Translation: A standardised language is the soul of a country

Disclaimer

This article does not in any way represent my own opinion. I have chosen it because it discusses something that interests me and I wanted to practice translating a long text from Sorani Kurdish to English. I also think that this article can give an insight into one of the views held on the matter of standardising the Kurdish language, however, I personally suggest you take most of what is said here with a large dose of salt. The writer of the original text claims to use a scientific method when dealing with the issue of a standardised language, but his arguments are riddled with flaws, inaccuracies and bias. I find myself on quite the opposite end of the argument and regard his suggestions here as even somewhat dangerous. That said, please do read it and maybe learn something about what is quite a big issue in Kurdish culture at the moment. In time maybe I will write my own response to it.

Translation: Helgurd Sekran National Park to be added to the Iraqi map.

By : Ramal Qesreyi
Translation : Alex Berry 

Sorani gloss

This is a post I've wanted to make for a while, it's a simple gloss of three sentences in Sorani showing a little of how the syntax in this language works. For reference, '-EZ' means ezafe which is the vowel used to link together two nouns or a noun and an adjective.

Hawleri Sorani Kurdish

I've been living in Kurdistan for about two months now and have really got into studying Kurdish. As I have explained in other posts, the Kurdish dialect (or language) that they speak in Iraq and southern Iran is called Sorani. The standard dialect of Sorani is based in the east of Kurdistan, around the towns of Soran, Sulaymaniyah (Slêmanî in Kurdish) and down to Kirkuk. In some ways this is the cultural and linguistic capital of the region. The speakers there sum for a much purer Kurdish without all the Arabic and Turkish loanwords and calques. This is also seen as some sort of standard of Sorani Kurdish and thus is the style that other Sorani speakers will imitate when trying to speak formally or correctly. This can be compared to RP in England.