Tackling the Divide in the Kurdish Language

Abstract This article is an autoethnographic account that traces the widening divide between Kurdish dialects in the age of nation-states. It aspires to problematize and go beyond the widespread gap characterizing the Kurdish language along two dialects and alphabets. From its emergence as a non-state language in the 1920s onward, Kurdish actors sought to revive Kurmanji Kurdish in Damascus, Beirut and Yerevan; and Sorani Kurdish in Sulaimaniya and Baghdad. While the Kurmanji side of the story and its actors have been studied to a certain degree, how Kurdish developed in Sulaimaniya and Baghdad has received little scholarly attention. Through its author’s autoethnographic account of acquiring literacy in both dialects which recently came to fruition at the Zheen Center for Documentation and Research in Sulaimaniya, this article provides some reflections on the story of the Kurdish language in the age of nation-states.