Sorani (Central Kurdish): learn

01From first steps to fluency

Levels follow the descriptors of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) as a guide. A course here is not an official CEFR exam.

1. A1

   First steps

   Read and write the script. Greet, introduce yourself and ask simple questions.

   • Sorani A1

2. A2

   Everyday use

   Handle routine tasks: shopping, travel, family and work.

   No course at this level yet.

3. B1 to B2

   Independent use

   Follow the news, write letters and take part in a discussion.

   • Sorani A2 to B1

4. C1 to C2

   Proficient use

   Read literature, work in the language and interpret.

   • Sorani B2 to C1

02Courses in the Academy

• Sorani · Foundations

  Sorani A1

  First steps in spoken and written Sorani, using the Arabic-based Kurdish script.

  Wave 1 · 40 h Outline drafted

• Sorani · Foundations, Practitioner

  Sorani A2 to B1

  Outline in preparation.

  Wave 2 Planned

• Sorani · Practitioner, Scholar

  Sorani B2 to C1

  Outline in preparation.

  Wave 3 Planned

03Exams and levels

No official proficiency exam aligned to the CEFR is recorded for Sorani (Central Kurdish) yet.

Sources Council of Europe. Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Companion volume. (2020) To verify

04Heritage-language programmes for children

Kurdish was banned or restricted in several of the states where Kurds live for much of the 20th century. Much of its teaching moved to homes, diaspora schools and mother-tongue programmes abroad. The network is preparing shared curricula, teacher training and a directory of schools.

• Heritage-language programme

  Mother tongue lessons (modersmål)

  Swedish National Agency for Education (Skolverket) To verify Mother tongue lessons in Swedish schools, with teaching material by language.

• Heritage-language programme

  Mother tongue teaching (morsmål)

  Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training (Udir) Checked 2026-10-23 Verified

• Heritage-language programme

  Herkunftssprachlicher Unterricht

  Ministry of Schools and Education of North Rhine-Westphalia Checked 2026-10-23 Verified Heritage-language lessons in state schools of North Rhine-Westphalia.

• Heritage-language programme

  International Languages Elementary Program

  Ontario Ministry of Education To verify

• Heritage-language programme

  Community languages schools

  Department of Education, Victoria To verify

Public programmes in some host countries. Which languages each offers is set locally; check the programme for Sorani (Central Kurdish).

05Teacher training

Teacher training for Sorani (Central Kurdish) is forming.

06Study elsewhere

• Study

  Iranian languages

  Department of Linguistics and Philology, Uppsala University Checked 2026-10-23 Verified

• Study

  Persian, Kurdish and Armenian

  Inalco (Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales) Checked 2026-10-23 Verified

• Study

  Persian

  SOAS University of London Checked 2026-10-23 Verified

• Study

  Kurdish Studies

  Centre for Kurdish Studies, University of Exeter Checked 2026-10-23 Verified

Institutions that teach or research the region’s languages. A listing is not a partnership or an endorsement.

07Research and sources

Recent and relevant work on this page’s subject, from approved open scholarly sources. Metadata and links only. Titles stay as published. Not yet reviewed.

1. A Formal Description of Sorani Kurdish Morphology

   Sina Ahmadi · 2021 · arXiv

   PreprintarXivOpenAIREOpen access

2. Kurdish Sorani (Central Kurdish) Text Corpus

   Tarik A. Rashid, Qais kakl, Abdulhady Abdulla et al. · 2026 · Mendeley Data

   DatasetDataCiteOpen accessCC-BY-NC-ND-4.0

3. Mabast dataset for Sorani Kurdish dialect semantic text classification.

   Hasan IE, Al-Atroshi SJA · 2026 · Data Brief

   ArticleEurope PMCOpen access

4. Kurdish Poetry from the perspective of the criteria of textuality, Kurdish poetry texts of Central Kurdish dialect as an example

   Nawzad Waqas SAHID, Rebwar Muhammed ISMAIL · 2019 · International Journal of Kurdish Studies

   ArticleCrossref

5. Sorani Kurdish Read Speech Corpus for Rhythmic Analysis

   Akar Ahmed Saeed · 2026

   PreprintOpenAlexOpen accessCC-BY

6. Hunspell for Sorani Kurdish Spell Checking and Morphological Analysis

   Sina Ahmadi · 2021 · arXiv

   PreprintarXivOpen access

7. Discourse Particles in Sorani Kurdish

   Zanko RADNİA · 2022 · International Journal of Kurdish Studies

   ArticleCrossref

8. AsoSoft/Kurdish-G2P-dataset: Central Kurdish G2P dataset

   Aso Mahmudi · 2020 · Zenodo

   SoftwareZenodoOpen accessother-open

9. Language and Speech Technology for Central Kurdish Varieties

   Sina Ahmadi, Daban Q. Jaff, Md Mahfuz Ibn Alam et al. · 2024 · arXiv

   PreprintarXivOpen access

10. Redefinition of Compounding in Sorani Kurdish Morphology: An Investigation on Nominal Compounds in Construction Morphology Approach

    kourosh karimi, Arezoo Najafian, Razieh Mahdi-Beyraghdar et al. · 2024 · مطالعات زبان‌‌ها و گویش‌های غرب ایران

    ArticleDOAJOpen access

11. Idiom Detection in Sorani Kurdish Texts

    Skala Kamaran Omer, Hossein Hassani · 2025 · arXiv (Cornell University)

    PreprintOpenAlexOpen accessCC-BY-NC-ND

12. Sorani Kurdish: The basics

    Faruk Akkuş, David Embick, Mohammed A. Salih · 2025 · Case and the Syntax of Argument Indexation

    ChapterCrossref

Sources, licences and fetch dates: arXiv (Metadata CC0 1.0; papers under their own licences), 2026-10-23; Crossref (Metadata facts, any use; abstracts may be publisher-owned and are never shown), 2026-10-23; DataCite (CC0 1.0 (DataCite metadata)), 2026-10-23; DOAJ (Metadata CC0 1.0 (DOAJ); articles under their own open licences), 2026-10-23; Europe PMC (Metadata reusable; full text under each article’s licence), 2026-10-23; OpenAIRE (CC BY 4.0 (OpenAIRE Graph)), 2026-10-23; OpenAlex (CC0-1.0 data; metered API (free key)), 2026-10-23; Zenodo (Metadata CC0 1.0; each record under its own licence), 2026-10-23.