As Children First Association, we conducted a field research on Kurmanji and Kırmanckî/Zazakî dialects of Kurdish between 25 January – 5 February 2023 in the context of “Right to Mother Language”.
This field research was developed with the aim of supporting the use of mother language by children whose mother language is Kurmanji and Zazakî dialects of Kurdish, the environments in which they use their mother language, access to the tools developed for them to use their mother language, measuring these tools, and raising awareness on the right to mother language.
Within the scope of the study, face-to-face interviews were conducted with 260 children in Diyarbakır.
The questionnaires used in the interview were designed to understand the child’s age, gender, level of mother language use, opportunities to learn the mother language, attitudes towards learning the mother language, perceptions and demands for awareness of the right to mother language.
The data obtained through this study;
-Kurdish is a candidate to be among the risky languages in terms of its teaching, use and sustainability in Diyarbakır.
-It has been observed that children do not live most of their daily lives in their mother language, children do not have the opportunity to learn and speak their mother language outside their families, and families cannot create an alternative for this situation.
-One of the most important issues that draws attention is that the number of speakers of the Kirmanjki/Zazakî dialect is much lower than the number of speakers of the Kurmanji dialect and they are much more passive in terms of speaking their mother language.
The data shows that the future of both dialects of Kurdish is worrying, but the Zazaki dialect needs much more urgent measures and solutions.
You might wish to read our report by clicking here.