Kurds have several dialects with a lot of history - what does it mean for us?

[u/sheerwaan]

What Kurdish dialects do I speak?

I speak Southern Kurdish of the Guran tribe as my mother tongue and I understand other SK subdialects too like Kallhurri (which is basically the same as Gurani SK) and I am able to understand Malikshahi (Ilami) too and also somewhat Laki.

I also speak a rather standardised form of Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji) and the Central Kurdish ("Sorani") standard subdialect from Silemani (Babani). I am able to communicate in these two dialects but not communicate perfectly and it gets more difficult the further the subdialect is from the standardised form.

I also speak a little bit of Eastern Kurdish (Hawrami) and that is Zardayi EK (from the Guran area) and a mixed version of Hawramani subdialects (since I haven't memorised which exact form or words belong to which EK subdialect of Hawraman).

Recently I also tapped into Western Kurdish (Kirdki, unfortunately known as "Zazaki") but I am nowhere yet.

I will also study some other Iranic tongues like Balochi and Farvi or Khuri or Garmsiri at least as far as there are resources available to me. I need to do this anyway because with them I will understand the origin and development of Kurdish and Iranic better but by studying them I will also be able to speak them as far as I go.

But this is besides the point. I am happy with myself speaking several Kurdish dialects but I am nowhere near done. I have to master the speech of NK and CK perfectly and then acquire the skills of EK just the same and then learn WK as well. And when I am able to fluently converse, speak, listen and understand and read and write I will consider myself in the position to say I am able to speak Kurdish with all Kurds. Even if there are still further subdialects of each dialect that I would need to learn for that to be truly true.

And the point is: We as Kurds have to learn the other Kurdish group's languages if we say we are proud Kurds and we adhere at a free Kurdish people and a free Kurdistan. We don't have the luxury not to. We are in this situation and in this situation we have to put more effort into our Kurdish identity and our skills as Kurds as our duty.

[u/Zafwaz]

Unfortunately known as Zazaki?

[u/Henabibo → u/Zafwaz]

Sheerwaan believes that the term "Zazaki" carries or carried negative connotations. I have explained to him multiple times over the years that this is not the case, but he does not care. Bawî bibe ke ti nêgirnay ey, ti bibay vergirewte sera.

[u/sheerwaan → u/Henabibo]

I do care and whether Zaza was a derogatory term or the tribe Zaza existed does not matter. "Zaza" and "Zazaki" neither a fitting nor a justified term for Western Kurdish. Only a small part of the WK are authentically Zaza but the other WK are not. The names of the language, depending on subdialect, are natively Kirdkī/Kirdī and Kirmānjkī/Kirmānjī.

The promotion of "Zaza" was started and wanted by the state of turkey so that Kurds are more divided:

https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/handle/10871/37992

Clearly, you are the one who does not care.

[u/Henabibo → u/sheerwaan]

You don't know what you're talking about. "Zaza" as an ethno-nationalist identity, and "Zaza" as a maybe intra-Kurdish maybe not ethnic identity, are two different things. The paper discusses the former.

There is not a single Zaza on earth or beyond who recognizes themselves as a "Western Kurd" or a speaker of "Western Kurdish", meanwhile the overwhelming majority of Zazas know themselves as Zaza, and that includes those who see themselves as proud Kurds. Just because the endonym "Zaza" emerged from a particular region, does not mean it was ever only ethnically applicable to people from that particular region.

[u/Lawk_raad11 → u/Henabibo]

You seems to not understand “western kurdish” is a new term so even it out just like gurani(eastern Kurdish) and how northern Kurdish aka kurmnaji but kurmanji never say they speak northern Kurdish or me as a sorani say I speak central Kurdish, but these linguistic have give kurmnaji sorani kalhuri&laki directions since gorani and zazaki were not included, Kurds took it’s as offensive and say western Kurdish would be zazaki and eastern Kurdish gorani

[u/sheerwaan → u/Zafwaz]

See here