Editing Central Kurdish (section)

=== 1918–1930s ===

After the dissolution of the [[Ottoman Empire]], much of the Central Kurdish-speaking region came under [[United Kingdom|British]] rule in present-day Iraq. Central Kurdish subsequently became the language for [[prose]], media, and journalism, and a distinct alphabet was created for the vernacular. Sorani also gained a kurdified vocabulary by the 1950s. The British began publishing [[Periodical literature|periodicals]] in the language to mobilize Kurds, since the Central Kurdish-speaking contingent of Iraq was more urbanized, better educated, and more inclined towards [[Kurdish nationalism]] than the [[Kurmanji]]-speaking population around [[Duhok]]. Such nationalism was promoted to prevent any Turkish takeover of [[Kirkuk]] and [[Mosul]]. To this end, the first government press in Sorani was established in [[Sulaymaniyah]] in 1920, which propelled Central Kurdish into becoming a language of media, education, and administration. The government press had by 1923 published six books, 118 issues of the weekly publication ''Pêşkewtin'' (Progress), fourteen issues of ''Bangî Kurdistan'' (The Call of Kurdistan), and sixteen issues of ''Rojî Kurdistan'' (The Day of Kurdistan).{{Sfnp|Sheyholislami|2021|p=639–640}} The period also saw the publication of Central Kurdish works for schools, and courts began using the language as well. In 1923, [[Taufiq Wahby]] was instructed to produce school books in Central Kurdish by the Iraqi government, and his modified [[orthography]] for the language would be implemented as the official Central Kurdish script in school textbooks two decades later. His orthography included purging the Arabic letters ({{Lang|ar|ث/ذ/ص/ض/ط/ظ}}) and creating the new letters ({{Lang|ku|پ/ژ/چ/گ/ڤ/ڕ/ڵ/وو/ێ}}).{{Sfnp|Sheyholislami|2021|p=640–641}} Wahby also supported switching to the [[Latin alphabet]], but this idea was not accepted by the literary society or the state.{{Sfnp|Sheyholislami|2021|p=641}}

In the 1930s, the [[League of Nations]] urged Iraq to draft a law guaranteeing the use of the Kurdish language. The authorities reluctantly agreed, but the British knew the law would not be implemented once they left Iraq. This pushed the British to implement the law themselves in May 1931, which made Kurdish an official language in the governorates of [[Sulaymaniyah Governorate|Sulaymaniyah]], [[Kirkuk Governorate|Kirkuk]], and [[Erbil Governorate|Erbil]]. Kurds were, however, dissatisfied, since Kurdish was only allowed to be used in elementary schools and Iraq had fully [[Arabization|arabized]] the education and administration systems in Kirkuk and Mosul. In subsequent years, linguistic rights for Kurds were either ignored or reluctantly implemented.{{Sfnp|Sheyholislami|2021|pp=642-643}}

The development of Central Kurdish was slow in Iran and faced many challenges. The earliest use of the language was during the [[Simko Shikak revolt (1918–1922)|Simko Shikak revolt]] of 1918 to 1922, which saw the use of Central Kurdish side by side with Kurmanji as official languages in the area controlled by the rebels. After the defeat of the revolt, formal use of Central Kurdish ceased until 1946. During the rule of [[Reza Shah]] from 1925 to 1941, Iran was extremely centralist and [[Persian language|Persian]] was dominant to the detriment of other languages. A decree issued by the government in 1935 suppressed Kurdish and marked its end as a written language. Only a dozen handwritten poetic manuscripts in Central Kurdish exist from this period, including works by Hassan Saifulquzzat, Said Kamil Imani, and Khalamin Barzanji.{{Sfnp|Sheyholislami|2021|pp=641-643}}