Vate Study Group

In 1996 a group of Kırmanji speakers who had contributed to Kırmanji literature, formed a group they called Vate Study Group in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. This group has realized 33 meetings from 1996 to 2021. At these meetings they attempted to do the work necessary for the standardization of Kırmanji written language. The most common words used in the daily language were selected and standardized, word roots and prevalance having been taken into account. Furthermore, spelling rules have also been discussed during these work sessions. Vate Journal which began its publishing life in the summer of 1997 and has published 69 issues to date, applies the decisions taken at the meetings. More than 10.000 basic words selected, evaluated and designated as the standard form for written language at these sessions were compiled in “Ferhengê Kirmanckî (Zazakî)-Tirkî” and “Türkçe-Kırmancca (Zazaca) Sözlük” dictionaries in their repective 5th edition, in 2016 and 2019. Decisions concerning spelling rules were published in the “Rastnuştişê Kirmanckî (Zazakî)” spelling guide.

Principles and Aims of Standardization of Vate Study Group

– Members of Vate Study Group identify themselves as Kurds and consider Kurmanji as a dialect of kurdish.

What is taken into consideration is not the political views, religious beliefs or other choices of the participants but their contribution to the meetings.

– For the quality of standardization work, attention is paid to the representation of the various regions where Kırmanji spoken.

– Contributors must be involved with Kırmanji in some way.

– Concurrent tasks aiming at standardization are attempted during the meetings:

a) One of the topics of agenda at each meeting is the designation of various spelling rules in accordance with their importance and urgency. For example the main topic of the first meeting was the alphabet. Vate Study Group assesses that the existing Kurdish alphabet fulfills the needs of Kırmanji at present.

b) Another agenda topic at these work sessions is the determination of common terminology in various fields. Important work has been accomplished in the formulation of terminology on the topics of management, anatomy, health, geography, education, military, grammar, home, family, relations and such. Work on terminology is ongoing.

c) Various topics about Grammar are being evaluated and designated. For example the standard Kırmanji forms for days, months, seasons, languages, dialects, religions, sects, states and capitals have been determined; adjective, pronoun, preposition, verb, conjunction and certain forms of other parts of speech are discussed and common forms determined.

ç) In addition to these, as far as possible, word documentation of Kırmanji accents is made.

In short, the aim of this study is not to create a new and eclectic language, but, on the contrary, to standardize the existing form to increase intelligibility; the language is developed and strengthened and as much as possible, common forms in various dialects are selected as a first step, to make written communication easier among Kırmanji speakers.

In summary, the study strategy adopted at these meetings is below:

a) In accordance with the meeting’s agenda, some participants prepare a draft of topics to be discussed and send it to other participants; work proceeds from this.

b) First of all, if words to be discussed have different pronunciations and synonyms, these are determined. All synonyms are taken as standard words. As an example we can take the word rabbit:

Rabbit: hargûş, -e

arbêş (n), argoş (n), argueş (n), arguweş (n), argûş (n), arîweş (n), aroş (n), arûş (n), arwêş, -i, awres (n), awrês (n), awrêş (n), awriş (n), erbêş (n), ewrêş (n), harewêş, -e, harêweş, -e, herbêş (n), heroşe, owres, -e

As seen from the examples above, of the words that have the same root but different pronunciations in various regions, one is selected and designated as the standard form. Other pronunciations are accepted as variants and written in, too. Two dictionaries have been prepared with the compilation of words designated as a consequence of these meetings. One of these is the Turkish-Kırmanji (Zazaki) Dictionary, the other is Kırmanji (Zazaki)-Turkish. The Turkish-Kırmanji (Zazaki) Dictionary consists of more than 10.000 standard basic words; the Kırmanji (Zazaki)-Turkish Dictionary includes all the given pronunciations of a word and with ‘see’ (abbreviated as “b.”)  makes a reference to the form selected to be used in written language.

For example all the forms used for “rabbit”, arbêş (n), argoş (n), argueş (n), arguweş (n), argûş (n), arîweş (n), aroş (n), arûş (n), arwêş, -i, awres (n), awrês (n), awrêş (n), awriş (n), erbêş (n), ewrêş (n), harewêş, -e, harêweş, -e, herbêş (n), heroşe, owres, -e were set down in the dictionary with the reference see (b. hargûş, -e) opposite the entry (hargûş, -e). Thus Kırmanji (Zazaki)-Turkish Dictionary contains 50.000 words.

c) If the selected word is not shared by many Kırmanji speaking regions, other criteria are taken into consideration. Following etimological research about a word, written form of other Kurdish dialects, other languages spoken in the region and especially Persian is taken into account. All data are evaluated and the preferred word is chosen.

d) If the word is borrowed from a foreign language, the form closest to the original language is selected.

e) Unless absolutely necessary, Vate Study Group does not resort to word derivation.

f) If, during the meeting, no consensus is reached on a certain point, the group takes decisions by majority vote.