Shafaq News- Erbil

On Sunday, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) launched an new initiative to promote the Kurdish language, seeking wider recognition for its use in education, research, and international communication.

The project, presented at a ceremony attended by scholars and Kurdish language experts, combines digital platforms with a series of books cataloging more than 300,000 Kurdish words, encompassing all dialects and linguistic forms used globally.

An international Kurdish language test will also be introduced. Students seeking to learn the language must pass the test to earn officially recognized certificates.

Speaking to Shafaq News, Feryad Fadil, the project’s supervisor, framed the initiative as a long-term effort to strengthen and protect Kurdish linguistic identity. He underlined that the goal is not to reinvent Kurdish but to address existing challenges and position it as a language of learning, research, and global communication.

Kurdish, an Indo-European language from the Iranian branch, traces its roots back over a thousand years. Spoken by 30–40 million people across Iraq, Turkiye, Iran, Syria, and the diaspora, it includes major dialects such as Kurmanji, Sorani, and Pehlewani.

Read more: Forgotten language: Kurdish sidelined in Iraqi curriculum