FERHENGA BIRÛSKÎ Kurmanji - English Dictionary Volume One: A - L

Front Cover
Transnational Press London, Jan 7, 2020 - Foreign Language Study - 494 pages

Ferhenga Biruski is the go-to dictionary for Kurmanji a dialect of Kurdish spoken originally in parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey while also being common among a large diaspora of Kurds in Europe, North America and elsewhere. This comprehensive Kurmanji-English dictionary is prepared in two volumes by Michael L. Chyet, a renowned linguist with extensive knowledge of the major dialects of Kurdish. This dictionary is an essential reference source for linguists and others interested in Kurdish language and people.

"The second edition of my Kurmanji-English dictionary, which I would like to call “Ferhenga Birûskî” to honor the memory of my beloved friend and colleague Birûsk Tugan, contains considerably more entries, and in many cases offers fuller information on earlier entries. In addition, I have found and corrected several typographical errors. Moreover, it is to be accompanied by a companion English to Kurdish volume. [...] It is my goal to accurately reflect the language as it exists today, providing variant spellings, synonyms, and regional usage, as well as etymologies. The late Iranist D.N. MacKenzie advised me early on to avoid filling my dictionary with “ghost words”. He suggested that I base all the entries in my dictionary on texts (both written and orally generated), to ensure that I am reflecting the language as it is used by its speakers. The earlier dictionaries include words of unknown provenance, which may have no existence outside those pages."

- Excerpt from the Introduction by Michael L. Chyet

Preface by Deniz Ekici

Introduction to Ferhenga Birûskî

Review of Kurdish Dictionaries

How to use the dictionary

Abbreviations

Abbreviations of Sources Used in Compiling this Dictionary

Sources for Linguistic Comparison

Place of Origin of Informants

Calendar Systems

Dictionary A to L


 

Contents

Section 1
138
Section 2
270
Section 3
274
Section 4
365
Section 5
436
Copyright

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2020)

Dr Michael L Chyet serves as a specialist for the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. on books and other written materials in Middle Eastern languages, including Kurdish, Persian, Turkish, Arabic, and Syriac. He has particular expertise as a linguist, folklorist and teacher of the Kurdish dialects of Kurmanji and Sorani. The first edition of this Kurmanji-English dictionary was published in in 2003 by Yale University Press and this is the expanded second edition. Michael now works on Kurmanji and Sorani textbooks as well as numerous other language research projects.

Bibliographic information