Alphabet

The Yezidi alphabet  – is one of the oldest alphabets in the world, a unique writings for Kurdish people. The alphabet is read from right to left with a content of predominantly consonant sounds, most fully reflecting the phonetics of the original Kurdish language. The alphabet has 33 letters with triangular and square forms predominantly and basic figures of mystical cryptography.

In modern Kurdish language there are a lot of borrowed words from Arabic and Turkish. Because of this, the alphabet has additional sounds that were added.

In Iraq Kurds use a modified Arabic script compiled by Kurdish scholar Tofiq Wahby (1891-1984). The alphabet consists of 33 letters.

The main difference from the Arabic script is the presence of separate letters for vowel sounds. For sounds used in Arabic borrowings, the following were added to the alphabet:

ḧ, ẍ, ' for  غ,  ح,  ع.

This is what the alphabet looks like:

ى ێ ە ھ ﻭﻭ ﻭ ﯙ ﻥ ﻡ ڵ ﻝ ﮒ ﮎ ﻕ ڤ ﻑ ﻍ ﻉ ﺵ ﺱ ﮊ ﺯ ڕ ﺭ ﺩ ﺥ ﺡ ﭺ ﺝ ﺕ ﭖ ﺏ

In Iran – based on the Persian letter, which was systematized by scientist Sa'id Kaban Sedqi.

In Syria and Turkey – they use the Latin alphabet. The Kurdish version of the Latin alphabet was created in Syria in 1932 by Jeladet Ali Bedir Khan (1897-1951), modeled on the Turkish Latin alphabet, using consonant letters: с [dj], çç [tch], ş[sh], and [j] which is pronounced the same, as well as vowels: the back languages are denoted by i [e], e [ə], u [ʉ] (sometimes transcribed as ö), and front-line ones: î [ee], ê [e], û [u] [ʉ] (sometimes transcribed as ö) Later, this alphabet spread among the Kurds of Turkey and the Kurdish diaspora in Europe, becoming, de facto, the main standard of Kurdish script.

In the USSR, until 1946 Kurds used the Latin alphabet, 38 letters in total and looked like this:

A a

B b

C c

Ç ç

D d

E e

Ә ә

F f

G g

Ƣ ƣ

H h

I i

J j

K k

Ⱪ ⱪ

Q q

L l

M m

N n

O o

P p

R r

S s

Ş ş

T t

U u

Y y

V v

W w

X x

Z z

Ƶ ƶ

ħ

Ə̀ ə̀

In 1946, , during the process  of the cyrillisation of the Latin alphabets of the peoples of the USSR, the Kurdish alphabet was compiled and approved on the basis of the Cyrillic alphabet. Its author was Adjie Jndi. The alphabet had 40 letters and has the following form:

А а	Б б	В в	Г г	Г' г'	Д д	Е е	Ә ә	Ә' ә'	Ж ж
З з	И и	Й й	К к	К' к'	Л л	М м	Н н	О о	Ӧ ӧ
П п	П' п'	Р р	Р' р'	С с	Т т	Т' т'	У у	Ф ф	Х х
Һ һ	Һ' һ'	Ч ч	Ч' ч'	Ш ш	Щ щ	Ь ь	Э э	Ԛ ԛ	Ԝ ԝ

In the 90's of the twentieth century, Kurds in the former Soviet republics once again switched to the Latin alphabet, as the most widespread alphabet among the Kurds of the world.

Today, the modern Kurdish Latin alphabet contains 31 letters and has the following form:

A a	B b	C c	Ç ç	D d	E e	Ê ê	F f	G g	H h	I i
Î î	J j	K k	L l	M m	N n	O o	P p	Q q	R r	S s
Ş ş	T t	U u	Û û	V v	W w	X x	Y y	Z z