Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Kurdish-related articles

This guideline covers the writing, formatting, and naming of Kurdish-related content on the English Wikipedia. It addresses scripts, romanization, place names, personal names, and other style questions specific to Kurdish topics. Editors are encouraged to familiarise themselves with the Manual of Style and article titles policy before applying the guidance here.

Definitions

​Kurdish is spoken by around 40 million people, primarily in the region known as Kurdistan, spanning parts of southeastern Turkey, northern Iraq, northwestern Iran, and northern Syria, as well as diaspora communities worldwide. The language is classified in the ISO 639 standard under the macrolanguage code kur, reflecting that what is called "Kurdish" encompasses several varieties with differing degrees of mutual intelligibility.

The principal written varieties used on the English Wikipedia are:

• Kurmancî (Northern Kurdish; ISO 639-3: kmr), the most widely spoken variety, used across Turkey, Syria, parts of Iraq, and diaspora communities; written in the Latin-based Hawar alphabet.
• Soranî (Central Kurdish; ISO 639-3: ckb), the co-official language of Iraq alongside Arabic; written in the Sorani alphabet.
• Xwarîn (Southern Kurdish; ISO 639-3: sdh), spoken mainly in Iran, lacks a standardised orthography.

Two further varieties, Zazaki and Gorani, are sometimes classified as Kurdish on ethnocultural grounds. Their classification is disputed and should be described neutrally sometimes.

Scope and purpose

This guideline applies to all English Wikipedia articles dealing with Kurdish people, history, culture, language, politics, geography, and related subjects. It does not override MOS or WP:AT, but supplements them for Kurdish-specific questions.

General principles

1. Use the most common English name. Article titles and in-text references should follow the form most commonly used in reliable English-language sources, such as major news organisations, encyclopaedias, academic publications, and governmental bodies. This takes precedence over any particular Kurdish dialect form, transliteration system, or politically preferred name.
2. Include native-language forms. The native-language spelling (in the appropriate script) should appear in the lead section of the article, in parentheses immediately after the first bolded use of the subject's name, along with a transliteration where helpful.
3. Maintain neutrality. Kurdish topics are often politically contested. Article titles, text, and categories must not advance any political position regarding the status of Kurdistan or Kurdish statehood.
4. Be consistent within an article. Once an editor has chosen a transliteration or spelling for a name within an article, that form should be used consistently throughout, unless there is a specific reason (such as quoting a source) to deviate.
5. Prefer existing Wikipedia consensus. Where prior editorial consensus exists for a name or transliteration on English Wikipedia (as reflected in stable article titles, templates, or prior discussions), respect that consensus unless new reliable sources clearly support a change.

Use of the term "Kurdish"

The word Kurdish as an adjective (referring to the people, language, culture, or region) should be capitalised at all times. Similarly, Kurd (referring to a member of the Kurdish people) and Kurdistan (the cultural region) are proper nouns and always capitalised.

Articles about the language in general may use "Kurdish" as an umbrella term, but should clarify the scope in the text. When the topic concerns a specific variety, use the specific name: "Kurmanji" (or Northern Kurdish), "Sorani" (or Central Kurdish), etc.

Kurdic

The technical linguistic term Kurdic is used by some scholars to refer to the Kurdish languages (including Kurmanji, Sorani, and Xwarin). Use this term only when citing sources that use it.

Naming conventions

See also: Wikipedia:Naming conventions (geographic names) and Wikipedia:Article titles

Choosing English names

Article titles for Kurdish-related topics follow the general Wikipedia principle of using the most recognisable name in reliable English-language sources (see WP:RECOGNIZABILITY and WP:USEENGLISH). In practice:

• If a well-established English form exists (e.g. Erbil for the capital of the Kurdistan Region), use it as the article title and mention the Kurdish form in the lead.
• If no single English form predominates, prefer the form most common in major English-language reference works (encyclopaedias, quality newspapers, and governmental publications) over a strictly transliterated form.
• However, where Kurdish names have become established in international English usage (e.g. Peshmerga), use them.

Native-language names in the lead

The lead sentence of an article about a Kurdish topic should present the subject's name(s) as follows:

1. The English article title in bold.
2. The primary Kurdish-language form in the appropriate script.
3. A romanization of any non-Latin script form.
4. Other significant name forms (Arabic, Turkish, Persian, etc.) where relevant.

Example:

Erbil (Kurdish: هەولێر, romanized: Hewlêr; Arabic: أربيل, romanized: Arbīl) is the capital of the Kurdistan Region...

When an article title already uses a native-language form that is established in English (e.g. Newroz, Peshmerga), the lead should still provide the script form and, if different, the most common English transliteration, to aid readers.

Multiple name forms

Many Kurdish places, people, and institutions have names in multiple languages (Kurdish, Arabic, Turkish, Persian), all of which may appear in reliable sources. In such cases:

• Use the form most common in English as the article title.
• Mention other significant forms in the lead, introduced with language templates.

For example, the city known in English primarily as Diyarbakır (its Turkish official name) also has a well-attested Kurdish name, Amed. Both forms should be mentioned in the article lead, with a note that "Amed" is the Kurdish name.

Kurdish scripts

Kurdish is written in two principal script systems in contemporary use, plus historical scripts now largely obsolete.

Latin-based Kurmanji (Hawar) alphabet

The standard writing system for Kurmanji (Northern Kurdish) is the Hawar alphabet (also called the Bedirxan script), developed by Celadet Alî Bedirxan and introduced through his journal Hawar beginning in 1932. It consists of 31 letters derived from the Latin alphabet, including five letters with diacritical marks: Ç ç (for the ch sound), Ê ê (a mid-front vowel), Î î (a long close front vowel), Ş ş (for the sh sound), and Û û (a long close back vowel).

The Hawar alphabet is used primarily in Turkey, Syria, and the Kurdish diaspora. It is the script used on the Kurmanji Wikipedia (ku.wikipedia.org).

When quoting or citing Kurmanji text in Latin script, reproduce it accurately, including all diacritics. Do not substitute undiacriticised letters (e.g. do not write "Pesmergê" for "Pêşmerge").

The following letters appear in the Hawar alphabet but not in the basic 26-letter ISO Latin alphabet: Ç ç, Ê ê, Î î, Ş ş, Û û. Additionally, the letter X x represents a sound (voiceless velar fricative) that differs from its English value. Editors should not alter these when copying Kurmanji text.

Kurdo-Arabic (Sorani) alphabet

Sorani (Central Kurdish) is written in a modified form of the Kurdo-Arabic script with 33 letters, written from right to left. Unlike the Arabic script when used for Arabic, the Sorani alphabet represents all vowels explicitly, making it a true alphabet rather than an abjad. This script is used on Central Kurdish Wikipedia (ckb.wikipedia.org).

The Kurdistan Region has adopted a standardised Unicode encoding for the Sorani alphabet. Editors should use Unicode-encoded text when inserting Sorani Kurdish into Wikipedia articles. The character set falls primarily within the Arabic Unicode block (U+0600–U+06FF), with a small number of characters unique to Kurdish within this range (notably U+0695 arabic letter reh with small v below, used for the Kurdish ř sound, and U+06B5 arabic letter lam with small v).

Do not use Arabic presentation forms (Unicode blocks U+FB50–U+FDFF and U+FE70–U+FEFF) for Sorani text in Wikipedia articles. These compatibility characters are intended for legacy applications and should not be used in normal text.

When including Sorani text, use the {{langx}} template with the language tag ckb or ku (e.g., {{lang|ku|کوردستان}}). The right-to-left directionality will be handled by the template and the browser.

Romanization and transliteration

See also: Wikipedia:Romanization

General approach

Because Kurmanji is written in a Latin alphabet, romanization is generally not needed for Kurmanji text. The Hawar orthography is itself the standard written form, and it should be reproduced as written when quoting Kurmanji sources.

For Sorani (Kurdo-Arabic script), romanization is required when the native-script form cannot be displayed or when an additional guide to pronunciation is helpful for English-language readers. Two principal systems are in use:

1. ALA-LC romanization (American Library Association – Library of Congress): The standard system used by North American research libraries and bibliographic databases for Kurdish in Arabic script. It uses diacritical marks to distinguish Kurdish phonemes and is the preferred system for scholarly bibliographic contexts.
2. Practical romanization: A simplified form, without most diacritical marks, suitable for general readership. This approximates the pronunciation for English readers without the precision of the ALA-LC system.

For general Wikipedia articles, the practical romanization is sufficient alongside the native script. The ALA-LC system (with diacritics) may be used in scholarly contexts, in footnotes, or when citing library sources.

Do not "anglicise" Kurmanji spellings by removing diacritics (e.g. do not render "Mîr" as "Mir" or "Pêşmerge" as "Pesmerge") without noting the original form.

The following table gives a simplified guide to the correspondence between common Kurdo-Arabic script letters and their common romanizations for Wikipedia use. This is not a formal ALA-LC table but a practical guide.

Simplified romanization guide for Kurdo-Arabic script

Sorani letter	Approximate sound	Standard romanization	Common romanization
ئ	glottal stop	a / e (before vowels; often omitted at word start)	a
ا	long a	a	a
ب	b	b	b
پ	p	p	p
ت	t	t	t
ج	j (as in jar)	c	j
چ	ch (as in church)	ç	ch
ح	h (pharyngeal)	ĥ	N/A
خ	kh (voiceless velar fricative)	x	kh
د	d	d	d
ر	r	r	r
ڕ	rr (trilled)	ř	r
ز	z	z	z
ژ	zh (as in measure)	j	zh
س	s	s	s
ش	sh	ş	sh
ع	ʿ (voiced pharyngeal)	'e or 'a	N/A
غ	gh (voiced velar fricative)	xx or 'x	gh
ف	f	f	f
ڤ	v	v	v
ق	q (uvular)	q	q
ک	k	k	k
گ	g	g	g
ل	l	l	l
ڵ	ll (lateral)	ll or ł	N/A
م	m	m	m
ن	n	n	n
و	w / long u	w, u, or û	w
ھ	h (at start/mid); e (final)	h	h
ی	y / long i	y, i, or î	i or y
ێ	ê (mid-front vowel)	ê	N/A

Kurdish pronunciation

See also: Help:IPA/Kurdish and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation

Pronunciation guidance in Kurdish articles should follow the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), as described in Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation. The template {{IPA}} should be used to render IPA characters. Use the guidance at Help:IPA/Kurdish.

Place names

See also: Wikipedia:Naming conventions (geographic names)

Places in Iraq

For places in the Kurdistan Region and other areas of Iraq, the English name most common in reliable sources should be used:

• Erbil (not "Hawler" or "Hewlêr", though these Kurdish forms should be mentioned in the lead).
• Sulaymaniyah (also spelled "Sulaimani" or Silêmanî).

Places in Turkey

Many places in Turkish Kurdistan are known by both a Turkish official name and a Kurdish name (Kurmanji or Zazaki). The Turkish official name is generally the most common form in English-language sources and should be used as the article title. The Kurdish name should be mentioned in the lead.

Many Kurdish place names in Turkey were changed to Turkish equivalents in the 20th century as part of official Turkification policies. Articles may note the historical Kurdish names, but the article title should follow current dominant English usage.

Kurdistan

The term Kurdistan refers to the cultural region inhabited by Kurds, spanning parts of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Armenia. It is not a recognised sovereign state. Articles should use the term consistently with this understanding and in accordance with reliable sources. Do not describe Kurdistan as a country without qualification.

Sub-regional terms such as Southern Kurdistan (Iraqi Kurdistan), Northern Kurdistan (Turkish Kurdistan), Eastern Kurdistan (Iranian Kurdistan), and Western Kurdistan (Syrian Kurdistan or Rojava) are used by Kurdish political and cultural sources and are attested in academic and policy literature; they may be used in articles where they reflect the terminology of the sources being discussed, but should be attributed or explained rather than asserted neutrally in Wikipedia's own voice.

Variant spellings

Kurdish names are often transliterated differently in different countries and language contexts. Editors should identify the most common English form and use it as the article title. Variant forms should be listed in the article lead and as redirects.

Common sources of variation include:

• The j vs. c distinction: Some editors write "Jalal" (Arabic-influenced) while Kurdish Latin orthography would write "Celal".
• The kh vs. x distinction: "Khabur" vs. "Xabur".
• The presence or absence of diacritics: "Balaban" vs. "Balleban".

Dialect and language variety names

The names of Kurdish dialect groups and language varieties are themselves subjects of linguistic and political debate. Wikipedia articles should present the scholarly and popular terminology neutrally:

• The term Kurmanji (also spelled "Kurmancî" or "Kirmancî") is widely used in academic literature for Northern Kurdish and is the preferred form for article titles; "Northern Kurdish" is also used and acceptable.
• Sorani (also "Soranî") refers to Central Kurdish. "Central Kurdish" is also used in academic contexts. Either form is acceptable; use one consistently within an article.
• Southern Kurdish (also "Pehlewani" or "Xwarîn"): The southernmost major variety; "Southern Kurdish" is the standard English form.

Ethnonyms and demonyms

• Kurd (plural Kurds): The standard English ethnonym. Do not use "Kurdic" as an ethnonym (it is a linguistic term).
• Kurdish (adjective): Used attributively (Kurdish culture, Kurdish people, Kurdish language).
• The demonym for a person from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq is Kurdish or Iraqi Kurd, not "Kurdistani" (unless citing a source that uses this form).

For the Yazidis (also "Yezidi"), use the most common English form ("Yazidi" is now more common in scholarly literature, though "Yezidi" remains frequent).

Capitalization

Follow the general rules of Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Capital letters:

• Kurdish (adjective and noun referring to the people, language, or culture): Always capitalised.
• Kurdistan: Always capitalised as a proper noun referring to the region.
• Peshmerga: Capitalised as a proper noun when referring to the armed forces of the Kurdistan Region; lowercase "peshmerga" may be used as a common noun in other contexts, following source usage.
• Newroz (the Kurdish New Year): Capitalised as a proper noun.
• Dialect names used as proper nouns: Kurmanji, Sorani, Zazaki: capitalised.
• Cultural terms used as common nouns: lowercase unless established as proper nouns in sources (e.g., dengbêj — a traditional Kurdish singer-poet — is a common noun and appears in lowercase in English texts).

Flags

The Kurdistan flag (a horizontal tricolour of red, white, and green with a golden sun emblem) is used by the Kurdistan Region as the regional flag. It is also used as a cultural or national symbol by Kurds more broadly. In Wikipedia articles:

• Use the Kurdistan Region flag when the article concerns the Kurdistan Region as an administrative entity.
• Do not present the Kurdistan flag as the flag of an independent state.
• The flags of the national states (Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria) in which Kurdish communities live are used for articles about those states; use them only where they are appropriate to the specific context.

Other guidelines

This guideline should be read alongside:

• Wikipedia:Manual of Style, the parent guideline for all style questions
• Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation, for IPA transcriptions
• Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Titles, for the titles of works
• Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Capital letters, for capitalization questions
• Wikipedia:Naming conventions (geographic names), for place name titles
• Wikipedia:Naming conventions (people), for personal name article titles
• Help:IPA/Kurdish, the IPA reference for Kurdish sounds
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Kurdistan, the WikiProject for Kurdish-related content