Indo-European · ISO 639-3 sdh
Southern Kurdish Language کوردی خوارین
Southern Kurdish is an Indo-European language spoken by about 3.1 million people in 1 country. It is written in the Perso-Arabic script.
Where Southern Kurdish is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Southern Kurdish
Language family
- Indo-European
- Classical Indo-European
- Indo-Iranian
- Iranian-Nuristani
- Iranian
- Central Iranian PBS
- Central Iranian PB
- Northwestern Iranian
- Laki-Kurdish
- Kurdish
- Southern Kurdish
Writing system
Perso-Arabic script
Related languages
About the Southern Kurdish language
Southern Kurdish (کوردی خوارین) is spoken by about 3.1 million people, which makes it the 243rd most spoken language in the world — just behind Musi (3.1 million) and ahead of Yao (3.1 million). It belongs to the Indo-European language family and, more precisely, to the Kurdish group within the Indo-Iranian branch.
Where is Southern Kurdish spoken?
Southern Kurdish is used in 1 country. The largest communities live in Iran (4.0 million).
Southern Kurdish is not a national official language anywhere.
Writing system and status
Southern Kurdish is written in the Perso-Arabic 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 Northern Kurdish, Central Kurdish, Laki, Mazanderani, Gilaki, Southern Balochi and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-3 sdh.
Frequently asked questions about Southern Kurdish
How many people speak Southern Kurdish?
Where is Southern Kurdish spoken?
What language family does Southern Kurdish belong to?
What is Southern Kurdish called in Southern Kurdish?
Is Southern 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.