Definition of Kurdish language

The Kurdish language (Kurdish: Kurdî or کوردی) is the language spoken by Kurds. It is mainly concentrated in the region of Kurdistan, which includes parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. The Kurdish language belongs to the western sub-group of the Iranian languages, which themselves belong to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. The most closely related languages to Kurdish are Balochi, Gileki and Talysh, all of which belong to the north-western branch of Iranian languages. Also related to Kurdish is the Persian language, which belongs to the south-western branch.