Gorani language
group of Northwestern Iranian dialects, variety of Zaza–Gorani languages spoken by Kurds
Gorani or Gurani (Kurdish: گۆرانی, romanized: Goranî, lit. 'song'), also known by the name of its main dialect, Hawrami (ھەورامی, romanized: Hewramî), is a Northwestern Iranian language or a group of similar Northwestern Iranian dialects spoken in small pockets in northeastern Iraq and northwestern Iran.
Gorani is spoken in Iraq and Iran and has four dialects: Bajelani, Hawrami, and Sarli, some sources also include the Shabaki as a dialect of Gorani as well. Of these, Hawrami was the traditional literary language and koiné of Kurds in the historical Ardalan region at the Zagros Mountains, but has since been supplanted by Central Kurdish and Southern Kurdish. Gorani is a literary language for many Kurds.
History
The linguistic homeland of the Gurani dialects is believed to be somewhere around the Caspian Sea. It is suggested that Gurani speakers migrated en bloc from the Caspian region to their present-day settlements at an unknown early date.
Classification
Gurani is a member of the Indo-European language family, belonging to the Northwestern Iranian branch of Iranian languages. Ethnologue classifies it within a genetic subgroup called Zaza-Gorani, along with Zaza, within the Northwestern Iranian languages.However, despite some similarities, significant linguistic differences were found between the two languages.The Glottolog database proposes a detailed classification and classifies it within the Adharic subgroup. Different treatment of Gorani from other Kurdish languages in linguistic works is based on the idea of Mackenzie in 1961. However, broader classifications of Kurdish languages include Gorani in the Kurdish language family.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q33733. The Library of Congress control number is sh00004044. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1961.
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This entry incorporates text from “Gorani language” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.