The history of the Republic of Iraq begins in Mesopotamia, where in the valley of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers from the middle of the 4th millennium BC, Ancient Mesopotamia was rustling. Then the Sumerians came to the lands of Mesopotamia, who owned the first written documents in the history of human civilization. The modern state languages of Iraq, Arabic and Kurdish have little in common with the languages of their ancestors and the reason for this is the long history of the development of the people. Assyrian-New Aramaic and Turkmen are also accepted as official regional in the republic.
Some statistics and facts
- The most popular state language in Iraq is Arabic. In the country, it exists in the form of the Iraqi (Mesopotamian) dialect.
- Of the 36 million citizens of the republic, one in five speaks Kurdish. In Iraq, its Central Kurdish dialect, called "Sorani" by the locals, is adopted.
- Turkmen in Iraq is the southern dialect of the Azerbaijani language. He is considered native by at least 5% of the country's population.
- Any of the regions of Iraq, according to the Constitution, has the right to declare any language official if the majority of the population votes for it in a referendum.
- The Arabic script is used to write Persian, South Azerbaijani, Sorani and, of course, the main state language of Iran. New Aramaic speakers use the Syriac script, while ethnic Armenians use their own alphabet.
Sorani and Sulaimaniyah
Sulaymaniyah in eastern Iraq is not the oldest city in the country. It was founded at the end of the 18th century and today is the unofficial capital for the Sorani-speaking residents of the republic. The historical center of Iraqi Kurdish culture, Sulaimaniyah does not mess up office work, teaches students, publishes newspapers and broadcasts radio and television programs.
Arabic in Iraq
The total number of speakers of the Iraqi version of Arabic is at least 15 million people in the world, of which 11, 5 live in Iraq. The territory of Mesopotamia has always been multicultural, and inhabited by representatives of various nationalities. This allowed the main state language of Iraq to develop surrounded by many dialects and dialects and became the reason for a huge number of borrowings. Aramaic, Persian, Kurdish, Turkish, and Akkadian words are common in Iraqi Arabic.
Tourist notes
English in Iraq is the most widespread foreign language, but the percentage of people who know it at least at an elementary level is very low. If we add to this not the most favorable situation in terms of safety for tourists, Iraq is still not a very popular state for comfortable educational travel.
