Kurdish is most commonly written using either of two alphabets: theLatin-basedBedirxan orHawar alphabet, introduced byCeladet Alî Bedirxan in 1932 and popularized through theHawar magazine, and theKurdo-Arabic alphabet.^[1][2] TheKurdistan Region has agreed upon a standard for Central Kurdish, implemented in Unicode for computation purposes.^[3]The Hawar alphabet is primarily used inSyria andTurkey, while the Kurdo-Arabic alphabet is commonly used inIraq andIran. The Hawar alphabet is also used to some extent inIraqi Kurdistan.^[4][5] Two additional alphabets, based on theArmenian andCyrillic scripts, were once used byKurds in theSoviet Union, most notably in theArmenian Soviet Socialist Republic andKurdistansky Uyezd. Southern Kurdish lacks a standard orthography, as of 2024.^[6]

Usually it is the northern languages spoken byKurds,Zazaki andKurmanji, that are written in the extendedLatin alphabet consisting of the 26 letters of theISO basic Latin Alphabet with 5 letters withdiacritics, for a total of 31letters (each having an uppercase and a lowercase form):

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v t e

In this alphabet the short vowels are E, I and U while the long vowels are A, Ê, Î, O and Û (see the IPA equivalents in theHelp:IPA/Kurdish table).

When presenting the alphabet in his magazineHawar, Celadet Alî Bedirxan proposed using diacritics on⟨ḧ ẍ⟩ to distinguish the Arabicغ andح sounds (see[1] page 12, 13). These are not considered letters, but are used to disambiguate loanwords that would otherwise be conflated.

Turkey does not recognize this alphabet. Using the letters Q, W, and X, which did not exist in theTurkish alphabet until 2013, led to a trial in 2000 and 2003 (see[2], p. 8, and[3]). Since September 2003, many Kurds applied to the courts seeking to change their names to Kurdish ones written with these letters, but failed.^[7]

The Turkish government finally legalized the letters Q, W, and X as part of the Turkish alphabet in 2013.^[8]

The Kurdish Latin alphabet was elaborated mainly by Celadet Bedirxan who initially had sought the cooperation ofTewfîq Wehbî, who in 1931 lived in Iraq. But after not having received any responses by Wehbî for several months, he and his brotherKamuran Alî Bedirxan decided to launch the "Hawar" alphabet in 1932.^[9] Celadet Bedirxan aimed to create an alphabet that did not use two letters for representing one sound. As theKurds in Turkey already learned theTurkish Latin alphabet, he created an alphabet which would specifically be accessible for the Kurds in Turkey.^[10] Some scholars have suggested making minor additions to Bedirxan's alphabet to make it more user-friendly.^[11]

Many Kurdish varieties, mainlySorani, are written using a modifiedPerso-Arabic script with 33 letters introduced by Sa'id Kaban Sedqi. Unlike the Persian alphabet, which is anabjad, Central Kurdish is almost a truealphabet in which vowels are given the same treatment as consonants. Written Central Kurdish also relies on vowel and consonant context to differentiate between the phonemes u/w and î/y instead of using separate letters. It does show the twopharyngeal consonants, as well as avoiced velar fricative, used in Kurdish.

A new sort order for the alphabet was proposed some time ago by theKurdish Academy as the new standard,^[12] all of which are letters accepted included in the Central Kurdish Unicode Keyboard:^[13]

The alphabet is represented by 34 letters includingوو which is given its own position. Kurds inIraq andIran use this alphabet. Although theKurdistan Region's standardization usesک (Unicode 06A9) instead ofك (Unicode 0643) for letterkaf (22 in above table) as listed in the Unicode table on the official home page,^[13] the latter glyph is still in use by various individuals and organizations.

Central Kurdish has eight vowels, all of them except/ɪ/ are represented by letters:^[14]

Similar to some letters in English, bothو (u) andی (î) can become consonants. In the wordsوان^[a] (Wan) andیاری^[b] (play),و andی are consonants.Central Kurdish stipulates that syllables must be formed with at least one vowel, whilst a maximum of two vowels is permitted.

In the Arabic bookShawq al-Mustaham, attributed to the 9th-century authorIbn Wahshiyya, the author refers to the existence of a Kurdish alphabet and to scientific and artistic works written in Kurdish. The works attributed to Ibn Wahshiyya are the subject of debate and not considered totally reliable, and this particular book is regarded as "a laterpseudepigraph which used the names made famous by Ibn Wahshiyya". There is no other source that confirms this reference to written Kurdish at this early date.^[15]

A third system, used for the few Kurmanji-speaking Kurds in the formerSoviet Union—especially in Armenia—used a unique variant of theCyrillic alphabet, consisting of 40 letters.^[16] It was designed in 1946 byHeciyê Cindî.^[17]

From 1921 to 1929, a modified version of the westArmenian alphabet was used for Kurmanji, in theArmenian Soviet Socialist Republic.^[19][20]

It was then replaced with aYañalif-like Latin alphabet during the campaigns forLatinisation in the Soviet Union.

In 1928, Kurdish languages in all of theSoviet Union, including the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic, were switched to a Latin alphabet containing some Cyrillic characters.

1929 it was reformed and was replaced by the following alphabet:^[21]

The Soviet Latin alphabet is no longer used.

Yezidi
The name of 'Khatuna Fekhra', a Yazidi female saint, in Yazidi script
Period	13th century — present
Direction	Right-to-left script
Languages	Northern Kurdish
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Yezi(192), ​Yezidi
Unicode
Unicode alias	Yezidi
Unicode range	U+10E80..U+10EBF

This section contains uncommonUnicode characters. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of the intended characters.

TheYezidi script is written from right to left and was used to write in Kurdish, specifically in theKurmanji dialect (also called Northern Kurdish). The script has a long history, according to some data, it can be dated back to 13th-14th centuries, however, some scholars trace the creation of this script to 17th-18th centuries. The author of the script is unknown, but it was used for two manuscripts,Meṣḥefa Reş andKitêba Cilwe, first published byAnastase-Marie al-Karmali in 1911.

It is believed that historically, there existed two sacred Yezidi manuscripts known asMeshefa Reş andKitêba Cilwe, but the originals were lost. Later copies of these manuscripts were found, written in a special Yezidi alphabet, however, their contents was distorted. As a result, while theYazidi clergy do recognize the Yezidi alphabet, they do not consider the content of these two manuscripts to be sources of theYezidi religion.^[22][23]

In 2013, the Spiritual Council ofYazidis in Georgia decided to revive the Yezidi script and use it for writing prayers, religious books, on the organization letterhead and in the Yazidi heraldry.^[24][25] Today, it is used by the Yazidi clergymen in theYazidi temple of Sultan Ezid atTbilisi, where the names of theYazidi saints are written on walls in this alphabet. Furthermore,Dua'yêd Êzdiyan, a book containing a collection of Yazidi prayers, was written and published in the Yezidi alphabet.^[24]

• Kurdish typography
• Romanization of Kurdish
• Help:IPA/Kurdish

• KAL – A table of the various Kurdish alphabets
• Omniglot:Kurdish language, alphabet and pronunciation
• Kurdish Unicode Fonts

• Latin alphabets
• Arabic alphabets
• Persian alphabets
• Kurdish language
• Writing systems of Asia
• Cyrillic letters
• Cyrillic alphabets

• Pages with Kurdish IPA
• CS1 Kurdish-language sources (ku)
• CS1 French-language sources (fr)
• Articles with Kurdish-language sources (ku)
• Articles with Russian-language sources (ru)
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Articles containing Sorani Kurdish-language text
• Pages with plain IPA
• Articles containing Kurdish-language text
• Scripts with ISO 15924 four-letter codes