Central Kurdish
| Central Kurdish | ||
|---|---|---|
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Central Kurdish and Sorani written in the Sorani alphabet | ||
| Native to | Iran, Iraq | |
| Region | Kurdistan | |
| Ethnicity | Kurds | |
Native speakers | 6.1 million (2023–2024) | |
Indo-European
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| Dialects |
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| Official status | ||
Official language in | ||
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-3 | ckb | |
| Glottolog | cent1972 | |
| Linguasphere | 58-AAA-cae | |
Geographic distribution of Kurdish and other Iranian languages spoken by Kurds
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Central Kurdish, also known as Sorani Kurdish, is a Kurdish language variety spoken in Iraq, mainly in Iraqi Kurdistan, as well as the Iranian provinces of Kurdistan, Kermanshah, and West Azerbaijan. Central Kurdish is one of the two official languages of Iraq, along with Arabic, and is in administrative documents simply referred to as "Kurdish".
The term Sorani, named after the Soran Emirate, refers to a variety of Central Kurdish based on the dialect spoken in Slemani. Central Kurdish is written in the Kurdo-Arabic alphabet, an adaptation of the Arabic script developed in the 1920s by Sa'ed Sidqi Kaban and Taufiq Wahby.