Indo-European · ISO 639-3 kmr
Northern Kurdish Language
Northern Kurdish is an Indo-European language spoken by about 15 million people in 1 country. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Northern Kurdish is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Northern Kurdish
Language family
- Indo-European
- Classical Indo-European
- Indo-Iranian
- Iranian-Nuristani
- Iranian
- Central Iranian PBS
- Central Iranian PB
- Northwestern Iranian
- Laki-Kurdish
- Kurdish
- Northern Kurdish
Writing system
Latin script
Related languages
About the Northern Kurdish language
Northern Kurdish is spoken by about 15 million people, which makes it the 88th most spoken language in the world — just behind Southern Pashto (15 million) and ahead of Nigerian Fulfulde (15 million). It belongs to the Indo-European language family and, more precisely, to the Kurdish group within the Indo-Iranian branch.
Where is Northern Kurdish spoken?
Northern Kurdish is used in 1 country. The largest communities live in Türkiye (10 million).
Northern Kurdish is not a national official language anywhere.
Writing system and status
Northern Kurdish is written in the Latin script. Glottolog classifies it as threatened, meaning fewer children learn it than in the past.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are Central Kurdish, Southern Kurdish, Laki, Mazanderani, Gilaki, Southern Balochi and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-3 kmr.
Frequently asked questions about Northern Kurdish
How many people speak Northern Kurdish?
Where is Northern Kurdish spoken?
What language family does Northern Kurdish belong to?
Is Northern 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.