Help and emergencies in Kurdish
The words you hope to never need. Play the ten Kurdish words against the clock, with a note on how locals really use each one after every answer. All ten are written out below.
All 10 Kurdish phrases in this lesson
- Hawar!ha-WAR
- Help!
- Bijîşkek gazî bikinbi-zheesh-KEK ga-ZEE bi-KIN
- Call a doctor
- polîspo-LEES
- Police
- dermanxaneder-man-KHA-ne
- Pharmacy
- nexweşxanenekh-wesh-KHA-ne
- Hospital
- Ez winda bûmez win-DA BOOM
- I'm lost
- Ez nexweş imez nekh-WESH im
- I don't feel well
- Hate dizînHA-te di-ZEEN
- It was stolen
- Rewşa awarte yerew-SHA a-war-TE ye
- It's an emergency
- Min bi rihetî bihêlemin bi ri-he-TEE bi-HE-le
- Leave me alone
The true cry for help, and a word carrying real weight: it means the call raised when a village is in danger, and it gave its name to Hawar, the journal that introduced this very Latin alphabet in the 1930s. For everyday assistance, alîkarî (a-lee-ka-REE) is the ordinary word for help.
Bijîşk is the Kurdish word for doctor; doktor is understood everywhere and used more often in speech. Emergency numbers depend on the country: 112 in Türkiye and in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
In the Kurdistan Region of Iraq you will also meet the asayîş (a-sa-YEESH), the security service that staffs checkpoints. Carry your passport; checkpoints are routine, frequent, and generally courteous.
Literally "medicine house". The -xane ending marks buildings throughout the language and always carries the throat x. Pharmacists dispense advice freely and most medicines without a prescription.
Literally "sick house", from nexweş (unwell), which is xweş (pleasant) with the ne- negative in front. Cities have good private hospitals; in the mountains, distance is the real problem.
Literally "I became lost". Show a map or the name of your hotel and expect not directions but an escort: being handed from person to person until you arrive is the normal outcome.
The same nexweş as nexweşxane. Add serê min diêşe (se-RE min di-E-she), my head hurts, swapping in zik (stomach) or diran (tooth) as needed.
Literally "it came to stealing", which is how Kurmanji builds a passive. Combine: telefona min hate dizîn. Enough to open any police report or hotel conversation.
Literally "leave me in peace".