Sorani, also known as Central Kurdish, is a Northwestern Iranian language predominantly spoken in the southern half of the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq and Western Iran, in particular Kurdistan, Kermanshah, and West Azerbaijan provinces. Sorani has been a long-standing literary language with significantly divergent yet mutually intelligible dialects that share vocabulary, morphology, phonology, and syntax. Grammatically, Sorani has parallels with languages closely related in the Western Iranian language family, primarily Persian and Kurmanji (Northern Kurdish), but also Luri and Southern Kurdish dialects.
The following describes the phonology of Sorani in the standardized format used in education, administration, and media, based on the Sulaymaniyah dialect. Distinct features of specific dialects are indicated alongside when relevant.
Vowels Sorani has eight vowels. These vowels can be differentiated by their length and quality. However, vowel length is not a phonemically distinguishing feature, as one vowel phoneme is by default either long or short. There are five long and three short phonemes.
The table below shows the vowel inventory of Sorani. + Vowel inventory of Sorani Front CentralBack Close Near-close Close-mid Near-open Open
Length Long vowels are the five tense vowels given as //, //, //, //, and // that are commonly found in other languages of the world and also known as a typical 5-vowel system. They are realized at least half a length longer than the short ones in pronunciation. Short vowels are the three more central vowels //, //, and //.
Diphthongs It is argued that Sorani possesses at least a certain set of diphthongs. More commonly appearing diphthongs are;
- One group is the combination of a vowel with the front high unrounded vowel // (or velar glide //).
//: /taːir/ ~ /taːjr/ "bird", /maːi/ ~ /maːj/ "wine" //: //: /boːi/ ~ /boːj/ "for",
- The other group is the combination of a vowel with the back high rounded vowel // (or labiovelar glide //).
//: /plaːu/ ~ /plaːw/ "rice", /aːu/ ~ /aːw/ "water" //: /seu/ ~ /sew/ "apple", //: /toːu/ ~ /toːw/
McKenzie argues for the existence of the diphthong in Sulaymaniyah //, which is more generally described as //.
Schwa
The existence of schwa is argued as a realization of the dental stop set (, ) gone through lenition, acting as an allophone in certain dialects around Sulaimania.
As an extension; a third set of diphthongs with schwa is also proposed as an allophonic realization.
// // // // // //
Consonants In total there are twenty-six consonants in Sorani. With the descriptions of dialects sometimes this number jumps to twenty-nine. The Sorani orthography allows writing twenty-eight of those consonants.
The table below shows the consonant inventory commonly found in Sorani. Sounds in parentheses represent commonly observed phonemes that are sometimes not found depending on the dialect.
+ Consonant inventory of Sorani LabialLabio-DentalAlveolarPalatalVelarUvularPharyngealGlottalPlosive Fricative () () Nasal () Approximant Lateral Tap/flap Trill
Orthography
Sorani adopted a modified form of Perso-Arabic script developed by Taufiq Wahby in 1920's and first used in 1923. It is designed as an almost true alphabet; unlike the (Perso)-Arabic script which is an abjad, in Sorani alphabet all sounds, including vowels, are represented.
The differentiation between semiwovel glides their vowel counterpart depend on the context; و stands for both and , likewise ی can represent either or . Long back round vowel is marked with repeating vowel وو.
The current alphabet includes 34 characters, including the character hamza for marking vowels. The duplicated وو is considered its own character.
Sorani alphabet12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031323334Isolated formsئـابپتجچحخدرڕزژسشعغفڤقکگلڵمنھەوووۆیێIPA Values,,
See also Kurdish phonology Kurmanji phonology Notes
References