Language is not only a means of communication; it is furthermore a repository of knowledge for its speaker community. Thus, its structural analysis can reveal information about the history of a community, which is particularly significant when the community has left few material sources. A previously little-researched language is now being documented and described in the newly approved project "The Persistence of Archaic Features in Bazaynī-Kurdish: A Linguistic Inquiry." Bazaynī Kurdish is spoken in Turkey, Iran, and Iraq. Through Istanbul and the other major port cities of the Ottoman Empire, the language has become part of the linguistic diversity of the Mediterranean region. In the context of the project, a documentation corpus will be created, which will lead, on one hand, to a descriptive grammar. On the other hand, the archaic structures preserved in Bazaynī provide insights into historical contacts and migration routes of its speakers. Therefore, beyond the Bazaynī, the project contributes to a deeper understanding of the linguistic history of Kurdish.
Funding: FWF
Program: Principal Investigator Projects
Approved amount: 270.251,00 Euro
Project management: Dr. Agnes Grond
Project staff: Cemile Çelebi
Planned project start: October 2025