But few young Kurds speak Arabic, and even fewer young Arabs learn Kurdish. Signs on roads and official buildings in each region tend to be either in Arabic or in Kurdish, rarely both. If a second language is used, it is usually English.
Kurmanji is the language of the vast majority of Kurds in Turkey, Syria, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, and of a few in Iraq and Iran, with an estimated 15-17 million speakers in total. Sorani is the language of most Kurds in Iraq (4-6 million speakers) and Iran (5-6 million speakers).
Also, many of them have worked in Arab-speaking parts of Syria and the Arab world, meaning they'd at least understand. Kurds who live in Turkey and Iran generally don't know Arabic (in general, there are exceptions obviously).
There are a number of languages spoken in Iraq, but Mesopotamian Arabic (Iraqi Arabic) is by far the most widely spoken in the country. Arabic and Kurdish are both official languages in Iraq.
Kreyenbroek (1994) emphasized that the Kurdish language is only similar to Persian, as part of the Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family, but differs from Arabic and Turkish languages, just like English differs from French.
No, the Kurds are not Persian. They are a separate ethnic group. However, their language is an Indo-European language that is related to the Farsi language spoken by Persians.
Learning Kurdish can be hard in terms of grammar and learning resources, especially if you don't speak any middle-eastern language. The Kurmanji dialect can be easier for speakers of European languages because it uses the Latin alphabet, while the Sorani dialect uses the Arabic script.
The majority of Kurds are Sunni Muslim, with Alevi Shi'a Muslim, Christian, Jewish, and Yezidi communities. Religious divergences as well as varying political viewpoints account for a wide variety of Kurdish perspectives vis-à-vis the state, though political discourse is dominated by the Kurdish nationalist PKK.
Kurds are an Iranian people; the first known Indo-Iranians in the region were the Mitanni, who established a kingdom in northern Syria five centuries after the fall of Gutium. The Mitanni are believed to have spoken an Indo-Aryan language, or perhaps a pre-split Indo-Iranian language.
Language. The majority of people who identify as Kurds speak Kurmanji, meanwhile a minority of them speak Turkish or Zazaki as their mother language.
In Turkey, the only language of instruction in the education system is Turkish; Kurdish is not allowed as the primary language in the public education system. The Kurdish population of Turkey has long sought to have Kurdish included as a language of instruction in public schools as well as a subject.
Kurds in Lebanon are people born in or residing in Lebanon who are of full or partial Kurdish origin. Estimates on the number of Kurds in Lebanon prior to 1985 were around 60,000. Today, there are tens of thousands of Kurds in Lebanon, mainly in Beirut.
Mass conversion of Kurds to Islam didn't happen until the reign of Umar ibn Al-Khattab, second caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate between 634 and 644. The Kurds first came into contact with the Muslim armies during the Muslim conquest of Persia in 637.
Kurdish and Persian are linguistically sister languages and both are in the Iranian branch, much like how English and German can be considered sister languages of the Germanic branch.
Finally, our studies show that both Kurds and Turks are genetically original from Anatolian Peninsula and surrounding countries and that an apparent Asian genetic or Aryan invasion does not exist in the area.
From politicians and activists, to entrepreneurs and musicians, a range of well-known figures hail from the Kurdistan region. From creating the world's leading Greek yogurt brand to heroically protecting the rights of Kurdish people, prominent Kurdish figures have deeply impacted every society they've touched.
Zoroastrianism was one of the dominant religions in Kurdistan before the Islamic era. Currently, Zoroastrianism is an officially recognized religion in Iraqi Kurdistan and Iran and three Zoroastrian temples have opened in Iraqi Kurdistan after the official recognition of Zoroastrianism in the region in 2015.
Kurds (Kurdish: کورد, Kurd) or Kurdish people are an Iranian ethnic group native to the mountainous region of Kurdistan in Western Asia, which spans southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northern Syria.
Today, the position officially espoused by the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq is that Yezidism/Zoroastrianism was the original Kurdish religion; the Kurdish passport, which is not recognized outside of Kurdistan, features a Zoroastrian faravahr on the front cover.
Kurdish Christians are Kurds who follow Christianity. Though the majority of Kurds were Islamisized during the expansion of the Islamic caliphates in the 7th century, there still remained a number of Kurdish Christians.
The region was declared a closed military area from which foreigners were banned between 1925 and 1965. In an attempt to deny their existence, the Turkish government categorized Kurds as "Mountain Turks" until 1991. The words "Kurds", "Kurdistan", or "Kurdish" were officially banned by the Turkish government.
Based on this study we estimate the average Kurdish IQ ranges between 83 and 90. Vanhanen and Lynn argue that IQ and the Wealth of Nations analyses the relation between national IQ scores and measures of economic performance.
On the other hand, Kurdish is a Northwestern Iranian language like Balochi, Mazandarani and Gilaki. No. As a native Persian/Farsi speaker, I cannot understand Kurdish. I can pick out some words or phrases due to common lexicon but the grammar, phonology, and morphology is very different.
Kurdish, in general, is divided into three dialect groups, known as Northern Kurdish (or Kurmanji), Central Kurdish (or Sorani), and Southern Kurdish. Estimates put the total number of native Kurdish speakers between 30 and 40 million. Kurdish has a rich history in literature, poetry, and folklore.