Sorani Kurdish Address Forms: Case of Northwest Iran

Abstract

Our study aims at ascertaining and formulating a framework that would account for the Kurdish data. We scrutinize all the dyads that occur in the selected corpus, and describe how they usually work on the basis of the two following variables: power and intimacy. According to our investigation, the use of terms of address in Kurdish is affected by the age, sex, occupation, ideology, political and social position of the interlocutors which can be stated as a result of the investigation of older material –such as qualitative analysis of observation followed by unobtrusive note taking of contemporary use, a corpus of several plays, accounts of travel, interviews, TV, radio and the careful observation of the use of terms of address of today. Kurdish culture is title + first-name and title + family name oriented. Titles like 'doctor,' 'professor,' and 'teacher' are used, with title and family names. First names in Kurdish culture are restricted in use. They are used most commonly among peer groups of young generation, and by an older person addressing a child or a younger person in the family. Cognitively, Kurdish tends toward a holistic style and it puts the group, family, and country before the individual.