Kurdistan Region President Massoud Barzani urged linguists to work together in order to establish a standard language for written Kurdish.
Barzani discussed a standard language and a number of political issues in a meeting during his visit to Soran on Sept. 20. Heading a governmental delegation, President Barzani launched a series of visits to Kurdistan Region towns.
In Koya, he promised locals he would promote the status of the town to a semi-independent administrative unit. He also declared Soran an administrative unit. The delegation also visited Suleimaniya on Sept. 21 and Khanaqin and Kalar on Sept. 22.
Unifying Kurdish dialects into one standard academic language has been a matter of debate among linguists in Kurdistan, focusing on school curricula.
"Every nation has diverse dialects and we are like any other of those nations. But they have been able to agree and create one language for the written word. We need that, too," said Barzani noting that it is possible to standardize Kurdish.
"We must work for the coming generations so when they learn at school, they have one (unified) language for reading and writing." President Barzani asked for efforts by linguists to bring the written differences closer but said the spoken language should keep its dialects.
Although they are all Kurdish, dialects differ from one city to another and even from one village to another.
Kurdish has four main dialects, all of which are used in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region: Sorani is spoken in Erbil, Suleimaniya and Kirkuk provinces despite regional dialect difference among them. Badini is spoken in Duhok province and in some towns in Erbil and Ninewa provinces. Hawrami is spoken in some southeastern towns of Suleimaniya. Kalhurri is the tongue of Khanaqin in Diyala province.
However, in Iraqi Kurdistan Region the difference is mostly between Badini (Northern Kurmanji) and Sorani, which is the dialect of the capital city of Erbil and the government.
President Barzani, like his father and Kurdish legendary leader Mulla Mustafa Barzani, uses Sorani for his official statements, although he comes from a Badini-speaking area.
In his speech in Soran, president Barzani discussed political developments in the Region and in Iraq. He once again expressed dissatisfaction with the Iraqi government performance, mainly on Kurdish issues.
Earlier, Barzani met with Kurdish politicians in Baghdad and with them drafted Kurds' demands in a letter with 22 items for Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
"Unfortunately, some are stepping back from the Constitution and federalism and many other things, and this is not acceptable for the Iraqi and Kurdistan people," Barzani said of issues in Iraq. He added the Kurdistan Regional Government is waiting for a reply from Baghdad to see how they respond to the Kurdish demands. If the Iraqi government gives a positive reply, KRG will send a high-ranking delegation for talks about suspended issues between Baghdad and Erbil.
Obligation to the Constitution is a guarantee for Iraq to remain united, and Barzani said no one should interpret the Constitution according to special interests. Another obligation is "real partnership" of the Iraqi powers, which are combined in the government.
"We defend real partnership and the Constitution and federalism not only for the interest of Kurdistan but also for the entire Iraqi people," added Barzani, noting the prosperity Kurdistan has achieved thanks to its regional government, which is not comparable to Baghdad under the central government.
He criticized the central government for failing to provide services to Iraqis; some cities have electricity for only two or four hours a day. "Leaving Kurdistan Region questions aside, what answer do they have for the Iraqi people?" When talking about these problems, he said, some want to exploit it to cause tension between Kurds and Arabs which is "never possible."
"We talk about these to remove the problems and some people are not happy about it," he indirectly talked about Prime Minister Maliki and his government.
Kurds are a part of Iraq by choice with the condition Iraq is bound by the Constitution and is a federal and democratic country, noted Barzani, urging the central government to meet Kurdish demands.
© The Kurdish Globe 2011
