Gorani language

This article is about the language spoken by Kurds. For the Slavic dialect, see Gorani dialect.

"Gurani language" redirects here. Not to be confused with the Guarani language.

Gorani (Kurdish: گۆرانی, romanized: Goranî, lit. 'song')^[5] also known by its main dialect; Hawrami (ھەورامی, romanized: Hewramî) is a Northwestern Iranian language spoken by ethnic Kurds in northeastern Iraq and western Iran^[6] and which with Zaza constitute the Zaza–Gorani languages.^{[3][lower-alpha 1]} Gorani is considered a Kurdish dialect by many researchers.^{[6][8][9][10]}

Gorani
گۆرانی Goranî
Native to	Iraq and Iran
Region	Kurdistan (Primarily Hawraman, also Garmian and Nineveh), Kermanshah province
Native speakers	120,000 (2008)[1]
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Iranian Western Northwestern[2] Zaza–Gorani Gorani
Dialects	Hewramî Şebekî[3] Sarlî[3] Bacelanî[4] Gawrajui
Writing system	Kurdish alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Variously: hac – Gorani (Gurani) sdb – Shabaki sdf – Sarli bjm – Bajelani
Glottolog	gura1251
ELP	Gurani Bajelani
Linguasphere	58-AAA-b
Gorani (Hawrami) is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Gorani is spoken in Iraq and Iran and has four dialects: Bajelani, Hawrami, and Sarli, some sources also include the Shabaki as a dialect of Gorani as well.^[3] Of these, Hawrami was the traditional literary language and koiné of Kurds in the historical Ardalan region at the Zagros Mountains,^[11][12] but has since been supplanted by Central Kurdish and Southern Kurdish.^[13] Gorani is a literary language for many Kurds.^[14]

Gorani had an estimated 180,000 speakers in Iran in 2007 and 120,000 speakers in Iraq as well in 2007 for a total of 300,000 speakers. Ethnologue reports that the language is threatened in both countries and that speakers residing in Iraq includes all adults and some children, however it does not mention if speakers are shifting to Sorani or not. Many speakers of Gorani in Iran also speak Sorani, Persian, as well as Southern Kurdish. Most speakers in Iraq also speak Sorani, while some also speak Mesopotamian Arabic.^[15]

Etymology

The name Goran appears to be of Indo-Iranian origin. The name may be derived from the old Avestan word, gairi, which means mountain.^[16]

Literature

Main article: Ardalan § Gorani Culture in Ardalan

Under the independent rulers of Ardalan (9th–14th / 14th–19th century), with their capital latterly at Sanandaj, Gorani became the vehicle of a considerable corpus of poetry. Gorani was and remains the first language of the scriptures of the Ahl-e Haqq sect, or Yarsanism, centered on Gahvara. Prose works, in contrast, are hardly known. The structure of Gorani verse is very simple and monotonous. It consists almost entirely of stanzas of two rhyming half-verses of ten syllables each, with no regard to the quantity of syllables.

Names of forty classical poets writing in Gorani are known, but the details of the lives and dates are unknown for the most part. Perhaps the earliest writer is Mele Perîşan, author of a masnavi of 500 lines on the Shi'ite faith who is reported to have lived around 1356–1431. Other poets are known from the 17th–19th centuries and include Shaykh Mustafa Takhtayi, Khana Qubadi, Yusuf Yaska, Mistefa Bêsaranî and Khulam Rada Khan Arkawazi. One of the last great poets to complete a book of poems (divan) in Gurani is Mawlawi Tawagozi south of Halabja.

Kurdish Shahnameh is a collection of epic poems that has been passed down through speech from one generation to the next, that eventually some stories were written down by Almas Khan-e Kanoule'ei in the eighteenth century. There exist also a dozen or more long epic or romantic masnavis, mostly translated by anonymous writers from Persian literature including: Bijan and Manijeh, Khurshid-i Khawar, Khosrow and Shirin, Layla and Majnun, Shirin and Farhad, Haft Khwan-i Rostam and Sultan Jumjuma. Manuscripts of these works are currently preserved in the national libraries of Berlin, London, and Paris.

Example of Gorani poetry

Şîrîn û Xesrew written in 1740 by Khana Qubadî.

Herçen mewaçan: Fersî şekeren Kurdî ce şeker bell şîrînteren Yeqînen ce dewr dunyay pirr endêş Herkes dillşaden we ziwan wêş	Although it's said that Persian is sweet as sugar, But, for me Kurdish is sweeter than sugar Clearly, in this perfidious world, Everyone is happy with his own beautiful mother tongue.
—Xana Qubadî: from Şîrîn û Xesrew

^[17]

Dialects

Bajelani

Bajelani is a Gorani dialect^[3] with about 59,000 speakers, predominately around Mosul,^[18] near Khanaqin and near the Khosar valley.^[6]

Hawrami

Hawrami (هەورامی; Hewramî) also known as Avromani, Awromani or Horami, is a Gorani dialect and is regarded as the most archaic one.^[19] It is mostly spoken in the Hawraman region, a mountainous region located in western Iran (Iranian Kurdistan) and northeastern Iraq (Iraqi Kurdistan). There are around 23,000 speakers, and it was classed as "definitely endangered" by UNESCO in 2010.^[20]

Due to concerns with the decline of Hawrami speakers, as people move away from the Hawraman region to cities like Erbil, Jamal Habibullah Faraj Bedar, a retired teacher from Tawela, decided to translate the Qur'an from Arabic into Hawrami. The translation took two and a half months and 1000 copies of the publication were printed in Tehran.^[20]

Sarli

Sarli is spoken in northern Iraq by a cluster of villages^[21] north of the Little Zab river,^[22] on the confluence of the Khazir River and the Great Zab river, just west-northwest of the city of Kirkuk.^[23] It has fewer than 20,000 speakers.^[24] Many speakers have been displaced by conflicts in the region.^[25] It is reportedly most similar to Bajelani^[25] but is also similar to Shabaki.^[26] It contains Kurdish, Turkish and Persian influences, like its neighbours Bajelani and Shabaki.^[27]

Shabaki

Main article: Shabaki language

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Glottal
Nasal		m		n
Plosive	aspirated	pʰ		tʰ	t͡ʃʰ	kʰ	q		[ʔ]
	voiced	b		d	d͡ʒ	ɡ
Fricative	voiceless	f		s	ʃ	x		ħ	h
	voiced	(v)	ð	z	ʒ		(ʁ)	(ʕ)
Lateral	plain			l
	velarized			ɫ
Rhotic	tap			ɾ
	trill			r
Approximant		w			j

All voiceless plosives and affricates are aspirated.

• A glottal stop [ʔ] may be heard before a word-initial vowel, but is not phonemic.
• Sounds /ʕ ʁ/ only occur in loanwords.
• /x/ can also be heard as [χ] among different dialects.
• /q/ can also be aspirated as [qʰ].
• The voiced /d/ may be lenited in post-vocal positions, and occur as a voiced dental approximant [ð̞]. In the Nawsud dialects, /d/ can be heard as an alveolar approximant sound [ɹ], and may also be devoiced when occurring in word-final positions as [ɹ̥].
• In the Nawsud and Nodša dialects, a word-initial /w/ can be heard as a [v] or a labialized [vʷ].
• /n/ when preceding velar consonants, is heard as a velar nasal [ŋ].

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Near-close	ɪ		ʊ
Close-mid	e		o
Mid		ə
Open-mid	ɛ		ɔ
Near-open	æ
Open		a

• Sounds /æ ə/ both can be realized as an open-mid [ɛ].^[28]

Hawrami Grammar

Nouns

• Hawrami distinguishes between two genders and two cases; Masculine & Feminine, and Nominative & Oblique. The two cases are otherwise referred to as the Direct and Indirect Cases.

Gender distinctions in nouns are indicated by a combination of final stress and vowel/consonant ending. Masculine nouns in the nominative form are indicated by a stressed "-O", -Δ, "-U", "-E", "-A" and all consonant endings. Feminine nouns are indicated by an unstressed "-E", "-Î", a stressed "-Ê" and rarely, a stressed "-A".

There are 3 declensions. The declensions of each gender will be demonstrated as an example.

First Declension (Masculine Consonant Ending; Feminine Short Unstressed Vowel Ending)

• Masculine : Kur (Boy)
• Feminine : Xatune (Queen)

Second Declension (Masculine Stressed Short Vowel Ending; Feminine Stressed "-Ê” Ending)

• Masculine : Yane (House)
• Feminine : Namê (Name)

Third Declension (Stressed Long "-A" Ending)

• Masculine : Pîya (Man)
• Feminine : Dega (Village)

Source^[29]

First Declension	Masculine	Feminine
Nominative Singular	-ø	-e,î
Oblique Singular	-î	-ê
Nominative Plural	-ê	-ê,î
Oblique Plural	-'a	-'a

Second Declension	Masculine	Feminine
Nominative Singular	-'e,-'î,-'o,-'u	-'ê
Oblique Singular	-'ey,-'î,-'oy,-'uy	-'ê
Nominative Plural	-'ê,-'ê,-'oê,-'uê	-'ê
Oblique Plural	-'a,-'a,-o'a,-,u'a	-'a

Third Declension	Masculine	Feminine
Nominative Singular	-'a	-'a
Oblique Singular	-'ay	-'ê
Nominative Plural	-'ê	-'ê
Oblique Plural	-ay'a	-ay'a

Note: " ' " indicates syllable followed will be stressed

In Hawrami, definiteness and indefiniteness is marked by two independent suffixes, "-ew", and "-(a)ka". These suffixes decline for case and gender. The indefinite suffix "-ew" is declined by the first declension pattern while the definite suffix "-(a)ka" follows the second declension paradigm

Personal Pronouns

	Singular	Plural
First Person	Min	Êm'e
Second Person	To	Şim'e

Third Person	Masculine	Feminine	Plural
Nominative	Að̞	'Aðe	'Aðê
Oblique	'Aðî	'Aðê	Aðîş'a

Gallery

• 
  Partial tree of Indo-European languages.^[30]

References

1. Gorani (Gurani) at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
   Shabaki at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
   Sarli at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
   Bajelani at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
2. A Working Classification
3. "Gurani". Iranica Online. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
4. "Bajalan". Iranica Online. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
5. Gunter, Michael M. (2018). Historical Dictionary of the Kurds. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 127. ISBN 978-1538110508.
6. Leezenberg, Michiel (1993). "Gorani Influence on Central Kurdish: Substratum or Prestige Borrowing?" (PDF). ILLC - Department of Philosophy, University of Amsterdam.
7. Jügel, Thomas (15 July 2016). "Parvin Mahmoudveysi, Denise Bailey. The Gorani language of Zarda, a village of West Iran". Abstracta Iranica. 34–36. doi:10.4000/abstractairanica.41149. ISSN 0240-8910.
8. Tavadze, G. (2019). "Spreading of the Kurdish language dialects and writing systems used in the middle east". Bulletin of the Georgian National Academy of Sciences. 13 (1): 170–174. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
9. Sheyholislami, Jaffer (2015). "Language Varieties of the Kurds". In Taucher, W.; Vogl, M.; Webinger, P. (eds.). The Kurds: History, religion, language, politics. Vienna: Austrian Ministry of the Interior. pp. 30–51.
10. Hassani, Hossein; Medjedovic, Dzejla (February 2016). "Automatic Kurdish Dialects Identification". Computer Science & Information Technology ( CS & IT ). pp. 61–78. doi:10.5121/csit.2016.60307. ISBN 9781921987489. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
11. Ara, Behrooz Chaman (2015). Chaman Ara, Behrooz. The Kurdish Shahnama and its Literary and Religious Implications. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. ISBN 978-1511523493.
12. "چمن‌آرا، ب، "درآمدی بر ادب حماسی و پهلوانی کُردی با تکیه بر شاهنامه کُردی"، جستارهای ادبی، سال چهل و چهارم، بهار ۱۳۹۰، شماره ۱۷۲".
13. Meri, Josef W., Medieval Islamic Civilization: A–K, index. p. 444
14. Ara, Behrooz Chaman; Amiri, Cyrus (8 August 2018). "Gurani: practical language or Kurdish literary idiom?". British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies. 45 (4): 627–643. doi:10.1080/13530194.2018.1430536. ISSN 1353-0194. S2CID 148611170.
15. Gorani language at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
16. Peterson, Joseph H. "Avestan Dictionary".
17. Xanay Qubadî, Şîrîn û Xesrew, (Saxkirdnewey Ferheng û Pîşekî: Muhemmed Mela Kerîm), Korrî Zanyarî Kurd, Bexda 1975.
18. "Bajelani". Ethnologue. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
19. "Avromani". Iranica Online. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
20. Menmy, Dana Taib (31 January 2020). "Teacher translates Quran to save endangered Kurdish dialect". Al-Monitor. Retrieved 3 February 2020.
21. Bruinessen, Martin Van (1 January 2000). Mullas, Sufis and Heretics: The Role of Religion in Kurdish Society : Collected Articles. Isis Press. p. 20. ISBN 9789754281620.
22. Division, Naval Intelligence (3 September 2014). Iraq & The Persian Gulf. Routledge. p. 329. ISBN 9781136892660.
23. Sinor, Denis (1 January 1956). Proceedings of the Twenty-Third International Congress of Orientalists, Cambridge, 21st-28th August, 1954. Royal Asiatic Society. p. 178.
24. "Sarli". Ethnologue. Retrieved 7 November 2023.
25. "Sarli". Ethnologue. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
26. Bruinessen, Martin Van (1 January 2000). Mullas, Sufis and Heretics: The Role of Religion in Kurdish Society : Collected Articles. Isis Press. p. 300. ISBN 9789754281620.
27. Nations, League of; Wirsén, Einar Thure af (1 January 1925). Question de la frontière entre la Turquie et l'Irak (in French). Imprimeries réunies, s.a.
28. Mahmoudveysi, Parvin; Bailey, Denise (2018). Hawrāmī of western Iran. Geoffrey Haig and Geoffrey Khan (eds.), The Languages and Linguistics of Western Asia: Berlin: DeGruyter Mouton. pp. 533–568.
29. D. N., Mackenzie (1966). "Hawramani - Luhoni" (PDF).
30. "worldhistory". worldhistory.com by Multiple authors. Retrieved 19 December 2021.

Textbooks

• D. N. MacKenzie (1966). The Dialect of Awroman (Hawraman-i Luhon). Kobenhavn. drive.google.com

Further reading

• Karim, Shuan Osman; Gholami, Saloumeh, eds. (2024). Gorani in its Historical and Linguistic Context. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. doi:10.1515/9783111168852.

Notes

1. The speakers of Gorani considered their language as Kurdish.^[7]