Magin_Edward-thesis

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highlights of the events that happened within this ‘cradle of civilization.’ In recorded
history, we see that Kurds have likely had contact with Greeks, Romans, Persians, Arabs,
Turks, and many others beside. So one can only imagine that the Kurdish worldview(s)
must have been challenged throughout the centuries.
The greatest influence on Northern Kurdish in Northern Iraq has been through
contact with Arabic speakers. Decades before Saddam Hussein’s rise to power in the
1970s, the medium of instruction for speakers of Northern Kurdish was predominantly in
Arabic. Currently, although there is movement to purify the language, speakers of
Northern Kurdish still use many Arabic loan words in both spoken and written language.
Since the 1990s, schools in the Kurdish area have been free to use their mother tongue as
the medium of instruction. In the Northern Kurdish area, students are also learning to
read and write in the more widely spoken Kurdish language in Iraq, Central Kurdish, also
known as Sorani. Much of the curriculum available is written only in Central Kurdish.