|Native to||Eastern Iraq, Western Iran|
|3.7 million in Iran (2019)|
unknown number in Iraq
|Kurdish alphabet (Perso-Arabic script)|
Geographic distribution of Kurdish dialects and other Iranian languages spoken by Kurds
Kurmanji (Northern Kurdish)
Sorani (Central Kurdish)
Southern Kurdish (Gorani is included)
mixed dialect areas
Southern Kurdish (Kurdish: کوردی باشووری ,کوردی خوارین, romanized: Kurdî Başûrî, Kurdî Xwarîn) is one of the dialects of the Kurdish language, spoken predominantly in northeastern Iraq and western Iran. The Southern Kurdish-speaking region spans from Khanaqin in Iraq to Dehloran southward and Asadabad eastward in Iran.
'Southern Kurdish' is a linguistic term for a group of related dialects in Western Iran. Speakers are not familiar with the term and do not refer to the language as such. They generally identify the kind of Kurdish they speak as a local dialect (the Kurdish of a given village), or as a regional variety such as "Garūsi".
Southern Kurdish has many variants, linguist Fattah divides them into 35 varieties. These include:
Other variants include: Bîstûnî, Çihrî, Hersîn, Payrawand, Kirmaşanî, Sanjabî, Xalesa, Çemçemal, Qasirî Şîrîn, Serpuli Zuhawî, Harasam, Kelurî, Îwan, Erkewazî, Şêrwanî, Îlamî, Salihabad, Rîka, Badraî, Melikşahî, Mêxasî, Mihran, Xaneqînî, Mendilî, Duşêxî, Kaprat, Warmizyar, Zurbatiya and Feylî.
The Southern Kurdish alphabet is very similar to the Central Kurdish (Sorani) alphabet, which is a derivation of the Arabic alphabet. Southern Kurdish has one additional letter "ۊ"; the Arabic letter waw with two dots above.