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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Despite facing severe restrictions in several countries, the Kurdish language is finding a new lease of life online, thanks to Wikipedia and online language dictionaries.
Tens of millions of Kurds live across the globe, but only a small number of them in the Kurdistan Region and northeast Syria (Rojava) can study in their mother tongue. The language has been suppressed by Turkey, Syria and Iran for decades, and is officially banned in formal settings in Turkey and Iran.
The language is split into numerous dialects, the most common of which are Kurmanji, Sorani and Zazaki. Sorani is mostly spoken in the Kurdistan Region and the Kurdish provinces of Iran, while Kurmaji Kurdish is predominant in Rojava and southeast Turkey. Zazaki is mostly spoken in southeast Turkey by the Zaza Kurds.
With internet resources, Kurds can now overcome restrictions which has stopped them from using their language, and can browse the net in their mother tongue.
Wikimedia Foundation is a US-based non-profit organization. It hosts a range of websites, including Wikipedia and Wiktionary. The former provides information on almost any topic, while the later provides translations of thousands of words in different languages.
While Wikipedia is now available in Kurmanji, Sorani and Zazaki dialects, only Kurmanji has a Wiktionary page (‘Wikifereng') which allows users in Turkey and beyond to delve deeper into their own language, and access translations to others.
Rudaw English spoke with one of the administrators responsible for making Wikipedia and Wiktionary accessible to millions of Kurmanji speakers.
The admin, who introduced himself as “Bikarhener”, or “user”, is among a few Kurds who are secretly developing the language’s presence on Wikipedia. Given the strict restrictions on Kurdish use in Turkey, they remain anonymous for fear of reprisals.
Wikiferheng
Wiktionary “is a project to create open-content dictionaries in every language,” according to Wikimedia. The first wiktionary was created in English in December 2002.
Among 176 wiktionaries, the Kurmanji version is the ninth largest, with 817,806 articles as of Wednesday.
"Wikiferheng is a Kurdish-Kurdish and foreign language-Kurdish dictionary and it is part of Wiktionary,” the anonymous admin told Rudaw English via Twitter.
The importance of the service cannot be understated, providing a vital resource in keeping the language alive.
Kurmanji is the most common Kurdish dialect, spoken by approximately 20 million people– most of whom live in Kurdish areas of Turkey.
According to a Kurdish research center in Diyarbakir, only 18 percent of young Kurds surveyed in Kurdish areas of southeastern Turkey in 2019 said they could speak, read and write in Kurdish. Less than half of respondents - 44 percent - said they were able to speak their mother tongue.
Data from Wikimedia shows that the Kurmanji dictionary has five admins, 7,948 users and 45 active users as of Wednesday. According to Bikarhener, active users refers to those who have used the dictionary on a regular basis over the past 30 days.
The admins also run social media channels to promote the service. Despite the high risks, they continue to work – and for free.
“Wikimedia websites are non-profit. Some people claim that we do this work for money but we don’t. We as the admins of Kurdish section [of both Wikipedia and Wiktionary] do not pay money to the company for the page as well,” the admin said.
The online dictionary has had some 650,000 views in the last 20 days, 7.4 million views since January 1 and a total of 86 million since its establishment. Most visitors are from Turkey.
Kurdish Wikipedia
Wikipedia - which describes itself as “a multi-language online encyclopedia created and maintained as an open collaboration project” - is available in the Kurmanji, Sorani and Zazaki dialects of Kurdish.
Kurmanji has over 30,000 available articles while Sorani and Zazaki have around 26,500 and 25,000 respectively. They rank 107th, 112th and 111th, respectively, in a list of 310 Wikipedia pages in terms of the number of articles available, according to current data.
Wikipedia was blocked in Turkey from April 2017 to January 2020 after one of the English-version articles described Turkey as sponsor of terrorism. This affected the Kurmanji Wikipedia page, as there are millions of Kurds living in the country.
Six years after its creation, the Kurmanji Wikipedia (Wikipediya Kurdi) celebrated a new record this month after surpassing 30,000 articles on the website.
Kurdish Wikipedia surpassed 30,000 total articles this month! Congratulations and excellent work, @Wikipedia_KU! https://t.co/pgIp0YSCSC
— Wikimedia (@Wikimedia) July 13, 2020
Wikipedia Kurdi has had a total of 72 million since its creation. Of this, 1.2 million people visited the site in the last three weeks and 12 million have visited since January. Most of them have been from the US and Germany, home to millions of Kurds.
Bikarhener called on Kurds in the world to further develop Kurdish pages on Wikimedia.
"We want all Kurds to add information to the Kurdish Wikipedia so that all Kurds can benefit from it," he said "Some Kurds are trying to add more on Kurdish history but this is not sufficient."
The Sorani version of Wikipedia has had 92 million views so far. The Zazaki service has 45 million.
One of the richest languages in the world
Kahir Bateyo Harki is a Kurdish academic in Turkey. Speaking to Rudaw English via Whatsapp, Harki expressed his joy to hear that the Kurdish language has developed online.
“This reminds us as Kurds that our language is rich and old despite pressure and a ban [by regional countries] which has prevented it from becoming a language of education.”
He also said that Kurdish readers used to have limited access to Kurdish reading material due to limited number of resources “but now they have many options and seek to read what they want rather than what is available.”
“Was it not for the ban [on Wikipedia in Turkey], many people would be able to add things to it. However, despite the ban Kurds have done a lot,” he added.
A small number of Kurds speak in Kurdish in Turkey, but online resources in Kurmanji are abundant. The academic believes that this will further develop in the future.
“In the coming years the Kurdish language will get the place it deserves as it is one the richest languages in the world in many ways.”
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