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Now let us return to our subject: Dr. Mackenzie writes: “In fact, the only evident reference to the Kurds in the classical authors before our era would seem to be those of Polybius, Livy, and Strabo to the «Κύρτιοι» or ‘Cyrtii’ respectively. The two historians mention them only as contingents of slingers in the armies of Media and Asia Minor, while Strabo, more explicitly, names them as wild mountaineers living in Media and Armenia but also in Persia. With this solitary exception, all the positive evidence points to the Kurds being a Median people, a view which professor Minorsky endorses”. Scholars who have studied a connection between «Καρδούχοι» and «Κύρτιοι» and between them and the name ‘Kurd’, all agree that the «Κύρτι»s are the ancesters of the Kurds. But they differ about Xenophon’s «Καρδούχοι». Some believe that «Καρδού» and «Κύρτι» both are older forms of the name ‘Kurd’, while others deny «Καρδούχοι» has a connection with the name ‘Kurd’. One supporter of the first position is G. R. Driver. Driver giving a long list of names taken from the classical writers, says that these names bear the root of the name ‘Kurd’. (The Name Kurd..., JRAS, 1923). Here are a few of those classical names as examples:  Καρδ-ού(-χοι): «Καρδούχοι» Κύρτ-ι(-οι): «Κύρτιο» Cord-u (-eni): ‘Cordueni’ Gord-y (-aean): ‘Gordyaean’ Gord-i (-aei): ‘Gordiaei’ Cord-u (-ena): ‘Gorduena’ Syriac: Qard-û: ‘Qardû’ Driver has gone beyond that: “It is” he says, “not unlikely that the earliest trace of Kurds is to be found on a Sumerian clay tablet of the third millennia BC”. on which ‘the land of Kar-da’ is mentioned”. This tablet belongs to the reign of King Shu-Sin of Ur (1978-1970 BC), and the name is possible to be read also ‘Kardaka’ (Ignate, HAS., 38). The vowels which follow the dentals of the root in all those classical names seem to me of interest. They are either ‘i’ or ‘u’, which I conjecture to have been evolved from ‘-aka-’. It is possible then, if I am not mistaken, to imagine that ‘Kard-u’, ‘Gord-i’, «Κύρτ-ι» ‘Cord-u’, as all the other names in the list, could be developments of the form ‘Kardaka’ mentioned in the Sumerian tablet. This development came to my attention through its similarity to one of (he characteristics which today separate the different Kermânjî dialects from each other. To give only one example: the original form of the word for (house) has been ‘xân-ak’. This word, in the Northern Kermânjî Group of dialects, the Sorânî dialect, and in the Kirmânshâhî Group of dialects, has become ‘xân-î’. in the Mukrî and Sulaimani dialects, it is ‘xân-û’, while in the Senayî dialect, the form is ‘xân-eg’, which is the second step in the evolution from xânak: xân-ak˃ xân-ek˃ xân-eg˃ xân-û, xân-î. Many other examples could be shown, particularly the past participles. The Kurdish ‘-aka’ is the well-known Indo-Iranian suffix which is originally Indo-European. Dr. MacKenzie in setting out his hypothesis, is concerned with linguistic evidence rather than with history. Indeed, he admits that he cannot provide a historical time when and where, as he suggests. Kurdish might have come under the influence of the Middle Persian Language. So, he offers only linguistic evidence to support this idea, an idea unsympathetic to our belief that the Kurds of today are descended from the Medes. Although very little is known about the Median language, its principal dialect appears to have been the Avestic. Certainly, Median was the basic language of what we call the North West Group of Iranian Languages, and it is generally agreed among linguists that modern Kurdish is indeed a language of the North West Group. The forerunners of modern Kurdish included Aryan Old Kurdish and Avestic-Median. On examining Dr. MacKenzie’s evidence, I find it to be something less than compelling. Among evidence of a Middle Persian influence on Kurdish, Dr. MacKenzie raises two points familiar to students of Iranian languages. One is the change in Persian, Kurdish and Baluchî languages from the archaic ‘y’ at the beginning of words to the present ‘j’, while in the Gorânî dialect, which shows the northern characteristics, this change did not take place. As the change in Kermânjî, Baluchî and Persian, then Kurdish. Dr. MacKenzie feels, must have been influenced by Middle Persian. But would Dr. MacKenzie using the same reasoning, argue the same cause for the change from an initial ‘y’ in Baluchî and other Iranian dialects? Gorânî, which is supposed to have kept the archaic form, does in fact show the change in one of its dialects, Hawrâmî. One word showing this change is the word for ‘feast’, it is now ‘jazhn’ in Hawrâmî (Persian ‘Jashn’). A few other words showing the change are ‘yâma’, meaning (glass), now ‘jâm’; ‘yavan’, meaning (young), is now ‘jwân’ meaning (beautiful) and ‘yâtu’, (sorcerer), now ‘jâdû’, old Persian, ‘yauviyâ’, (stream), now ‘jo’. If the Hawrâmî words are considered to have been borrowed from Persian, rather than having evolved within the dialect, then the same explanation would be due in the case of Kermânjî and other dialects’ words beginning with ‘j’ instead of the initial Avestic’ y’. I find, however, in Kermânjî traces of the archaic ‘Y’ in the words ‘kö˂ku yê˂ku-yây’ corresponding to the Persian ‘ku-jâ’ (where), and again in the words ‘amê˂ am-yây’ and ‘awê’ ˂ ‘aw-yây’ corresponding to the Persian ‘în-jâ’. ‘ân-ja’ (here), (there). On the other hand, in Kermânjî the form ‘jê˂ yây’ is used to mean (place) as does the Persian ‘Jây’. Hawrâmî still keeps ‘y’ in the word ‘yâ-ga’ which is in Kermânjî ‘jêga’ (place). The second point Dr. MacKenzie raises concerning Gorânî dialects deals with another change at the beginning of words, the change from an archaic ‘hw-’ to the present ‘w-’. Dr. MacKenzie argues that this change in Gorânî shows that these dialects are closer to Baluchî which also shows it. while Kurdish is closer to Persian, because in Kurdish and Persian ‘hw-’ changed to ‘xw-’. I do not believe it is possible to judge from this agreement that a peculiar affinity exists between Persian and Kurdish. Nearly all the Iranian dialects from Pamir in the North East to Gîlân and Kurdistan in the North West as well as those of central Iran, have changed the initial ‘hw-’ to xw-’ just as in Persian. Exceptions to this are the Gorânî, Zâzâyî, and Baluchî dialects and a single word in the Lâsgardî dialect; the word is ‘wov’ Avestic ‘hvafna’ (sleep). The Median development ‘hw-˃ f-’ will be discussed below.