Central Kurdish

Central Kurdish
Central Kurdish
Kurdîy Nawendî / Soranî
کوردیی ناوەندی / سۆرانی
	Central Kurdish and Sorani written in the Sorani alphabet
Native to	Iran, Iraq
Region	Kurdistan
Ethnicity	Kurds
Native speakers	6.1 million (2023–2024)
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Iranian Western Northwestern Kurdish Central Kurdish; ; ; ; ; ;
Dialects	Babanî (Silêmanî); Mukriyanî; Erdelanî; Germiyanî (Cafî); Arbilî (Hewlêrî); Xoşnaw; Kerkukî;
Writing system	Arabic (Kurdo-Arabic alphabet); Latin (Hawar alphabet) (occasionally);
Official status
Official language in	Iraq; Kurdistan Region
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ckb
Glottolog	cent1972
Linguasphere	58-AAA-cae
Geographic distribution of Kurdish and other Iranian languages spoken by Kurds	Kurmanji (Northern Kurdish) Sorani (Central Kurdish) Zaza language Southern Kurdish (Gorani is included) mixed dialect areas
	Kurmanji (Northern Kurdish) Sorani (Central Kurdish) Zaza language Southern Kurdish (Gorani is included) mixed dialect areas

Central Kurdish, also known as Sorani Kurdish, is a Kurdish dialect or a language spoken in Iraq, mainly in Iraqi Kurdistan, as well as the provinces of Kurdistan, Kermanshah, and West Azerbaijan in western Iran. Central Kurdish is one of the two official languages of Iraq, along with Arabic, and is in administrative documents simply referred to as "Kurdish".

The term Sorani, named after the Soran Emirate, refers to a variety of Central Kurdish based on the dialect spoken in Slemani. Central Kurdish is written in the Kurdo-Arabic alphabet, an adaptation of the Arabic script developed in the 1920s by Sa’ed Sidqi Kaban and Taufiq Wahby.