Kurdish alphabet
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The Kurdish alphabet is a writing system for the Kurdish language. Three systems currently exist. The form used in Turkey was derived from the Latin alphabet by Jaladat Ali Badirkhan in 1932, and thus is also called the Bedirxan script. It is used by Kurds in Turkey and Syria. A recent alphabet also exists called Yekgirtú, unified, this alphabet is however not used extensively.
Kurmanji AlphabetThe Kurmanji Kurdish dialect contains 31 letters: A, B, C, Ç, D, E, Ê, F, G, H, I, Î, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, Ş, T, U, Û, V, W, X, Y, Z There are seven vowels in this alphabet, four short and three long. The long vowels are represented using a circumflex. The short vowels are (E, I, U) and the long ones are (A, Ê, Î, O, Û). The Kurdish vowel system is almost the same as English [1]. The Turkish state does not recognise the alphabet, and use of the letters X, W, Q which do not exist in the Turkish alphabet have led to persecution in 2000 and 2003 (see [2], p.8, and [3]). Since September 2003, many Kurds have applied to the courts seeking to change their names to Kurdish ones written with the letters Q, W, and X but eventually failed.[1] Sorani AlphabetThe Sorani Kurdish dialect is mainly written using a modified Arabic-based alphabet with 33 letters. Unlike the regular Arabic alphabet, which is an abjad, Sorani is an alphabet in which vowels are mandatory, making the script easy to read. ى, ێ, ﮪ , ﻭﻭ, ﻭ , ﯙ , ﻥ , ﻡ , ﻝ, ڵ, ﮒ, ﮎ, ﻕ, ڤ, ﻑ, ﻍ, ﻉ, ﺵ, ﺱ, ﮊ, ﺯ, ڕ, ﺭ, ﺩ, ﺥ, ﺡ, ﭺ, ﺝ, ﺕ, ﭖ, ﺏ, ﺋ, ﺍ Kurds in Iraq and Iran mainly use this alphabet, though the Kurmanji alphabet is also in use. Cyrillic AlphabetA third system, used for the few (Kurmanji-speaking) Kurds in the former Soviet Union, uses a modified Cyrillic alphabet, consisting of 32 letters: А, Б, В, Г, Г', Д, Е, Ә, Ә́, Ж, З, И, Й, К, К', Л, М, Н, О, Ö, П, П', Р, Р', С, Т, Т', У, Ф, Х, Һ, Һ', Ч, Ч', Ш, Щ, Ь, Э, Q, W YekgirtúThe Yekgirtú alphabet is a recent creation. It has many advantages compared to the Kurmanji and Sorani alphabets. It is adapted for all Kurdish dialects and not exclusive to just one, and is therefore called Yekgirtú, which means "unified." It is also better adapted to the vowel-rich Kurdish language than to the Arabic script, and is also adapted to the modern-day IT and computer society, as it uses only letters that can be used by keyboards all over the world. The Yekgirtú alphabet consists of 34 letters: A, B, C, D, E, É, F, G, H, I, Í, J, Jh, K, L, ll, M, N, O, P, Q, R, rr, S, Sh, T, U, Ú, Ù, V, W, X, Y, Z Comparison of Kurmanji, Yekgirtú and Sorani Alphabets
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