The Oxford Handbook of Kurdish Linguistics

Jaffer Sheyholislami is a Professor in the School of Linguistics and Language Studies at Carleton University, Canada. His research spans applied linguistics, discourse studies, sociolinguistics, and language policy and planning, with a focus on Kurdish contexts. He authored Kurdish Identity, Discourse, and New Media (2011) and co-edited the first English-language volume on Kurdish sociolinguistics, International Journal of the Sociology of Language, no. 217 (2012). His work appears in leading journals and handbooks, and has been translated into Arabic, Kurdish varieties, Persian, and Turkish. He is a regular contributor to Kurdish publications and conferences. Geoffrey Haig was Professor of Linguistics at the Institute for Oriental Studies, University of Bamberg, until his retirement in 2024. His research combines a regional focus on the languages of Middle East, in particular Kurdish, with theoretical interests in historical linguistics, areal linguistics, languagedocumentation, and spoken-language based approaches to language typology. He has authored and co-edited ten books and numerous articles as well as co-compiling major online-accessible digital resources for language typology.Haidar Khezri is Associate Professor in the Department of Modern Languages & Literatures and an Affiliated Faculty Member of the School of Politics, Security & International Affairs' Kurdish Political Studies Program at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. His research and critical inquiry centre on Middle Eastern comparative literature and postcolonial studies, with a particular emphasis on the Kurdish context. He is the author of Central Kurdish: An Elementary Textbook (2023); It Is Only Sound That Remains (2016); and Comparative Literature in Iran and the Arab World, 1903-2012 (2013).Salih Akin is a Professor of Linguistics at the University of Rouen-Normandy and Deputy Director of the Dylis Research Center. Former Head of the Departmentof Linguistics (2013-2016), he also serves as Editor-in-Chief of the journal Études kurdes. His research focuses on sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, and onomastics, with particular attention to the Kurdish language and its evolution, standardization, and its linguistic vitality in contexts of language contact both in the diaspora and in Kurdistan. He is the author of Noms et re-noms : la dénomination des personnes, des populations, des langues et des territoires (1999); Lêkolînên Zimannasiya Kurdî (2013), Introduction à la linguistique kurde (2023). He also co-edited Linguistic and Cultural Diversity in Central Anatolia (2024). Ergin Öpengin is an Affiliated Researcher at the Department of Middle Eastern Studies of the University of Cambridge and a Senior Lecturer at the English Language Department of the University of Kurdistan-Hewlêr. He specializes in the structural and sociolinguistic study of Kurdish and the edition of historical Kurdish texts. Heco-established the International Conference on Kurdish Linguistics (2012) and served as Associate Editor of the Kurdish Studies Journal (2015-2025). He has authored The Mukri Variety of Central Kurdish (2016), co-edited three volumes, and published a number of articles on various aspects of Kurdish and Iranian languages.

• Chapter 1: Introduction: Kurdish and its representation in this volumeJaffer Sheyholislami, Geoffrey Haig, Haidar Khezri, Salih Akin, & Ergin Öpengin Part I: VARIETIES OF KURDISH Chapter 2: Northern Kurdish Ergin Öpengin & Geoffrey Haig Chapter 3: Central Kurdish Ergin Öpengin Chapter 4: Southern Kurdish Masoud Mohammadirad & Gholamhossein Karimi-DoostanChapter 5: GoraniParvin Mahmoudveysi & Denise BaileyChapter 6: Zazaki Mahir Dogan & Ludwig PaulChapter 7: Laki Sara Belelli Part II: COMPARATIVE KURDISH PHONOLOGY AND MORPHO-SYNTAX Chapter 8: Phonology of Kurdish: Comparative overview and theoretical issues Erik Anonby & Ergin ÖpenginChapter 9: Bound argument ordering across Central Kurdish and the Gorani substrateMasoud MohammadiradChapter 10: The so-called absolute prepositions in Central KurdishShuan Osman Karim Chapter 11: A formal introduction to verbal morphology of Central Kurdish Sina Ahmadi & Geoffrey HaigChapter 12: Historical Kurdish phonology and morphology Ludwig PaulChapter 13: Complex predicates in Kurdish revisitedSongül Gündogdu Chapter 14: Language contact in Kurdish Yaron Matras Part III: SOCIOLINGUISTICSChapter 15: Mapping Kurdish Erik Anonby & Jaffer Sheyholislami Chapter 16: Standardisation of Northern Kurdish Salih AkinChapter 17: Dynamics of standardization and variation in Kurdistan Region-IraqMichiel Leezenberg Chapter 18: Kurdish language policy and Language Rights in KurdistanJaffer Sheyholislami & Salih Akin Chapter 19: Articulating Kurdish identity through Kurdish: Roots, outcomes, and possibilities for unification Anne Schluter Part IV: APPLIED LINGUISTICSChapter 20: Teaching and learning Kurdish in Kurdistan: Achievements and Challenges Sehmus Kurt, Hewa Salam Khalid, Rahim Surkhi, Yasin Duman, Adel Mohammedi, & Elizabeth SabbaghChapter 21: Lexicography in Kurdish Behrooz Chamanara, Michael L. Chyet, & Zaniar NaghshbandiChapter 22: Corpus linguistics of Kurdish Hossein HassaniChapter 23: Kurdish as a Heritage Language: Challenges and Achievements Amir Sharifi, Nubin Ciziri, Birgul Yilmaz, M. Serif Derince, Zuzan Barwari, Haidar Khezri, & Jaffer SheyholislamiChapter 24: The acquisition of Kurdish in multilingual contexts Katharina Brizic, M. Serif Derince, Kateryna Iefremenko, Yasar Kirgiz, Yazgül Simsek, & Christoph Schroeder Part V: Kurdish in Arts and LiteratureChapter 25: The influence of written prose on Kurdish Haidar KhezriChapter 26: Kurdish oral tradition: Transmission, endangerment, and survival Christine RobinsChapter 27: Kurdish Language and music Estelle Amy de la Bretèque