Languages of Iraq


There are a number of languages spoken in Iraq, but Mesopotamian Arabic is by far the most widely spoken in the country.

Contemporary languages

The most widely spoken language in Iraq is the Arabic language ; the second most spoken language is Kurdish, followed by the Iraqi Turkmen/Turkoman dialect of Turkish, and the Neo-Aramaic languages.
Standard Arabic is written using the Arabic script but Mesopotamian Arabic is written with a modified Perso-Arabic script and so is Kurdish. In 1997 the Iraqi Turkmen/Turkoman adopted the Turkish alphabet as the formal written language and by 2005 the community leaders decided that the Turkish language would replace traditional Turkmeni in Iraqi schools. In addition, the Neo-Aramaic languages use the Syriac script.
Other smaller minority languages include Mandaic, Shabaki, Armenian, and Persian.

Official languages

Arabic and Kurdish are the official languages, while the Turkmen/Turkoman dialect and Assyrian Neo-Aramaic are recognized regional languages. In addition, any region or province may declare other languages official if a majority of the population approves in a general referendum.

History

The language with the longest recorded period of use in Iraq is Aramaic, which has a written tradition dating back for 3200 years or more and survives today in its descendants, the Neo-Aramaic languages.
The earliest recorded languages of Iraq were Sumerian and Akkadian. Sumerian was displaced by Akkadian by 1700 BCE, and Akkadian was displaced by Aramaic gradually, from 1200 BCE to 100 CE. Sumerian and Akkadian were written in the cuneiform script from 3300 BCE onwards. The latest positively identified Akkadian text comes from the first century CE.