The Study of Varieties among Different Dialects of Kurdish Language of Ilam: The Case of Compliments

People for accomplishing their daily needs have to communicate with each other. Through history, “language” has been the most powerful means of communicating (Plog Bates, 2004). One classical language which is the mother tongue of a vast majority of people all over the world is Kurdish language. Therefore, an attempt was made to investigate one area of interactional sociolinguistics and cross-cultural aspect of language. For this purpose, the case of compliment responses (CRs) of Kurdish people of Ilam province (west of Iran) was considered. Accordingly, this study investigated the similarities and differences in the use of CRs among speakers of three different dialects of this language (Ilami, Badrehi, and Malekshahi). This study also reviewed the origin, structural organization, and various dialects of Kurdish language as well as its sociolinguistic factors including compliments. For data collection, the speech of various dialects of 60 Kurdish people of Ilam (aged 15 to 68) were recorded and transcribed. For analyzing the findings, this study employed Herbert’s (1986) categories containing three main parts: 1) agreement, 2) non-agreement, and 3) different interpretation and CRs varieties. Based on results, it was noticed that CRs were mostly used in Ilami dialect compared to the other dialects. In conclusion, since a large number of Ilami speakers lived in the capital city of Ilam province; using more compliments during speech might be considered as a sign of high-class status. Furthermore, while agreement category of CRs was mostly used in Ilami and Badrehi dialects; Malekshahi people mostly used non-agreement and other interpretation categories. The findings of this study indicated that the use of compliment varieties in each dialect are culturally dependent. This study also can provide a wealthy information for EFL teachers and material developers to have the better understanding of the cultural backgrounds of bilingual students whose their mother tongue is Kurdish language.