The Unaspirated Sound [k] in Kurmanji Kurdish and the Velarized Sound [ɫ] in Sorani Kurdish

Abstract

     The sound [k] is an unaspirated sound in Kurdish; whereas [ɫ] is a velarized sound. They are two complex sounds that have long been disputed by linguists who have tried to study them, but did not arrive at a unanimous and satisfactory conclusion regarding their nature as phonemes or allophones. Phonetically speaking, the  [k] sound is different from [k^h]; the same is true of the sounds [ɫَ] and [l]. The difference between these sounds is very obvious in Northern Kurmanji Kurdish; yet unfortunately, no attempt has been made by Kurdish researchers to investigate the problem, since most researchers have defined the phoneme on the basis of semantic change. ʈ

     The researcher sees this imprecision in  deciding the nature of these sounds to lead to increasing the phonemic inventory of the Kurdish language, as the inventory would necessarily also include the unaspirated sounds that exist in Northen Kurmanji Kurdish, such as [t], [p], [ʧ] and [ʈˠ]. This eventually also leads to  teaching and learning difficulties; therefore, it is necessary to take into consideration the general and particular principles of phonetics in the study of speech sounds. The above reasons have caused us to shed light on these sounds and present them to the researchers in the field. We have also attempted to assess the problem scientifically to find out whether these sounds are functional in Kurdish, since they have mostly been classified on dialectal and particular bases.