Kurdish

Kurdish may refer to:

See also

Kurdish languages

Kurdish (کوردی, Kurdî) is a continuum of Northwestern Iranian languages spoken by the Kurds in Western Asia. Kurdish forms three dialect groups known as Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji), Central Kurdish (Sorani), and Southern Kurdish (Pehlewani). A separate group of languages, Zaza-Gorani, is also spoken by several million Kurds, but is linguistically not Kurdish. Recent (as of 2009) studies estimate between 20 and 30 million native speakers of Kurdish in total.

The literary output in Kurdish was mostly confined to poetry until the early 20th century, when more general literature began to be developed. Today, there are two principal written Kurdish dialects, namely Kurmanji in the northern parts of the geographical region of Kurdistan, and Sorani further east and south. The standard Sorani form of Central Kurdish is, along with Arabic, one of the two official languages of Iraq and is in political documents simply referred to as Kurdish.

Classification and origin

The Kurdish languages belong to the Iranian branch of the Indo-European family. They are generally classified as Northwestern Iranian languages, or by some scholars as intermediate between Northwestern and Southwestern Iranian.Martin van Bruinessen notes that "Kurdish has a strong south-western Iranian element", whereas "Zaza and Gurani [...] do belong to the north-west Iranian group".

Republic

A republic (from Latin: res publica) is a sovereign state or country which is organised with a form of government in which power resides in elected individuals representing the citizen body and government leaders exercise power according to the rule of law. In modern times, the definition of a republic is commonly limited to a government which excludes a monarch. Currently, 147 of the world's 206 sovereign states use the word "republic" as part of their official names; not all of these are republics in the sense of having elected governments, nor do all nations with elected governments use the word "republic" in their names.

Both modern and ancient republics vary widely in their ideology and composition. In the classical and medieval period of Europe, many states were fashioned on the Roman Republic, which referred to the governance of the city of Rome, between it having kings and emperors. The Italian medieval and Renaissance political tradition, today referred to as "civic humanism", is sometimes considered to derive directly from Roman republicans such as Sallust and Tacitus. However, Greek-influenced Roman authors, such as Polybius and Cicero, sometimes also used the term as a translation for the Greek politeia which could mean regime generally, but could also be applied to certain specific types of regime which did not exactly correspond to that of the Roman Republic. Republics were not equated with classical democracies such as Athens, but had a democratic aspect.

Republic? (album)

Republic? is the fifth studio album from Canadian stoner rock band Sheavy. It was produced by Billy Anderson.

Reception

Jim Martin observed in Terrorizer that "Republic? finds sHeavy rejuvenated, fighting fit and sounding vital and righteous beyond belief. Central to this unexpected rejuvenation is that this is no mere Sabbath tribute record. Although still firmly rooted in elephantine riffs, chugging doom-grooves and 70s shapes, Republic? marks a considerable broadening of this band's horizons, revelling in punkier drives and psychedelic expanses". While Alex Henderson also noted sHeavy's affinity for Sabbath, he said that Republic? differentiated itself from mere tribute due to "a sludginess that you won't find on Sabbath's classic '70s recordings - a sludginess that owes something to the Melvins as well as grunge".Blabbermouth's Scott Alisoglu praised the album for its "biting guitar tone, monster riffage, and a batch of cool solos make it worth cranking at top volume in the car stereo with a cooler of brew in the backseat", and suggested that "Unless you're looking for a reinvention of the wheel, there isn't much to bitch about on Republic?".

Republic (Transnistria)

Republic (Moldovan: Република, Republica, Russian: Республика, Ukrainian: Республіка) is a political party in Transnistria. Although formerly the majority party in parliament, at the legislative elections of 11 December 2005 the party won 13 of the 43 seats and found itself in the minority for the first time since the founding of the country on September 2, 1990. In the 2010 elections, Republic won 16 seats. The party is affiliated with former President Igor Smirnov.

References