a-practical-kurdish-grammar

A PRACTICAL KURDISH GRAMMAR
of the dialects of East-Central Kurdistan was written by Oscar
Mann. And only a few years ago a very able treatise on the
Kurdish language was written by E. B. Soane.
To discover the best Kurdish among these many dialects
is not an easy task. Lerch states that it is useless to ask the
Kurds as to which dialect is the best, for every Kurd claims
that his own dialect is the purest and best. The linguists
themselves have a tendency to give the same kind of an ans¬
wer: The dialect they study the most becomes the purest
and best 'for them.'
Prof. Beresin claims that the purest and best Kurdish is
spoken in the district east of Mosul. Ker Porter comes very
near to the same opinion when he claims that the Ravandoos
group of dialects is one of the purest and best. Lerch, in
comparing his Kermanji with other dialects, says: "I have
found that the Kermanji that I have learned, agrees very much
with that of Garzoni and Beresin." And in speaking of the
dialects still farther south, he says: "The Kurdish language
of Suleimania also, according to the words collected by Rich,
belongs to the Kermanji." By these two statements, Lerch
has practically linked together all the dialects of West-Cen'-
tral Kurdistan, from Hakkari to Suleimania, into one large
group which he calls 'Kermanji.'
As to the dialects spoken in East-Central Kurdistan, be¬
ginning with the districts north and west of Urmia, and going
south through Ushno, Soujbulak, Sardesht, and Sakis, to the
districts of Senna, it is interesting to hear what Missionary
HornH has to say. He visited those parts in 1835, and em¬
ployed as teachers, two Somai Kurds Avho also knew the Hak¬
kari dialect, one Bradost Kurd who also knew the Schikak
dialect, and one Mukri Kurd. Besides these his private ser¬
vant was a Soar Kurd from Mardin.
From the comparative study of these dialects, and from
his attempt to translate the Gospel of St. John into Mukri
Kurdish so as to be serviceable to them all, Missionary Hornli
made the following discovery : "I found to my great joy,
that the Kurds of these tribes understood each other quite
well, and understood what I read to them in the Mukri dia-