Introduction to Kurdistan youth - Report 1: Youth dialect and language

OTHER THAN YOUR DIALECT, WHAT OTHER DIALECTS DO YOU KNOW

The above graph shows the knowledge of Kurdish young people about different Kurdish dialects (Sorani, Kurmanji, Hawrami, Zazaki) in the Kurdistan Region. 51% of the sample (out of 3,000 young people) except for their own dialect, they don't know any other Kurdish dialects. 18% of the sample speak Sorani and 13% speak the Kurdish dialect in addition to their own dialects. Meanwhile, only 2% of Kurdistan youth speak Hawrami and less than 1% speak the Zazaki dialect in addition to their own. However, those who speak two or more dialects besides their own, account for 16%.

More than half of the sample (51%), know only one dialect, which is due to the fact that dialects such as Kurmanji and Hawrami, are geographically distant from each other. Another effective factor is that fewer Kurdish people live or travel to other regions of Kurdistan. Furthermore, it is important to mention the neglected role of media and education in this regard.

The below graph indicates that only 40.9% of the youth in the Kurdistan Region do not speak any other language except Kurdish. On the other hand, nearly 60% of the youth in the Kurdistan Region speak another language except for Kurdish. 31.6% of the sample speak Arabic, 27.5% English, 7.3% Persian, 5.4% Turkish, 0.4% German, and 0.4% Spanish. Also, 2.9% of young people other than their own language, and except for above mentioned foreign languages, speak another language.

BESIDES YOUR NATIVE LANGUAGE, WHAT OTHER LANGUAGE DO YOU SPEAK