
linked to: Eastern Iraq

western Iran
subdivisionOf Kurdish
usedIn folk music
local media (radio, TV, online)
oral literature

How these facts were elicited

Referenced by (6)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Kurdish language hasDialect Southern Kurdish
Kurmanji closelyRelatedTo Southern Kurdish
Southern Kurdish hasAlternativeName Kurdish, Southern
linked to: Southern Kurdish
Southern Kurdish hasAlternativeName Southern Kurdi
linked to: Southern Kurdish
Hewrami isDistinctFrom Southern Kurdish
Western Iranian languages hasSubdivision Southern Kurdish