Kurdish keyboard: type Kurdish letters on phone and computer

Kurmancî (Kurmanji, Northern Kurdish) uses the 26 letters of the English alphabet plus five more: ç, ê, î, ş and û. Soranî (Sorani, Central Kurdish) has its own alphabet based on Arabic script. A plain English keyboard covers neither, but any recent phone or computer can be set up to type both.

This guide shows the quickest way on iPhone, Android, Windows and Mac, using only options built into the device. Not sure which dialect you write? Start with Kurmancî vs Soranî.

The five extra Kurmancî letters

The extra letters follow two simple patterns. The hook under ç and ş gives the sounds in “church” and “ship”. The hat on ê, î and û marks a long vowel. Each letter has a capital form too: Ç, Ê, Î, Ş and Û.

Once your keyboard is ready, test it with these everyday words, one for each letter.

To check all five at once, type this sentence from our lessons: Nûjenî pêşveçûnê pêk tîne (innovation drives progress). To learn how each letter sounds, see our guide to the Kurdish alphabet.

On iPhone

For the odd ê or ş, you do not need a new keyboard. Touch and hold a letter on the English keyboard, slide your finger to the accented version and let go. Hold c for ç, e for ê, i for î, s for ş and u for û.

Keyboards for some other languages, German for example, leave ş out of that menu, and so do older versions of iOS. If you write Kurdish often, add a Kurdish keyboard. iPhone has one in Latin letters for Kurmancî and one in Arabic script for Soranî.

1. Open Settings and tap General, then Keyboard.
2. Tap Keyboards, then Add New Keyboard.
3. Find Kurdish in the list and choose the Latin keyboard for Kurmancî or the Arabic-script keyboard for Soranî.

While you type, touch and hold the globe key to switch between your keyboards.

On Android

Android keyboards work in a similar way: touch and hold a letter to see its accented versions, then slide to the one you need. Which letters appear depends on your keyboard, so if one of the five is missing, add Kurdish as a keyboard language.

1. Open Settings and tap System, then Keyboard, then On-screen keyboard.
2. Choose the keyboard you use, tap Languages and add a language.
3. Pick Kurdish in Latin letters for Kurmancî, or Kurdish in Arabic script for Soranî. The Arabic-script version may be listed by country, as Iraq or Iran.

Menu names differ a little between phone makers, and many keyboards have a settings button above the keys that leads to the same Languages screen. To switch while you type, touch and hold the space bar or tap the globe key.

On Windows

Windows has included a Soranî keyboard, called Central Kurdish, since Windows 8. It has no layout made for Kurmancî, but two layouts that come with Windows cover all five letters.

Soranî: Central Kurdish

1. Open Settings, then Time & language, then Language & region.
2. Select Add a language, type Central Kurdish, choose it and select Next, then Install. Leave the display-language option off if you only want the keyboard.
3. Press the Windows key and the Space bar together to switch between keyboards.

Kurmancî: Turkish Q or United States-International

To add either layout, open Language & region, select the three dots next to your language, choose Language options, then Add a keyboard.

Turkish Q suits anyone who already types Turkish. It has its own keys for ç and ş. For ê, î or û, press Shift and 3 together, let go, then type e, i or u.

United States-International keeps the English layout. Type ^ (Shift and 6), then e, i or u, to get ê, î or û. Type an apostrophe, then c, to get ç. This layout has no ş, so copy that one letter from the end of this guide. One side effect: the apostrophe and quote keys now wait for the next key, so press the Space bar after them to type them on their own.

Windows also has a symbols panel. Press the Windows key and the full stop together, then choose Symbols to browse accented letters.

On Mac

On a Mac, press and hold a letter key to open the accent menu, just as on iPhone. Hold c, e, i, s or u, then click the letter you want or press the number shown under it. With an English layout on a recent version of macOS, the menu for s includes ş.

For regular writing, add a Kurdish layout. Current versions of macOS include Kurmanji Kurdish for Kurmancî and Sorani Kurdish for Soranî.

1. Click the logo menu in the top-left corner of the screen, choose System Settings, then click Keyboard.
2. Under Text Input, click Edit, then click the + button.
3. Search for Kurdish, select Kurmanji Kurdish or Sorani Kurdish, then click Add.

Switch layouts from the Input menu in the menu bar, or press Control and the Space bar. On Kurmanji Kurdish, the five letters have their own keys, much like on a Turkish keyboard: ş and î on the two keys to the right of L, ê and û on the two keys to the right of P, and ç on the full-stop key (the full stop moves one key to the right). To see every key, choose Show Keyboard Viewer in the Input menu.

Prefer to keep an English layout? Add ABC – Extended instead. There, Option and 6, then e, i or u, types ê, î or û. Option and c, then c or s, types ç or ş.

Typing Soranî letters

For Soranî, always choose a Kurdish keyboard, not an Arabic or Persian one. Those keyboards are missing several Soranî letters, including the heavy r and the heavy l. Arabic keyboards also type their own k and y, which look like the Soranî letters but are different characters, so words typed with them may not be found by search.

On Mac and Windows, the Kurdish layouts are phonetic and follow the Kurmancî Latin letters. The k key types the Soranî k, the o key types o, and c, j and x give the same sounds they have in Kurmancî. These are the letters people look for most often:

On iPhone and Android, the Soranî keyboard has these letters on screen, either on their own keys or in the menu you get by touching and holding a related letter, so there is nothing to memorise. Soranî runs from right to left, and the keyboard handles that for you. Numbers and Latin words inside a Soranî sentence still run from left to right.

Copy and paste when all else fails

On a shared computer or a device you cannot change, copy the letter you need from here and paste it in.

ç ê î ş û · Ç Ê Î Ş Û

On a phone, touch and hold a letter to select it, then tap Copy. On a computer, select it and press Ctrl and C on Windows or Command and C on Mac, then paste with Ctrl and V or Command and V.

Kurdish words for your devices

Once your keyboard works, put it to use with our basic Kurdish phrases. In ZimanGo, both courses begin with an Alphabet level, in Latin letters for Kurmancî and Arabic-based letters for Soranî, and typing exercises help you practise them.