Indo-European · ISO 639-3 ckb
Central Kurdish Language سۆرانی
Central Kurdish is an Indo-European language spoken by about 11 million people in 2 countries. It is written in the Perso-Arabic script.
Where Central Kurdish is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Language family
- Indo-European
- Classical Indo-European
- Indo-Iranian
- Iranian-Nuristani
- Iranian
- Central Iranian PBS
- Central Iranian PB
- Northwestern Iranian
- Laki-Kurdish
- Kurdish
- Central Kurdish
Writing system
Perso-Arabic script
Related languages
About the Central Kurdish language
Central Kurdish (سۆرانی) is spoken by about 11 million people, which makes it the 107th most spoken language in the world — just behind Low German (12 million) and ahead of Hijazi Arabic (11 million). It belongs to the Indo-European language family and, more precisely, to the Kurdish group within the Indo-Iranian branch.
Where is Central Kurdish spoken?
Central Kurdish is used in 2 countries. The largest communities live in Iraq (5.1 million) and Iran (556,837).
Share of the population that speaks Central Kurdish: Iraq 12% (5.1 million) and Iran 0.6% (556,837).
Central Kurdish is not a national official language anywhere. It also has regional official status in Iraq.
Writing system and status
Central Kurdish is written in the Perso-Arabic script. It is a safe, widely transmitted language: children still learn it at home as their first language.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are Northern Kurdish, Southern Kurdish, Laki, Mazanderani, Gilaki, Southern Balochi and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-3 ckb.
Frequently asked questions about Central Kurdish
How many people speak Central Kurdish?
Where is Central Kurdish spoken?
What language family does Central Kurdish belong to?
What is Central Kurdish called in Central Kurdish?
Is Central Kurdish an endangered language?
Data: Languages of the World dataset (MIT) — ISO 639-3, Glottolog (CC BY 4.0), Unicode CLDR, Google LinguaMeta (CC BY 4.0) and Wikidata; country lists: samayo/country-json (MIT). Speaker numbers include first- and second-language speakers where sources report them.