Mark Williamson schrieb:
Still wondering, is there any sort of unified
standard?
Not for all dialects. For Sorani, there is a de-facto standard. It is
the dialect of Sulaymaniya, the main written language since tens of
years. There is a lot of publiations in that dialect, also education. It
is user in parts of Iraq and Iran. Educated Sorani speakers have less
difficulty with Kurmanji, because they know roman letters.
The situation is worse for Kurmanji, which is the dialect most of the
Kurdish speakers speak. Because most of them are in Turkey they are
afflicted by the Turkish state politics which has persecuted the use of
the language since the 1930's. Only in the last years there are some
publications. The situation is even worse for Zazaki, because there are
less speakers. In the south of Iran there are some more dialects
(Gorani, Hewremani) which I cannot say a lot about.
For Kurmanji there are some standards, like a roman-based alphabet and a
lot of grammar rules, which are commonly accepted. But details are still
being discussed. These dicussions have often taken place in exile in
Europe, which made them even more difficult. Standardization is a main
goal and will proceed as the political situation in Turkey improves.
But the differences between Kurmanji and Sorani are severe, and a
further standardization of Kurmanji, even if there is a tendecy towards
closing in, is likely to make these differences permanent. Kurmanji
speakers also generally do not know the arabic script so they cannot
make use of Sorani effectively.
So in short:
1. Kurmanji is most widely used, but not effectively standardized. Latin
script, moste speakers.
2. Sorani is second most widely used, has just become official language
in Iraq, well standardized, arabic script.
3. Zazaki used by less speakers, poorly standardized.
4. Little convergence of the main dialects.
This is how I see it, others may see it differently.
For Wikipedia, we take everything as it comes and try to support
everything technically. I have switched the Monobook.css to Tahoma,
which is ok for all dialects.
So advisory committees were formed, and they formulated
proposals for
unified versions of these languages. Currently, the Limba Sarda
Unificata (Unified Sardinian) standard is official in the Sardinian
province of Nugoro, and it is being promoted everywhere. Its intention
is to be a bridge between the different dialects, a sort of linguistic
"least common denominator" which works for everybody.
That is an interesting example how things can be done.
even if this problem is not dealt with now, it will
need to be dealt
with by any future kurdish nation-state
If there is one. A real nation-state is not likely to develop. Even if
the Iraqi part breaks away from Iraq, that is just a small fraction of
Kurdistan (1/6). There will be no language problem, Sorani is standard
there. But the Kurmanji problem can only be solved in the north, in
Turkish Kurdistan. Kurdish politics are very very difficult.
Erdal