Sorani (Central Kurdish): writing

01Scripts

• ISO 15924 Arab · Right to left

  ئ ا ب پKurdish Arabic-based alphabet

  Every vowel is written except short i, which is not written.

02Alphabet chart: Kurdish Arabic-based alphabet

Letters: Unicode CLDR exemplar characters for ckb.

• Every vowel is written except short i, which is not written.
• A word that starts with a vowel takes the seat ئ.
• ە is the vowel e and ه is the consonant h; keyboards and fonts must keep them apart.

Sources Unicode Common Locale Data Repository (CLDR), version 49 data. (2026) Verified; The Unicode Standard, version 18.0.0: Unicode Character Database. (2026) Verified

03Romanisation and transliteration

Writing the language in other letters, by open published standards. Libraries use the ALA-LC tables for names and titles.

04Numerals

05Orthography and standards

No official orthography body is recorded for Sorani (Central Kurdish) yet.

Sources ISO 639-3 code tables. SIL International, registration authority. (2025) To verify; ISO 15924 codes for the representation of names of scripts. Unicode Consortium, registration authority. (2025) Verified; Unicode Common Locale Data Repository (CLDR), version 49 data. (2026) Verified

06Keyboards and typing

Windows

Settings, Time and language, Language and region: add the language, then its keyboard. Switch with Windows key and Space.

macOS

System Settings, Keyboard, Text Input: edit Input Sources and add the keyboard. Switch from the menu bar.

Android

In the keyboard app’s settings (Gboard: Languages), add the language and choose its layout.

iPhone and iPad

Settings, General, Keyboard, Keyboards: add the keyboard. Switch with the globe key.

Linux

In the desktop settings (GNOME: Keyboard, Input Sources), add the layout.

Which layouts each system ships for each language changes with every release. Check the list on your device; layouts we have confirmed are named on the language’s page.

07Fonts

On this platform the language is shown with Estedad. Every face is self-hosted under an open licence.

08Sources

1. Unicode Common Locale Data Repository (CLDR), version 49 data. 2026

   Verified Unicode License v3 Exemplar characters and default numbering systems, read 2026-10-23.

2. Library of Congress. ALA-LC Romanization Tables: Kurdish, 2012 version. 2012

   Verified

3. The Unicode Standard, version 18.0.0: Unicode Character Database. 2026

   Verified Unicode License v3 Character names, code points and block ranges.

4. ISO 15924 codes for the representation of names of scripts. Unicode Consortium, registration authority. 2025

   Verified

5. ISO 639-3 code tables. SIL International, registration authority. 2025

   To verify Codes cross-checked through Glottolog records; the code tables themselves were not read.

09Research 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.