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Kurdish · Kurdî / کوردی

Directory 11 resource listings . A short orientation and a solid starting list.

Honest start for Kurdish: pick one beginner course or community program from the list, add 10–15 minutes of listening most days, and bookmark one reference. Ignore the rest of the directory until those three habits are alive. Last reviewed 2026-08-01

About Kurdish

Language family
Indo-European, Iranian, Northwestern
Source: Glottolog
Where it's spoken
Kurdistan region across Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria, and diaspora
Speakers
roughly 20–40 million speakers across varieties
Estimate source: Ethnologue (SIL International)
Writing
Latin · Arabic

Kurdish covers several related Iranian varieties — mainly Kurmanji and Sorani — with different scripts. Choose one variety before you invest in apps or news. Kurmanji Latin materials and Rudaw/Kurdistan24 media are the easiest public starting points for many English speakers.

Speaker counts are approximate orders of magnitude for learners, not census figures. Family labels follow Glottolog-style classification; vitality notes (when shown) follow UNESCO WAL / Ethnologue-style framing and should be re-checked for program planning.

Related languages: Persian Pashto

How to start

  1. New to this writing system? Start with the script trainer before heavy vocabulary work.
  2. Pick one free course (or free-with-upgrades) below and finish a short beginner unit before hopping apps.
  3. Bookmark one dictionary or grammar reference and look up every unknown word for a week.
  4. Add 10–15 minutes of listening most days — news, radio, or a teaching channel.
  5. When ready, use a tutor marketplace listing below for short speaking sessions.

Practice on this site

Deep links into trainers and drills that already cover Kurdish.

Listening picker

All course free course paid reference tutoring listening reading

Some outbound links may earn us a commission. Commission never affects inclusion or ranking. Full disclosure.

Resource Type Levels Cost Verified
Glosbe Kurdish reference A1-C2 free —
Omniglot Kurdish reference A1-A2 free —

Know a better classroom-friendly resource for Kurdish? Suggest it with attribution.