Language Scientific’s Kurdish Translation Services

Language Scientific provides high quality Kurdish Translation services, supplying technical, medical and scientific translation, localization and interpreting into and out of Kurdish, including all Kurdish dialects (Kurmanji, Sorani, Kermanshahi and Gorani). We are a US-based language services company serving over 1,500 global corporations. Our specialization, focus, industry-leading quality management standards and customer-centered attitude have earned us the trust of many of the world’s best technology, engineering, biomedical and pharmaceutical companies.

Language Scientific has two divisions—Technical and Engineering Localization and Translation Services Division and Medical and Pharmaceutical Localization and Translation Services Division. Both groups provide a full range of Kurdish language services including:

We offer a unique depth of subject-matter expertise via our Advanced Scientific Knowledge network (ASKnetwork™) and globalization know-how for companies in the Aerospace & Defense, Chemical, Clinical Research, Energy, Healthcare, Industrial Manufacturing, Medical Device, Pharmaceutical, Technology and related industries. Our ASKnetwork™ of over 6,000 specialists comprises multilingual engineers, doctors and scientists working in over 75 countries on 5 continents.

Language Scientific’s unique Accreditation Program for Technical and Medical Translators, along with a rigorous Quality Management System, ensures the quality standards that our clients have come to depend on. Language Scientific’s Quality Management System is ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 17100:2015 certified.

At Language Scientific, we are driven by the mission to set the new Standard of Quality for technical translation and localization. It is this mission that drives our success and sets us apart as a company. When you need precise global communication, Language Scientific is the clear choice.

Kurdish Language Statistics/Facts

The Kurdish languages are mainly several Iranian languages that are spoken in Western Asia by the Kurds. The regional dialects of Kurdish (including Kurmanji, Sorani, Kermanshahi and Gorani) vary considerably from each other and are not mutually understandable.

Kurdish is chiefly spoken in the parts of Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey which form Kurdistan. It has the official status of a national language in Iraq alongside Arabic. Kurdish is regarded as a regional language in Iran and a minority language in Armenia. Some other large Kurdish-speaking communities are scattered around different parts of the world, such as Afghanistan, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Syria.

Kurdish is spoken by approximately 20 million people as native language with the highest number of native speakers from Iraq. There are also small Kurdish speaking communities in the countries such as Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Germany, Switzerland, United States, United Kingdom, Jordan, Netherlands, Georgia, Sweden, Finland, Pakistan, Denmark and Israel.

The Kurdish language is classified under the Indo-European language family and belongs to its Indo-Iranian branch. Having been derived from an ancient Median language called Proto Kurdish, today Kurdish is an independent language, possessing a distinct grammatical system and a group of original vocabularies.

Kurdish Dialects

DialectRegion
Kurmanji-KurdishTurkey, Syria, Armenia and the Kurdish speaking northern areas of Iran and Iraq
Sorani-KurdishWest Iran and much of Iraqi Kurdistan
Kermanshahi-KurdishKermanshah Province of Iran
Gorani-KurdishArdalan principality in the medieval time and now Northeastern Iraq

Countries Where Kurdish Is Spoken

  • Afghanistan
  • Finland
  • Kyrgyzstan
  • Syria
  • Armenia
  • France
  • Luxembourg
  • Turkey
  • Austria
  • Georgia
  • Netherlands
  • Turkmenistan
  • Azerbaijan
  • Iran
  • Pakistan
  • United Kingdom
  • Belgium
  • Iraq
  • Russia
  • United States
  • Canada
  • Jordan
  • Switzerland
  • Israel
  • Denmark
  • Kazakhstan

Kurdish Speaking Country Data

Country: Iraq

Capital: Baghdad
Population: 39,192,111
Federal Parliamentary Constitutional Republic: President Fuad Masum Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi
Currency: Iraqi Dinar
GDP (ppp): $17,900
Unemployment: 16%
Government Type: Federal Parliamentary Constitutional Republic
Industries: Petroleum, chemicals, textiles, leather, construction materials, food processing, fertilize, metal, fabrication

Country: Azerbaijan

Capital: Baku
Population: 9,961,396
Presidential Republic: President Ilham Aliyev and Prime Minister Artur Rasizade
Currency: Manat
GDP (ppp): $17,400
Unemployment: 5%
Government Type: Presidential Republic
Industries: Petroleum and natural gas, petroleum products, oilfield equipment, steel, iron ore, cement, chemicals, petrochemicals, textiles, machinery, cotton, foodstuffs

Country: Syria

Capital: Damascus
Population: 18,028,549
Presidential Republic: President Bashar al-Assad and Prime Minister Imad Khamis
Currency: Syrian Pound
GDP (ppp): $2,900
Unemployment: 50%
Government Type: Presidential Republic
Industries: Petroleum, textiles, food processing, beverages, tobacco, phosphate rock mining, cement, oil seeds crushing, car assembly

Country: Turkey

Capital: Ankara
Population: 80,845,215
Presidential Republic: President Recep Tayyip erdogan
Currency: Turkish Lira
GDP (ppp): $24,900
Unemployment: 10.9%
Government Type: Presidential Republic
Industries: Textiles, food processing, autos, electronics, tourism, mining (coal, chromate, copper, boron, steel, petroleum, construction, lumber, paper

Kurdish Language History

The Kurds are an ancient race who have contributed to the development of numerous civilizations, including Mesopotamia, the Hittites, the Hurrites, the Karduchi, the Mittanis, the Parthians and the Sassanids, These civilizations existed either on Kurdish land or in its surrounding territories. Kurdish territories were also the site of the beginning of many major world religions, such as Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Mazdaism, Manichaeism and Mithraism.

The Kurds were also important in establishing the Turkish, Arabian and Persian dynasties. Although many Kurdish artists and scholars made contributions to enrich Persian, Arabic and Turkish culture for centuries, they were not as involved in cultivating their own culture and language.

After the death of the Prophet Mohammad, the Kurds were placed in the Sassanid and Byzantine Empires by Arab warriors. Though the Kurds were against the new religion, the majority of them were gradually Islamified. The Islamic Kurds began to use Arabic for religious purposes and Kurdish for daily activities. Others continued to use Kurdish for their own religious ideas alongside their daily activities.In the seventh century after the death of Christ, different non-Islamic Kurdish communities started to develop a written form of the Kurdish language. Various written forms were developed and in this development the Gorani dialect had a remarkable role. Writing Yarsan religious texts began around this time and continued to the sixteenth century. Through the religious teachings of Yarsan, the Gorani dialect flourished and became the official language of the large Ardalan region.

The religious and political upheaval in Kurdistan in the sixteenth century played a vital role in deciding the fate of the Yarsan religion and the Kurdish language. In 1515, the Ottomans and Kurdish princes who were Sunni Muslims, signed a treaty to merge the two regions. However, in 1639 with a view to destroy the unity of Kurdish majority, the Ottomans united with the Shafavid Shiites who were on bitter terms with the Kurdish princes. These circumstances stopped further development of both the Yarsan religion and the Goran Kurdish language.

As the Kurds were now dependent on the Ottoman Sultan, educated Kurds felt a sense of nationalism, and involved themselves in developing Kurdish language and culture. The process of transforming the North-Kurmanji dialect into written forms started in the northern part of Botan and extended to the northern part of Kurdistan. There now existed two written languages in Kurdistan: Gorani in the east and south and Kurmanji in the north. At the end of the eighteenth century, the Kurdish majority in Ardalan tried to free themselves from the Ottoman rule by allying with the Kajars. The Ottomans took help from the prince of Baban and easily overtook the Adralan territory. As a result, Sorani Kurdish spoken by the Babanis expanded while Gorani Kurdish began to lose its value in east and central Kurdistan. Thus, the two Sorani and Kurmanji dialects became the main spoken languages for the Kurdish people within Kurdistan. At the end of the nineteenth century the first newspaper in Kurdish was published which used Kurmanji Kurdish.

The First World War had some effect upon the Kurdish language as Kurdistan was divided into Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Syria and Azerbaijan as a result of the war. Today Kurdish is one of the two official languages in Iraq and is used as a minority language in Armenia. In Syria, Azerbaijan, Iran and Afghanistan Kurdish is a native language in large communities. In many other countries also, there are small communities where Kurdish is spoken.