Kurdish, Central
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A language of Iraq
4,000,000 (Leclerc 2014). Total users in all countries: 7,250,000.
Arbil, As Sulaymaniyah, At Ta’mim (Kirkuk), and Diyala governorates; Salah ad Din governorate: east of Tuz Khurmatu; all areas are south of Great Zab river; diaspora communities elsewhere.
2 (Provincial). Statutory provincial language in Kurdistan Region (2005, Constitution, Article 4(1)).
Hewleri (Arbili), Xoshnaw, Pizhdar, Suleimani (Silemani), Warmawa, Rewandiz, Bingird, Mukri, Kerkuki, Garmiyani. In Sulaimaniya, Hewleri and Kerkuki dialects seen as mutually intelligible. A member of macrolanguage Kurdish [kur].
SOV; no grammatical gender or case; noun head initial; tense-split ergative pattern; 9 vowel phonemes, 31 consonant phonemes (McCarus 2009).
All domains. Children learn it first. Positive attitudes. Used as L2 by Macho [hac].
Arabic script, Naskh variant [Arab].
Muslim.