Simply Sorani: A Brief Introduction to the Sorani Kurdish of Northern Iraq and Western Iran

Description

An aid for anyone who wishes to begin the study of Sorani.

This brief book is an aid for anyone who wishes to begin the study of Sorani. Second only to Kurmanji in importance, the dialect of Kurdish spoken primarily in Turkey, Sorani is spoken in Iraqi Kurdistan, and therefore is politically important for the Kurdish people.

This book is designed to take the beginner beyond the phrasebooks that are available. It contains a discussion of Sorani as a language, chapters with vocabulary, dialogs, and a description of the grammar. The language is presented in Latini, a Romanized script. Kurdo-Arabic is provided for the used of a Kurdish tutor. Kurdish is an Indo-European language family related to Farsi (Persian). Its grammar will seem quite complicated compared to the speaker of English, French, or German. The verb system in particular can be mastered only by memorization and mimicking a native speaker. What is given here is a foundation of simple, useful constructions.