Kurdish grammar

Kurdish grammar has many inflections, with prefixes and suffixes added to roots to express grammatical relations and to form words.

Split-ergative system

Among all modern Iranian languages, only Yaghnobi and Kurdish are ergative, with respect to both case-marking and verb-agreement.[1] There are general descriptions of ergativity in Kurdish,[2][3] as well as in specific forms of Kurdish, such as Sorani [4] and Kurmanji.[5]

Kurmanji and Sorani Kurdish have a split-ergative system. Transitive verbs show nominative/accusative marking in the present tense, and ergative marking in the past tense.[6]

Nouns

Possession

Ezafe is used with nouns to indicate possession. Ezafe (-y) joins the possessive noun with its possessed noun

jēgā-y pāsā = the king's place (Lit: place of king)

Ezafe is also used alongside pronouns to show possession. Ezafe (-y) joins the possessor pronoun with its possessed noun.[6]

jēgā-y min = my place (Lit: place of me)

Pronouns in various Kurdish languages and other languages for comparison

Central Kurdish[7] Southern Kurdish[8] Kurmanji[9] Gorani[10] Zazaki[11] Talysh[12][13] Avestan[14] Parthian[15] Middle Persian[15]
no distinction of nominative and oblique
nominative
1st
person 		singular min min ez min ez az azəm az an
plural ême îme em ême ma əmə ahma- (accusative) amāh amāh
2nd
person 		singular to ti tu, ti to ti tı tvəm tu to
plural êwe îwe hûn şime şima şımə yūšma- (accusative) aşmāh aşmāh
3rd
person 		singular ew ew ew ad (masculine)
ade (feminine) 		o (masculine)
a (feminine) 		əv hva- (masculine)
hā (feminine) 		ho oy
plural ewane ewane ew / ewana adê ê əvon ? hawin oy
Oblique
Kurmanji[16] Zazaki [17] Parthian[15] Middle Persian[15] Talysh[13][18]
Oblique
accusative
min mi(n) man man mıni
te to to to tıni
wî ey ho oy əvi
wê ay ho –
-
me ma amāh amāh əməni
we şıma aşmāh aşmāh şıməni
wan inan hawin awêşān əvoni

Verbs

Because the stress is distinctive in Kurdish, the acute diacritics (á) are used to denote the stressed syllables (normally not used in Kurdish) (Thackston 2006a).

General description

Kurdish verbs agree with their subjects in person and number. They have the following major characteristics:

  • Verbs have two stems: present and past.
  • Present stems can be simple or secondary.
  • Simple tenses are formed by the addition of personal endings wo stems.
  • Secondary stems consist of a root + suffixes that indicate transitivity, intransitivity, and causativity.
  • There are 3 tenses: present, past, and future.
  • There are 2 voices: active and passive.
  • There are 2 aspects: imperfective and perfective. Aspect is as important as tense.
  • There are 4 moods: indicative, conditional, imperative, and potential.
  • Past tense transitive sentences are formed as ergative constructions, i.e., transitive verbs in the past tense agree with the object rather than the subject of the sentence.

Non-finite endings

Infinitive Ends in -ín (consonant stems), -î́n (î-stems), -án (a-stems), or -û́n (û-stems).
Past participle
  • Ends in -î when the stem ends in consonants or -î (hatin → hatî "come").
  • Ends in -yî when the stem ends in -a or -û (mán → máyî "remained").

See also

  • flagKurdistan portal
  • iconLanguages portal

Notes

  1. ^ "Welcome to Encyclopaedia Iranica".
  2. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-01-29. Retrieved 2013-07-30.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. ^ Theodora Bynon. 1979. The Ergative Construction in Kurdish. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies Vol. 42, No. 2, pp. 211–224.
  4. ^ John Haiman. Ergativity in Sorani Kurdish. Essais de typologie et de linguistique générale : mélanges offerts à Denis Creissels. Ed. Franck Florici et al. Lyon: ENS Editions, 2010. 243–250
  5. ^ Abstract on origins of ergativity
  6. ^ a b Friend, Robyn C. 1985. Some Syntactic and Morphological Features of Suleimaniye Kurdish. Ann Arbor: UMI. (Doctoral dissertation, University of California at Los Angeles; 240pp.)
  7. ^ Thackston, W. M.: http://fas.harvard.edu/~iranian/Sorani/ Archived 2015-05-10 at the Wayback Machine – Sorani Kurdish. Iranian Studies at Harvard University. 2006. (Page 27)
  8. ^ Celîliyan, ʻEbasî: Ferhengî başûr: Kurdî-Kurdî-Farisî. 2004. (Page 26, 80, 85, 86, 706)
  9. ^ Windfuhr, Gernot: The Iranian languages. Routledge Language Family Series. 2009. Ernest N. McCarus'un makalesi. (Page 629)
  10. ^ http://www.royalacademy.dk/Publications/High/737_MacKenzie,%20D.pdf [bare URL PDF]
  11. ^ Windfuhr, Gernot: The Iranian languages. Routledge Language Family Series. 2009. Ludwig Paul. (page 551)
  12. ^ Aboszodə, Müəllifi-Fəxrəddin: Talıçca-Türkçe Luğət. 55 min kelimə. Bakı. 2011. Yeniden neşri. Bakü. 2015. (page 24, 210, 211, 214, 441, 501)
  13. ^ a b Wolfgang, Schulze: Northern Talysh. Lincom Europa. 2000. (Sayfa 35)
  14. ^ Bartholomae, Christian: Altiranisches Wörterbuch, Strassburg. K. J. Trübner. 1904. (page 225, 295, 660, 1303, 1718, 1844)
  15. ^ a b c d Windfuhr, Gernot (13 May 2013). The Iranian Languages. ISBN 9781135797034.
  16. ^ Windfuhr, Gernot: The Iranian languages. Routledge Language Family Series. 2009. Ernest N. McCarus. (page 629)
  17. ^ Windfuhr, Gernot: The Iranian languages. Routledge Language Family Series. 2009. Ludwig Paul'un makalesi. (page 551)
  18. ^ Aboszodə, Müəllifi-Fəxrəddin: Talıçca-Türkçe Luğət. 55 min kelimə. Bakı. 2011. Yeniden neşri. Bakü. 2015.

References

  • Thackston, W. M. (2006a). Kurmanji Kurdish: A Reference Grammar with Selected Readings.
  • Thackston, W. M. (2006b). Sorani Kurdish— A Reference Grammar with Selected Readings.
  • Learn Kurdish
  • Kurdish Academy of Language
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