Institut für Kurdische Studien

After more than twelve years of research Kurdologist and Iranian studies scholar Feryad Fazil Omar presents the first Kurdish-German dictionary (Soranî). It is a unique work for a language which is spoken mainly in northern Iraq and northwestern Iran and which is the mother tongue for approx. 12 million people.

Different to Kurmancî, which is mainly spoken by Kurds in eastern Turkey, Soranî was not officially forbidden, but faced decades of severe repression by successive regimes.

Compared to the Kurdish-German dictionary (Kurmancî) by the same author, the now publicised dictionary is much larger and more extensive in accordance with the advanced lexis of Soranî. It is not just unique in regards to the German language, as was the Kurmancî dictionary released in 1992, but is also not to be found in this form in any other European language.

Over 1184 pages the Kurdish-German dictionary (Soranî) assembles the entire relevant vocabulary of Soranî in approx. 60 000 keywords from colloquial language and jargon to language for literary purposes, from proper nouns and geographical names to lexis from all classic research fields. All available sources are considered, from the literary texts of the poets Nalî, Salim and Kurdî to the Kurdish modernists; but also vocabulary collected over many years of field research of the topical and latest colloquial language, as well as proverbs and idiomatic expressions.

All entries convey the keyword in Arabic-Kurdish writing and German translation with all necessary references to valency and grammar. Like the well-known first conclusive transcription of the Kurmancî dictionary, the Soranî-German dictionary is an essential handbook for Kurdish or German beginners, philologists, linguists, translators and interpreters alike.

Already the Kurmancî dictionary by Feryad Fazil Omar is regarded as fundamental work for interested people, beginners and relevant linguistics. With this unique and comprehensive dictionary, he has now created another definitive book. In the everywhere claimed dialogue of cultures, certainly and particularly with regards to the newly awakened interest in the Middle Eastern cultural area, as a bridge building it achieves a not to be underestimated contribution between by their origin related languages.

In terms of a dialogue of cultures, especially in view of the renewed interest in the Middle Eastern culture space, this dictionary provides a not insignificant contribution to the bridge between of Soranî and its related languages with the same origins.