G. Asatrian, Prolegomena to the Study of the Kurds, Iran and the Caucasus, Vol.13, pp.1-58, 2009.
It seems, the social aspect
of the term Kurd was prevalent even in the times of Sharaf Khan (16th
century), who used the yefe-ye akrd (“race of Kurds”) to imply ethnic
groups of different kinds but with similar lifestyles and social and economic
setups. The Kurds, according to him, “are of four kinds (qism),
and their language(s) and habits are different from each other: first, the
Kurmn; second, the Lur; third, the Kalhor; [and] fourth, the Grn”
(Scheref 1862: 13). One thing, however, is certain: the process of the
evolution of this social term into an ethnonym took, no doubt, a long
time-span (see Graph 1), going through different peripeteia of semantic
crystallisation and choice of the relevant denotatum or referent
[۱]
William J. Frawley, William Frawley, International Encyclopedia of Linguistics& 4-Volume Set, Volume 1, Oxford University Press, 2003, ISBN 978-0-19-513977-8, page. 310.
"Lak tribes" (به انگلیسی). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Parts 87-88. Retrieved 2 November 2014.
