The Language and Politics of Iraqi Kurdistan

Kurdish is one of the widely spoken languages in the Middle East. It is in the Indo-European family of languages. The land of the Kurds is called Kurdistan where faced divisions in history between newly formed states 'Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran'. As such, Kurdish language has been faced linguicide and remained as a not standardized language. Kurdish language is been a root for Kurdish nationalism, so it is played a fundamental role in the Kurdish nation-building process. After the 1991 uprisings in Iraq, Iraqi Kurds could build their autonomy region, then Kurdish regrow as a language of administration and education. However, the language still have some internal issues because of its various dialects and not having codified standard language. The two most widely spoken dialects of Kurdish are Central Kurmanji (Sorani) and Northern Kurmanji (Kurmanji). The Kurdistan Region's official languages for government purposes are Kurdish and Arabic. Furthermore, Kurdish has become the formal language in Syrian Kurdistan after the Syrian revolution, and it is currently studied as an optional module in Turkish Kurdistan and Iranian Kurdistan.