Regional variation in Kurmanji: A preliminary classification of dialects

Abstract

Investigation of the regional variation in Kurmanji, especially its varieties spoken in Turkey, has been almost entirely neglected in the existing literature on Kurdish. In addition to earlier isolated examinations of Kurmanji dialects (cf. MacKenzie, 1961; Ritter, 1971, 1976; Blau, 1975; Jastrow, 1977), native-speaker researchers have recently provided a substantial amount of dialect material across the Kurmanji-speech zone. However, a methodologically-informed evaluation of these observations into a dialect classification is yet to be undertaken. This article aims at providing an initial classification of Kurmanji-internal variation into major regional dialects, based on lexical, phonological and morphosyntactic data collected from five localities in Southeastern Turkey.