The persistence of archaic features in Bazayni-Kurdish

The present project is rooted in the tradition of paradigmatic documentation and descriptions of Kurdish languages and varieties. Bazaynī-Kurdish is one such Kurdish language that has not yet been thoroughly investigated linguistically. The documentary corpus will be a valuable resource for linguists and researchers studying the interactions and movements of societies, populations, languages, and cultures in the Near and Middle East over more than a millennium.

The study aims at a comprehensive description of Bazayni Kurdish. Preliminary analyses have revealed a still unclear picture of the language's genetic affiliation. While some researchers are of the opinion that it is a South Kurdish variety, the project team believes that the data points to linguistic independence within the Northwest Iranian group.