Gorani Language

Gorani Language

Gorani (also Gurani) is a group of Northwestern Iranian dialects, that includes Hewramî, and is spoken by Kurdish people in the southernmost parts of Iranian Kurdistan and the Iraqi Kurdistan region. Some linguists classify it as a member of the Zaza–Gorani branch of the Northwestern Iranian languages. Hewrami, on the other hand, although considered a sub-dialect of Gorani, is a very distinct dialect spoken by Gorani/Hewrami people in a region called Hewraman along the Iran–Iraq border.

Although Gorani language shares similarities in vocabulary to Kurmanji and Sorani, also spoken by Kurds, Gorani is distinct grammatically from the two and shares similarities with Zazaki. Gorani is spoken in the southwestern corner of province of Kurdistan and northwestern corner of province of Kermanshah in Iran, and in parts of the Halabja region in Iraqi Kurdistan and the Hawraman mountains between Iran and Iraq.

The oldest literary documents in these related languages, or dialects, are written in Gorani.

Many Gorani speakers belong to the religious grouping Yarsanism, with a large number of religious documents written in Gorani.

Gorani was once an important literary language in the southeastern parts of the Kurdistan geographical region but has since been replaced by Sorani. In the nineteenth century, Gorani as a language of communication was slowly replaced by Sorani in several cities, both in Iran and Iraq. Today, Sorani is the primary language spoken in cities including Kirkuk, Meriwan, and Halabja, which are still considered part of the greater Goran region.