Kurdish Translation & Interpretation Services
Kurdish language
Providing Professional Translation, Interpretation, and Localization services in Kurdish and more than 300 other languages and dialects.
Autonym(s)
Kurdî, کوردی
Number of Speakers
Native Speakers: 29 million
Geographic Distribution
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey
Official or Recognized Status
Iraq (Kurdistan Region)
Classification
Indo-European; Indo-Iranian; Northwestern Iranian
Features
Spoken by Kurds across Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria, with several distinct dialects. Its key features include a rich case and gender system (especially in Kurmanji), the use of postpositions instead of prepositions, and SOV (subject–object–verb) word order typical of Iranian languages. Kurdish has a split ergative alignment in some dialects, meaning verbs treat subjects differently in the past tense than in the present. It also shows strong influence from neighboring languages such as Arabic, Turkish, and Persian, borrowing vocabulary and occasionally structures. Dialect variation is significant: Kurmanji (written in Latin script) and Sorani (written in a modified Arabic script) are the two major standardized forms, with other varieties like Southern Kurdish and Zazaki adding diversity. Despite these differences, Kurdish maintains shared phonological traits such as vowel harmony tendencies and emphatic consonants.
Dialects
Kurdish is a dialect continuum with several major branches. The two best-known standardized varieties are Kurmanji (Northern Kurdish)—spoken mainly in Turkey, Syria, and the Caucasus and typically written in Latin script—and Sorani (Central Kurdish)—used largely in Iraqi and Iranian Kurdistan and written in a modified Arabic script. They differ in phonology and grammar (e.g., Kurmanji keeps grammatical gender and case marking, while Sorani largely loses both and relies more on prepositions and clitics), so mutual intelligibility is partial. Southern Kurdish (e.g., Kalhuri, Kermanshahi, Lak) forms another cluster in western Iran and eastern Iraq. Closely related but often classified separately are Zaza–Gorani varieties (e.g., Zazaki/Dimlî and Gorani/Hawrami). Standardization efforts in media and education tend to center on Kurmanji and Sorani within their regions.
Writing System
Hawar alphabet (Latin script, used mostly in Turkey and Syria); Perso-Arabic script (used mostly in Iraq and Iran); Cyrillic script (former Soviet Union)
U.S. Distribution
In the U.S., Kurdish is concentrated in refugee and immigrant communities, with the largest hub in Nashville, Tennessee (“Little Kurdistan”), where many speakers—especially Sorani from Iraqi Kurdistan—settled from the 1990s onward. Other notable clusters appear around Dallas–Fort Worth and Houston, San Diego/Los Angeles, the DC–Maryland–Virginia area, New York–New Jersey, Chicago, and parts of the Pacific Northwest. Both major standardized varieties—Sorani and Kurmanji—are represented (along with smaller numbers from Turkey, Iran, and Syria), and Kurdish is used across homes, community centers, markets, and mosques while younger generations commonly code-switch with English. Overall numbers are modest compared to larger diaspora languages, but active cultural associations and media keep Kurdish visible and vibrant in these cities.
At Latitude Prime, we offer Kurdish translation, Kurdish interpretation, and Kurdish localization services in numerous specialized subject areas and multiple dialects, including both Kurmanji and Sorani Kurdish. Whether you need to translate legal documents from Kurdish into English for immigration purposes, need a Kurdish interpreter for a business meeting in Erbil, Iraq, or want to localize your website into Kurdish (Kurmanji or Sorani) to market your products or services in Kurdish-speaking areas, Latitude Prime has the customized language solution to meet all your Kurdish language needs.
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