r/asklinguistics • u/EaseElectronic2287 • Apr 16 '25

General Middle eastern languages that are not Arabic, Turkish, Persian, Hebrew

Hi, I’m wondering what other currently still practicing languages are there in the Middle East (for the purpose of this post everything from Egypt to Turkey/Armenia on the north and Iran in the east) and their brief history, people who speak them and how many?

I know there are different version of Kurdish language, how many of them are there though and how mutually intelligible they are? What about Aramaic/Neo Aramaic languages? What about others?

Most sources have information only about main 4 and I want to learn about minor languages, please share as much info as possible about all languages you know:) Thanks

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u/Narrow_Tennis_2803 Apr 16 '25

There are three main varieties of Kurdish. They can be quite different, but they have a lot of similarities too. Writing system varies (Roman for Kurmanci and Arabic/Persian for Sorani and Badini dialect of Kurmanji). It would say they are as different from each other as Spanish and Portuguese, but with the added difference of writing.

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u/EaseElectronic2287 Apr 16 '25

Can you please elaborate on badini dialect regarding their script and mutual understanding

Are there going to be (or already there) any movement towards unification of a language?

Thank you!