Xerbi Kurmanji

A dissertation submitted to the University of Manchester for the

degree of Master of Arts in the Faculty of Humanities

2016

Samer Ahmed

9579745

School of Arts, Languages and Cultures

Table of Contents

i. List of Figures .............................................................................................. 5

ii. List of Tables ............................................................................................... 6
iii. Abstract ....................................................................................................... 8
iv. Declaration .................................................................................................. 9
v. Intellectual Property Statement ............................................................... 10
vi. Acknowledgments ..................................................................................... 11
vii. Abbreviations ............................................................................................ 12

1. Introduction....................................................................................... 13
1.1. Kurmanji Kurdish ................................................................................................. 13
1.2. Kurmanji varieties spoken in Syria ...................................................................... 14
1.3. Xerbi Kurmanji ..................................................................................................... 16
1.4. Previous Studies ................................................................................................... 16
1.5. Methodology........................................................................................................ 18
1.5.1. Sample Population .................................................................................... 18
1.5.2. Questionnaire............................................................................................ 19
2. Phonology.......................................................................................... 20
2.1. Vowels .................................................................................................................. 20
2.1.1. Diphthongs ................................................................................................ 21
2.2. Consonants .......................................................................................................... 22
2.2.1. The Integration of Arabic Consonants into Xerbi Kurmanji ...................... 23
2.3. Syllable Structure and Phonotactics .................................................................... 24
2.3.1. Consonant Clusters ................................................................................... 25
3. Nominals ........................................................................................... 27
3.1. Nominalization ..................................................................................................... 27
3.2. Noun Gender and Number ................................................................................. 27
3.3. Noun Inflection .................................................................................................... 28
3.3.1. Definiteness and Indefiniteness ............................................................... 28
3.3.1.1. The Definite State.......................................................................... 28
3.3.1.2. The Indefinite State ....................................................................... 28

2
 3.3.2. Case Inflection ........................................................................................... 29
3.3.2.1. The Direct Case ............................................................................. 29
3.3.2.2. The Oblique Case .......................................................................... 30
3.3.2.3. The Vocative Case ......................................................................... 31
3.3.3. The Construct Case (Ezafe) ....................................................................... 32
3.3.3.1. The Primary Ezafe.......................................................................... 32
3.3.3.2. The Secondary Ezafe ..................................................................... 36
3.4. Noun Modifiers ................................................................................................... 39
3.4.1. Premodifiers .............................................................................................. 39
3.4.1.1. Demonstrative Determiners ........................................................ 39
3.4.1.2. Cardinal Numbers ......................................................................... 40
3.4.1.3. Quantifiers..................................................................................... 42
3.4.2. Postmodifiers ............................................................................................ 45
3.4.2.1. Genitive-Possessive Nouns ........................................................... 45
3.4.2.2. Adjectives ..................................................................................... 45
3.4.2.2.1. Comparative and Superlative Adjectives .......................... 46
3.4.2.3. Ordinal Numbers ........................................................................... 47
3.5. Pronominal Categories......................................................................................... 49
3.5.1. Demonstrative Pronouns and Deictics .................................................... 49
3.5.1.1. The Demonstrative Intensifying Particle han(ê) .......................... 49
3.5.1.2. Location Deictics .......................................................................... 50
3.5.1.3. Temporal Deictics .......................................................................... 51
3.5.2. Personal Pronouns .................................................................................... 52
3.5.2.1. The Personal Pronoun Intensifying Enclitic (-na) ......................... 55
3.5.3. The Reflexive and Intensive Pronoun (xwe) ............................................. 56

4. Verbs ................................................................................................. 58
4.1. Light verbs Constructions (Complex Predicate) .................................................. 58
4.1.1. Light Verbs Valency ................................................................................. 60
4.2. Arabic Loan Verbs ................................................................................................ 61
4.3. Present Copula ..................................................................................................... 62
4.4. Verbal Morphology (AGR & TAM) ....................................................................... 64

3
 4.4.1. Person Concord (PRS) .............................................................................. 64
4.4.2. The Simple Present and Progressive ........................................................ 66
4.4.3. The Present Subjunctive........................................................................... 66
4.4.4. The Future Tense ..................................................................................... 68
4.4.5. Person Concord (PST) .............................................................................. 69
4.4.6. The Past Tense Inflections (TAM)............................................................. 72
4.4.6.1. Past Verb Conjugations (Intransitive) ........................................... 72
4.4.6.2. Past Verb Conjugations (Transitive) ............................................. 73

5. Other Syntactic features .............................................................................. 76

5.1. Adpositional Phrases............................................................................................ 76
5.1.1. Prepositions ................................................................................................. 76
5.1.2.The Adpositional Complement .................................................................... 77
5.1.3. Postpositions ............................................................................................... 77
5.1.4. Contracted Adpositional Phrases ................................................................ 78
5.2. Clause Structure in Xerbi Kurmanji ..................................................................... 79
5.2.1. Alignment and Verbal Agreement in Xerbi Kurmanji Clause ....................... 80
5.2.1.1. Nominative-Accusative Alignment ................................................... 81
5.2.1.2. Alignment with Past Transitive Verbs .......................................... 82
5.2.2. Subordination in Xerbi Kurmanji .............................................................. 83
5.2.3. Coordination in Xerbi Kurmanji................................................................. 85
5.2.4. Arabic Loan Grammatical Function Categories......................................... 86

4
List of Figures

Figure: 1.1: Approx. locations of the three Kurmanji dialect zones from Haig & Öpengin
(2015: 37) ......................................................................................................................... 14

Figure: 1.2: Approx. location of the three main dialects in Rojava Kurdistan ................. 15

Figure 2.1: Vowel chart in Xerbi Kurmanji ....................................................................... 20

Figure 2.2: Vowel movements in Xerbi Kurmanji diphthongs ......................................... 22

5
List of Tables

Table 2.1: Long vowels in Xerbi Kurmanji ........................................................................ 21

Table 2.2: Short vowels in Xerbi Kurmanji ....................................................................... 21

Table 2.3: Consonants of Xerbi Kurmanji ......................................................................... 22

Table 2.4: Examples of ‘Backward diffusion’ of Arabic consonants into Xerbi Kurmanji 24

Table 2.5: Syllable shapes in Xerbi Kurmanji .................................................................... 25

Table 2.6: Common coda clusters in Xerbi Kurmanji ....................................................... 26

Table 3.1: The indefinite state markers in Xerbi Kurmanji .............................................. 29

Table 3.2: The direct case markers in the definite state in Xerbi Kurmanji...................... 30

Table 3.3: the oblique case markers in the definite state in Xerbi Kurmanji ................... 30

Table 3.4: Ezafe markers in the definite state in Xerbi Kurmanji ..................................... 33

Table 3.5: Ezafe markers in the indefinite state: zilam ‘man’, jinik ‘woman’, mal ‘house’
........................................................................................................................................... 34

Table 3.6: Particle extenders in Xerbi Kurmanji and the standard Kurmanji ................... 37

Table 3.7: enclitic extenders in Xerbi Kurmanji ................................................................ 38

Table 3.8: Demonstratives in Xerbi Kurmanji .................................................................. 39

Table 3.9: Cardinal numbers in Xerbi Kurmanji ................................................................ 41

Table 3.10: Some Xerbi Kurmanji quantifiers ................................................................... 42

Table 3.11: The Ordinal numbers in Xerbi Kurmanji ........................................................ 48

Table 3.12: The location deictics in Xerbi Kurmanji .......................................................... 50

Table 3.13: Common temporal deictics in Xerbi Kurmanji ............................................... 51

Table 3.14: Personal pronouns in Xerbi Kurmanji ............................................................ 53

Table 4.1: Some light verb constructions that are written as one word .......................... 58

Table 4.2: Some light verb constructions that are written as two words ........................ 59

Table 4.3: Some light verb constructions that are composed of three elements ............ 59

Table 4.4: Valency change in light verb constructions...................................................... 60

6
Table 4.5: Copular personal enclitics in Xerbi Kurmanji and standard Kurmanji ............. 62

Table 4.6: Person concord with the present stem in Xerbi Kurmanji ............................... 64

Table 4.7: Person concord inflection on the past stem in Xerbi Kurmanji ....................... 69

Table 4.8: The conjugation of past intransitive verbs: ç'ûn ‘to go’, hatin ‘to come’ ........ 72

Table 4.9: the conjugation of the past transitive verbs: xwarin ‘to eat’, berdan ‘to release’
with an implicit patient ..................................................................................................... 74

Table 5.1: Some Xerbi Kurmanji adpositions .................................................................... 76

Table 5.2: Some subordinators in Xerbi Kurmanji ............................................................ 84
Table 5.3: Some Arabic loan utterance modifiers in Xerbi Kurmanji ................................ 87

7
Abstract

The present dissertation is dedicated to provide a systematic description of the

grammar of Xerbi Kurmanji. Xerbi is one of the subdialects of Kurmanji or what is
linguistically known as the North Group of Kurdish dialects (Haig & Öpengin 2015). It is
predominantly spoken in Rojava Kurdistan (The Kurdish region of Syria) along with other
Kurmanji varieties such as Ashiti and Afrini. Xerbi Kurmanji is spoken over a wide area in
Rojava Kurdistan, yet the focus in this study will be on the city of Qamishli and its
suburbs.

The results of this dissertation are dependent on data taken from three native
speakers of the variety in question. The research in question is a part of a broader
project run by Prof. Yaron Matras at the University of Manchester where the project
aims at providing systematic description, analysis and mapping of different Kurdish
varieties spoken in Kurdistan. The data collection methodology for this dissertation is
based on the database designed for the project itself. The data used in the present
studying is mainly collected, transcribed and translated by myself. Besides being a native
speaker of the Xerbi Kurmanji subdialect, I sometimes rely on my syntactic judgment
when needed.

This research is broken down into four main parts – Phonology, Nominals,
Verbs and other Syntactic issues, yet the main area of interest is the Morphosyntax of
Xerbi Kurmanji to which the bulk of the present study is dedicated. Throughout
describing the grammar of Xerbi Kurmanji, I make reference to other studies conducted
on the standard Kurmanji especially Bedir-Xan (2002) and Thackston (2006) comparing
and contrasting different structure whenever relevant.

Xerbi Kurmanji in general tends to reflect some distinctive phonological,

morphological and syntactic properties that will be put under the scrutiny of analysis
and exemplified through the present dissertation.

8
Declaration

No portion of the work referred to in this dissertation has been submitted in

support of an application for another degree or qualification of this or any other
university or other institute of learning.

9
Intellectual Property Statement

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and in The University’s Guidance for the Presentation of Dissertations.

10
Acknowledgments

First and foremost, I would like to thank Prof. Yaron Matras for supervising me
in the present study. Matras has been more like a big brother who guided my tender
steps in the field of linguistics in general and Kurmanji literature in particular. His
encyclopaedic knowledge and long carrier in field of linguistics have always satisfied my
enthusiasm for learning.

I am also grateful for all the people who stranded by me and supported me
throughout the hardship of last year especially my family and my close friends in UK. I
must also express my gratitude to Louise Middleton, Nadia Mahmood and Prof. Salih
Akin for proofreading my work, and Shinda Ali-Khan for designing the map graphic for
Rojava Kurmanji subdialects.

Finally, I would like to dedicate this dissertation to the bright memory of my

dear father who was and will always be my idol and the main reason behind every
success in my life…

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Abbreviations

1 First person
2 Second person
3 Third person
ADP Adposition
AGR Agreement
AFF Affix
COM Comparative
CONS Construct (Ezafe)
COP Copula
COUNT Countable
DEF Definite
DEM Demonstrative
DIR Direct case
DIS Distal
DO Direct object
F Feminine
FUT Future
INF Infinitive
INDEF Indefinite
INT Intensifying morpheme/ Intensive
INTRANS Intransitive
IO Indirect object
LVC Light verb construction
M Masculine
NEG Negative
NOM Nominative case
OBL Oblique case
PERF Perfective
PL Plural
PRIM Primary
PROG Progressive
PROX Proximal
PRS Present tense
PST Past tense
PLU Pluperfect
REF Reflexive
SEC Secondary
SG Singular
SUBJ Subjunctive
TAM Tense, aspect and modality
TRANS Transitive
UNCOUNT Uncountable

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 1. Introduction
1.1. Kurmanji Kurdish

Kurdish is an umbrella term that is usually used to mention a group of varieties

essentially spoken by people known as Kurds whose population is estimated to range
between 20 to 30 million (Haig & Öpengin 2015: 1). Kurdish is one of the Indo-Iranian
languages that branches from the Indo-European family and it is spoken in a connected
area that is historically known as Kurdistan which nowadays covers the area of eastern
Turkey, North Iraq, West Iran and eastern Syria (Haig & Öpengin 2015: 1; Haig & Matras
2002: 1). However, a significant population of resettled Kurd expatriates can be traced
to Europe, especially Germany, Kurds according to Wikipedia (2016). There are several
dialects spoken by Kurds in different parts of Kurdistan, such as Kurmanji, Sorani, Zazaki
and Gurani1 where Kurmanji is noticeably the most common dialect used by the vast
majority of Kurds and it is the only dialect spoken in all parts of Kurdistan (Thackston,
2006: 1).

Some linguists such as Thackston (2006) use the term Kurmanji to encompass
the entire North Group of Kurdish dialects, others such as Haig & Öpengin (2015) and
Mackenzie (1961a) prefer using the term North Group as a broader term that includes
Kurmanji, the dialect primarily spoken in Turkey and Syria; and Badinani which is spoken
in North Iraq. For the purpose of this research, the latter classification would be more
efficient as we are ultimately going a step further down to describe one of Kurmanji
subdialects. Despite the highly mutual intelligibility among its speakers from different
areas, Kurmanji subdialects nevertheless involve some morphosyntactic variations
across the wide area in which Kurmanji is used; in this respect Haig & Öpengin (2015:
36) classify Kurmanji into the Western Kurmanji which centres on Elbistan district of
Maraş province and the Southern Kurmanji prevailing between Mydiat and Nusaybin,
besides the Southeastern Kurmanji or Badini of North Iraq which also includes areas on
the Turkish side of Kurdistan such as Şemzînan and Hakkarî (see figure 1.1 from Haig &
Öpengin 2015).

1
While Kurmanji and Sorani are unquestionably regarded Kurdish dialects, Zazaki and Gurani status
as dialects of Kurdish is a matter of debate among linguists due to their distinct structure (Haig &
Matras 2002: 3)

13
Figure 1.1: Approx. locations of the three Kurmanji dialect zones from Haig & Öpengin (2015: 37)

1.2. Kurmanji Varieties Spoken in Syria

The varieties of Kurdish spoken in Syria have not been touched upon in their
own right so far and the dissertation in hand is one of the first attempts to provide a
systematic description to one of the varieties spoken in Syria. These subdialects,
however, are normally classified within the pool of the North Group of Kurdish dialects
namely Kurmanji (Haig & Matras 2002; Haig & Öpengin 2015). There are three main
subdialects of Kurmanji in the Kurdistan of Syria2 which locally known as Ashiti, Xerbi
and Afrini (Figure 1.2).

As figure 1.2 illustrates, the Kurdish region in Syria lies to the North extended
from Afrin in the West to the Iraqi border in the East along Turkey's southern border.
Afrini is inherently spoken in Afrin, Kobanê3 and most of the Kurdish area in the Aleppo
province, Ashiti is spoken in the area between the Iraqi borders and the eastern suburbs
of Qamishli city and Xerbi is used in the area interposing between Afrini subdialect to
the West and Ashiti subdialect to the East. At this point I shall mention that this is a
preliminary attempt to point out the main areas where these subdialects are mostly
used in the Kurdistan of Syria before focussing on the subject matter of this dissertation
which is dedicated for Xerbi Kurmanji.

2
The Kurdish region in Syria is known by Kurds as Rojava Kurdistan ‘West Kurdistan’.
3
People from Kobanê claim that the dialect spoken in Kobanê shows some difference from the one
spoken in Afrin. However, they sound close enough to be classified one subdialect.

14
 Figure: 1.2: Approx. location of the three main dialects in Rojava Kurdistan

One of the defining characteristics of Syrian subdialects of Kurmanji is the

heavy lexical borrowing from Arabic as a result of language contact environment.
Through discussing some grammatical and phonetic issues with some friends who
speaks Ashiti and Afrini Kurmanji, I can say that Ashiti, Xerbi and Afrini tend to have
considerable phonetic and morphosyntactic variations to be considered in future
research. For example, while Xerbi Kurmanji obviously has canonical and double-oblique
ergativity (see section 5.2.1.2); Ashiti tends to preserve only the canonical one
conforming to Bedir-Xan’s tradition. Another observation that can be extracted from
map 1.1 is that due to their geographical distribution, Afrini looks within the isogloss of
Western Kurmanji, while Xerbi and Ashiti tend to be within the Southern Kurmanji and
Southeastern Kurmanji isoglosses respectively.

15
 1.3. Xerbi Kurmanji
Xerbi is one of the Kurmanji subdialects spoken in the territory of present-day
Syria. There is no consensus of the number of Kurds in Syria, let alone the number of
population who speak one of the Kurdish varieties. However depending on the
distribution of Xerbi Kurmanji speakers in Syria, I can say that number of Kurds who
speak Xerbi Kurmanji is relatively bigger than those who speak Afrini or Ashiti (review
figure 1.2). The isogloss of Xerbi Kurmanji includes main cities such as Ras Al-Ayn,
Dirbasya, Amuda, Hasakah and Qamishli. The present description is based on the Xerbi
Kurmanji spoken in Qamishli city and its South-western suburbs. The Jaghjagh River that
crosses Qamishli city tends to be the natural border between Xerbi and Ashiti isoglosses
where Ashiti isogloss starts from the river eastwards. Besides Kurds, Qamishli includes
some other ethnics such as Arabs, Assyrians and Armenians, yet Kurds constitute the
vast majority of the city population. Qamishli City used to include a significant Jewish
community and until nowadays Ezra4 market is one of the City’s milestones. It is
significant to note that although Qamishli is a multilingual city where several languages
such are in a direct contact environment, Xerbi Kurmanji did not accumulate any
significant borrowing from languages other than Arabic; this can be related to the
reason that Arabic has been recognized as the only formal language in the Kurdish
region as well as all Syria and for political reasons, the Kurdish language used to be
banned in the educational system and other governmental institutions by Baath regime
in Syria.

1.4. Previous Studies

As we have previously mentioned, the varieties of Kurmanji spoken in Syrian has
not been a subject of any descriptive study so far. Moreover, the first attempts to
provide a systematic grammatical description for Kurmanji in general were only dated
back to the early thirties of the last century. There were some works that dealt with
Kurdish in general prior to that period, but mostly within the mainstream of Iranian
philology (Haig & Matras 2002: 8).

4
Ezra used to be one of the well-known merchants in Qamishli city and its environs

16
 One of the first and most influential studies about the grammar of Kurmanji is
provided by Bedir-Xan, a well-known figure in the modern Kurdish literature both as a
linguist and a national activist. During the years from 1932 to 1935, Bedir-Xan published
articles on a regular basis in a magazine called Hawar describing the basics of Kurmanji
grammar using Latin-based scripts for the first time in the alphabet of Kurdish. It is
worth mentioning that Bedir-Xan’s published articles were mainly like lessons of
pedagogical nature to provide Kurdish readers with a kind of basic knowledge about the
grammar of Kurmanji. Bedir-Xan’s articles were eventually collected and published
posthumously in (Bedir-Xan 2002). Bedir-Khan & Lescot (1970) is another posthumously
published book and regarded as an important descriptive work that systematically
handles the grammar of Kurmanji, but it also refers to a set of rules and principles that
govern the usage of Kurmanji in a prescriptive way. Due to the fact that many Kurdish
writers, intelligentsia and cultural élites followed Bedir-Xan’s tradition, the variety of
Kurmanji described by Bedir-Xan, which is basically centred on the variety spoken in
Botan region, tends to be recognized nowadays as a standard Kurmanji and this is
evident in many pedagogical works that noticeably depends on Bedir-Xan’s model such
as Rizgar (1996) and Biçûk (1997), let alone being widely used in Kurdish media and
educational institutes

Mackenzie (1961a, 1962) provides a comprehensive description for different

dialects of Kurdish, yet for political reasons he was not licensed to cover the Kurmanji
varieties spoken in the Kurdistan of Turkey and that is why his studies are restricted to
Sorani and the variety of Kurmanji spoken in the Kurdistan of Iraq (Badinani). Mackenzie
is mainly interested in studying the relationship between sister languages and the
common linguistic features they share as a language family, and therefore his main area
of interest is phonology and morphology. Thackston (2006) provides an intensive
morphosyntactic analysis for Kurmanji with a few pages dedicated for phonology and
syntactic relations in Kurmanji structure. Thackston depends on some Kurdish written
literary scripts which are mainly written by writers who follow Bedir-Xan’s tradition, and
hence Thackston’ account tends to be very close to Bedir-Xan’s tradition.

Haig & Matras (2002) provides a condensed sketch of the main issues in the
Kurdish language bringing together different studies in the field of Kurdish linguistics

17
and trying to create a framework to the fragmented nature of Kurdish linguistics. Haig &
Öpengin (2014, 2015) are in general dedicated to examining the main linguistic features
of different varieties of Kurmanji spoken in Turkey. In their resent study (2015), Haig &
Öpengin classifies Kurmanji in general is into three dialect areas (Southeastern,
Southern, and Western Kurmanji) depending on morphosyntic and phonological
properties that each dialect exposes. There are some other studies that are dedicated
to describing and analysing some linguistic aspects that generally feature Kurdish
varieties. For example, Ergativity and alignment in Kurmanji have been one of the
central issues in the literature of Kurdish and have gained special interest in many
studies (Bynon 1979; Dorleijn 1996; Haig 2004, 2008; Matras 1992, 1997).

1.5. Methodology

The present study is a part of an ongoing project at the University of Manchester

about the dialects of Kurdish. The project is managed by Prof. Yaron Matras, one of
prominent figures in the literature of Kurdish. The project is an ambitious attempt that
mainly aims at providing a better understanding to the distribution of Kurdish varieties
in different parts of Kurdistan, especially those parts that have not gained much interest
in the field of linguistic research and documentation such as the Kurdistan of Syria.
Eventually, the project will provide a more precise map marking different dialect
isoglosses. Besides, the project presents short linguistic descriptions as well as recorded
samples of personal narrative for different cities, towns and villages.

1.5.1. Sample Population

The recordings for this work have been elicited from three native speakers of
Xerbi Kurmanji who spent the majority of their lives in Qamishli City and its suburbs
(Kurdistan of Syria). They have recently moved to Manchester in the UK after the Syrian
crisis in 2011. The ages of the informants range between 25 and 35. All of the
informants had university education and they spent a few years in Damascus or Aleppo.
None of the informants have gained any formal instructing in the Kurdish language, and
hence their spoken language is not affected by the standard Kurmanji. However, they

18
are multilingual as they speak Arabic and English besides their mother tongue Xerbi
Kurmanji. The informants started to speak Arabic at the age of six when they went to
school while they effectively learned English by the age of 20 when they joined
university.

1.5.2. Questionnaire
In the present study, I depended on the questionnaire designed for the Dialects
of Kurdish project by Prof. Yaron Matras and Dr. Andrew Koontz-Garboden. The
questionnaire is comprehensive and covers different features needed for this work in
terms of phonology, morphology and syntax. The questionnaire consists of about 400
tokens containing lexical words, phrases and clauses. The questionnaire was
administered in several languages depending on informants’ choice. As for this study,
the questionnaire was conducted in Arabic. During the recorded interviews, the
speakers are asked to translate the items in the questionnaire from formal Arabic into
Xerbi Kurmanji.

Parallel to questionnaire elicitation, the informants are also asked to provide

recorded personal narratives of their own choice where the informants generally tended
to talk about their past experiences, stories, and Kurdish traditions and occasions. The
duration of interviews in its both parts was approximately one hour and the informants
exhibited a high degree of cooperation. The interviews were transcribed, translated and
submitted to the office of the Dialects of Kurdish project in order to be saved in the
project database.

19
 2. Phonology
In this section, I am going to provide a general description of vowels,
consonants and syllable structure in Xerbi Kurmanji.

2.1. Vowels
Like different varieties of Kurmanji, Xerbi Kurmanji exposes an inventory of eight
vowels. The chart 2.1 illustrates, the eight vowels contrast as front, central and back.
The front vowels show high, high-mid and low-mid contrasts. The back vowels contrast
as high, between high and high-mid, high-mid and low. The only central vowel in Xerbi
Kurmanji is the high vowel /ɨ/. The articulation point of the vowel /ʊ/ tends to mediate
between central and back, and high and high-mid. All front and central vowel are
unrounded, whereas most back vowels, except for the vowel /ɑ/ are rounded. The
vowel /ʊ/ is rounded too.

Xerbi Kurmanji has five long vowels: /ɑ/, /i/, /e/, /o/ and /u/; and tree short
vowels: /ɛ/, /ʊ/ and /ɨ/. Long and short vowels are clarified and exemplified in the
following two tables:

20
 2.1.1. Diphthongs
Beside monophthongs discussed above, Xerbi Kurmanji also tends to have some
diphthongs. The process of diphthongization in Xerbi Kurmanji involves a vowel sound
gliding toward a semivowel. The following diphthongs are the main ones observed in the
sample:

(1) K-95, K96

/ɑw/, as in law [dʒɑw] 'son'.
/ɛw/, as in hew *hɛw] 'enough'.
/ɛy/, as in heyv [hɛyv] 'moon'.

21
 2.2. Consonants

Consonant chart in Xerbi Kurmanji tends to have the most diversified array of
consonants mentioned in the literature of Kurmanji so far due to the integration of
some Arabic consonants into the sound system of Xerbi Kurmanji. Featuring the
consonant chart of Xerbi Kurmanji, Arabic integrated consonants will be given a special
interest in this section. The following table lists the place and manner of articulation of
consonants found in spoken Xerbi Kurmanji:

It is observable that aspiration in Xerbi Kurmanji, unlike English, is lexically

contrastive. The consonants [p], [t], [k] and [tʃ] are phonemically distinctive from their
aspirated counterparts, though Kurmanji orthographical system fails to draw this
phonemic distinction showing aspirated consonants as formally identical to the non-
aspirated ones as illustrated in the following minimal pairs.

22
 (5) K-95, K-33
kanî: [kɑni] ‘water spring’ or *kʰɑni] ‘where’
çar: [tʃɑr+ ‘alternative’ or *tʃʰɑr+ ‘four’

From an allophonic perspective, we can say that in Xerbi Kurmanji, both the
voiced velar nasal *ŋ+ and the voiced alveolar tap *ɾ] are contextual variants, i.e. they are
derived from [n] and [r] respectively to fit certain phonological environments. The data
shows that that the voiced alveolar nasal [n] and the voiced velar nasal *ŋ+ do not
overlap in the same context (Complementary Distribution). The velar nasal *ŋ+ occurs
only in such an environment when it is followed by velar plosives. Hence, we can
conclude that both nasals *n+ and *ŋ+ are allophones of the same underlying phoneme
[n] as the following phonological rule explains:

/n/ → *ŋ] / __ velar plosive

(3) K-95, K-96

reng [rɛŋ(g)] 'colour'
deng [dɛŋ(g)] 'sound'
jinik [ʒɨnɨk] 'woman'
cankar [dʒɑŋɑkr+ ‘proper name’

Similarly, the tap [ɾ] is restricted to intervocalic position, whereas trill [r] comes
elsewhere:

/r/→*ɾ] / V__V

(4) K-95, K96

pîr [pir] 'old'
roj [roj] 'day'
serî *sɛɾi+ 'head'
erê *ɛɾe+ 'yes'

2.2.1. The Integration of Arabic Consonants into Xerbi Kurmanji

In discussing the convergence of Arabic Consonants into Xerbi Kurmanji, I will
borrow Matras’s morphological terminology ‘backward diffusion’ which is basically used
to describe the process of integrating borrowed morphs to pre-existing lexicon (2009:
209). ‘Backward diffusion’ as a notion can be employed in phonology to describe the

23
phonological process of generalizing borrowed sounds to pre-existing lexemes which is
the case with Arabic borrowed consonants into Xerbi Kurmanji. It is undeniable that the
Arabic consonants [ɣ+, *ħ+ *tˤ], [dˤ], [sˤ], [zˤ] and [ʕ] have been borrowed into Xerbi
Kurmanji as a side effect of the process of lexical borrowing from Arabic. However
although being mainly used with Arabic borrowed words, these consonants became part
and parcel of the Xerbi Kurmanji phonological system and not only restricted to the
Arabic loan words. ‘Back diffusion’ is one of the main properties that feature the Arabic
replicated consonants into Xerbi Kurmanji:

Notice that the voiced fricative alveolar-pharyngeal [zˤ] is the modified Xerbi Kurmanji
version from the voiced fricative dental-pharyngeal [ðˤ] in Arabic; the reason for such
modification is that Kurmanji phonological system inherently does not allow dental
consonants.

2.3. Syllable structure and Phonotactics

Having introducing an overview of the phonology of Kurdish on the segment
level, now we move on to have an insight into Xerbi Kurmanji syllable structure where
segments are grouped into coherent chunks. The sample exposes that the shapes of
syllables permitted in Xerbi Kurmanji tends to be: V, VC, VCC, CV, CVC, CVCC, CCVC and
CCVCC (see table 2.4). A syllable in Xerbi Kurmanji minimally needs a nucleus5 to be
formed, while the maximum length of a syllable would consist of a nucleus, a double-

5
The nucleus is normally formed from vowel sounds.

24
consonant onset, and double-consonant coda. Hence, we can say that Xerbi Kurmanji
shows high flexibility in syllable structure where onsets are optional and there are no
combinational constrictions on rhymes.

2.3.1. Consonant Clusters

Xerbi Kurmanji in general permits consonant clusters that consist of two

consonants. Consonant clusters are rare as syllable onsets; an example is the obstruent
string [st] as in words such as steyrik [stɛyrɪk+ ‘star’ and stûr *stur+ ‘thick’. However,
syllable codas allow a variety of consonant clusters where the clusters tend to result
from the combination of consonantals and obstruents and they generally obey the
sonority sequence generalization as the following table clarifies.

25
Table 2.6: Common coda clusters in Xerbi Kurmanji

26
 3. Nominals

In this section, I am going to deal with nominal forms in Xerbi Kurmanji such as
nouns, noun modifiers and pronominal categories showing and analysing their different
syntactic and morphological properties.

3.1. Nominalization
Most nouns in Xerbi Kurmanji have simple morphological structures and are not
derived through any morphological process: mirîşk ‘hen’, mîh ‘sheep’, gwîz ‘walnut’.
However, nouns can also be derived from some other word classes through the process
of nominalization. The process of noun derivation depends on suffixing certain
nominalizers to categories such as verbs, adjectives.

The productive derivational suffix -(t)î is used to derive abstract nouns from
adjectives: zeḥmet ‘difficult’ > zeḥmetî ‘difficulty’, giran ‘heavy’ > grantî ‘heaviness’. The
same suffix can also derive abstract nouns from other nouns: heval ‘friend’ > hevaltî
‘friendship’, bira ‘brother’ > bratî ‘brotherhood’. The less common suffix -anî can also be
attached to adjectives to derive abstract nouns: çûk ‘child’ > çûkanî ‘childhood’.

The highly productive morpheme -(i)n tends to be the only suffix used to derive
nominal forms from the past stem6 of verbs. Most nouns that are derived from verbs
denote actions akin to the formation of a gerund as in xwend ‘studied’ > xwendin
‘studying’, ma ‘stayed’ > man ‘staying’.

3.2. Noun Gender and Number

The noun in Xerbi Kurmanji is either masculine or feminine and gender
assignment in general, as it is the case in the Standard Kurmanji, tends to be random
and every word has to be learned along with its gender (Thackston 2006: 7). However,
the grammatical gender is expectable when correlated with sex reflecting the natural
gender of animate nouns: bav ‘father’ (M), bir ‘brother’ (M), qîz ‘daughter’ (F), jin ‘wife’

6
Verbs in Xerbi Kurmanji have two stems: one for the present tense and the other for the past.
Nominal forms are usually derived from the past verbal stem.

27
(F), mirîşk ‘hen’ (F), dîk ‘rooster’ (M). Notice that some animate nouns do not reflect
natural gender and in such case either of the grammatical genders is possible depending
on the context such as zarok ‘child’ and ḥeywan ‘animal’. There is no gender agreement
with modifiers (see section 3.4). Nouns in Xerbi Kurmanji can either be singular or plural,
and plural nouns do not reflect grammatical gender (see the discussion about the
oblique case for gender and number inflection markers, section 3.3.2.2).

3.3. Noun Inflection

3.3.1 Definiteness and Indefiniteness

Kurmanji in general does not have article system (Thackston 2006: 7); While
indefiniteness is morphologically expressed through a set of postposed suffixes, the
definite sense is either semantically understood from the context or syntactically
expressed through noun modification.

3.3.1.1. The Definite State

Besides being contextually conveyed by unmodified nouns, the definite state in

Xerbi Kurmanji is also evidently expressed by using different modifiers such as
demonstratives, adjectives and genitive nouns. For example, the demonstrative ev ‘this’
in the noun phrase ev şexiṣ ‘this person’ provides the definite sense to the head noun
şexiṣ ‘person’; similarly, the noun modifier Dîclê ‘Tigris’ identifies the head noun Çem
‘river’ as clarified in the following example:

(5) K-34
Çem-ê Dîclê
River-CONS Tigris.OBL
‘The Tigris River’

3.3.1.2. The Indefinite State

Indefiniteness in Kurmanji and some other Indo-Iranian languages is normally

conveyed through the postposed marker -ek (Matras 2012: 103). The same enclitic is
also postposed to singular nouns to express indefiniteness in Xerbi Kurmanji, yet with

28
some phonological complexity depending on the ending segment of nouns. Thackston
(2006: 10) mentions that the postvocalic indefinite enclitics -yek (DIR) and -yekî (OBL)
are normally attached to the singular indefinite noun. In Xerbi Kurmanji, however, the
postvocalic indefinite suffixes -k (DIR) and -kî (OBL) are also used and they are obviously
more common. Another interesting phonological observation is that Xerbi Kurmanji
usually uses the indefinite suffix -ak (DIR) and -akê (OBL) when the feminine singular
noun ends in the vowel <e>. The postconsonantal indefinite enclitics tend to conform to
that found in the standard Kurmanji; compare the indefinite enclitics in table 3.1 with
the usual ones mentioned by Thackston (2006: 10-11).

Table 3.1: The indefinite state markers in Xerbi Kurmanji

3.3.2. Case inflection

In Kurmanji, the noun normally takes direct, oblique or vocative cases. The
oblique and vocative cases are inflectionally realized while the direct case does not have
inflection markers but depends on the syntactic distribution of the noun in order to be
determined. Case morphological inflections, if exist, are normally postposed to nouns.

3.3.2.1. The Direct Case

The direct case in Xerbi Kurmanji does not differ much from the account provided
by Thackston (2006: 8). Nouns in the direct case are not inflected for gender or number,

29
and singular nouns formally match plural ones. The only morphological inflection that
nouns in the direct case accept is the indefinite state markers mentioned in table 3.1
above.

Table 3.2: The direct case markers in the definite state in Xerbi Kurmanji

Marker Example
M. SG -∅ derî ‘door’

F. SG -∅ mal ‘house’
mal ‘houses’
PL -∅
derî ‘doors’

The data shows that the usage of the direct case in Xerbi Kurmanji does not
differ from the standard Kurmanji where the noun takes the direct case when it
normally occurs as a subject of intransitive verbs whether present or past (check
examples 121 and 137); and patient of past transitive verbs (see examples 183-185)
except for the optional pronominal double-oblique alignment where the patient
personal pronoun of the past trasitive verb appears in the oblique case (see section
5.2.1.2).

3.3.2.2. The Oblique Case

Kurmanji nouns in the oblique case are usually highly inflectional. They are
regularly inflected for gender and number (Thackston 2006: 8-9). Xerbi Kurmanji also
shows rich inflectional system in the oblique case with slight phonological differences in
the suffixes themselves as illustrated in the following table.

Table 3.3: the oblique case markers in the definite state in Xerbi Kurmanji

30
 Singular masculine nouns in Kurmanji are normally not suffixed with the regular
oblique case marker -î, unless they are either modified by a demonstrative pronoun or
occur in the indefinite state (Haig & Matras 2002: 6); the same is applicable to Xerbi
Kurmanji as table 3.3 shows.

Feminine singular nouns that end in the vowel <e> usually substitute <e> by the
oblique case marker -ê. The following example shows how the ending vowel of the
feminine singular noun ṭawle ‘table’ is dropped before adding the oblique famine
marker -ê:

(6) K-96
Jinik ana ṭawl-ê di-mesiḥî-ni
woman.DIR now table-OBL AFF-wipe.PRS-3SG
‘The woman is wiping the tables.’

Another noticeable phonological feature of Xerbi Kurmanji is the general tendency to

simplify the usual oblique plural marker -an by dropping the nasal segment <n>:

(7) K-95
Zarok-a bi ṭip-ê list
Boy- PL ADP ball-OBL play.PST.3SG
‘The boys played football.’

The oblique case mainly appears on nouns when they function as: objects of
present transitive verbs, agents of past transitive verbs, complements of adpositions
and genitive nouns in ezafe constructions (check examples 73, 103 and 104).

3.3.2.3. The vocative Case

The vocative case marker in Kurmanji is -o for masculine, -ê for feminine and -no
for plural (Thackston 2006: 45). In Xerbi Kurmanji, the vocative form is not common with
proper nouns and, as a matter of fact, it is socially impolite to address people saying
their names suffixed with the vocative case marker in Qamishli city. The vocative case
marker, hence, sounds to be in decline in Xerbi Kurmanji and its place is taken over by
the direct case: Nebîl-∅, wer vir ‘Nabil, come here’. The most common words used in
Xerbi Kurmanji in the vocative case are yab-o ‘father’, yad-ê ‘mother’, keç-ê ‘girl’, kur-o
‘boy’.

31
 3.3.3. The Construct State (Ezafe)

Ezafe is a unique morphosyntactic phenomenon that generally features noun

phrases in Kurmanji and some other west-Iranian languages (Samvelian 2006: 1). Ezafe
marker in Xerbi Kurmanji usually reflects gender, number and definiteness (see tables
3.4 and 3.5). Xerbi Kurmanji conforms to the standard Kurmanji in that ezafe
constructions are case-neutral (Haig & Matras 2002: 5). Drawing on information from
Thackston (2006: 11-15), I will be classifying ezafe as primary and secondary throughout
describing ezafe in Xerbi Kurmanji.

3.3.3.1. The Primary Ezafe

The primary ezafe is mainly used in Xerbi Kurmanji either to establish a
possessive relationship between two nouns: xanî-yê bara ‘stock shelter’, or to attribute
an adjective modifier to the head noun it modifies: keçk-a piçûk ‘the little girl’. In the
primary ezafe constructions, the ezafe marker is normally postposed to the modified
noun where the ezafe marker formally varies depending on its syntactic and
phonological distribution as clarified in tables 3.4 and 3.5. The possessed dependent
nouns (genitive nouns) are in the oblique case in the noun-noun ezafe constructions
while adjective modifiers are neutral and resist any kind of inflectional agreement with
the head noun in the noun-adjective ezafe constructions.

As far as the noun-noun ezafe construction is concerned, the primary ezafe in

Xerbi Kurmanji, similar to the standard Kurmanji, can be extended by linking more
modifying noun forming the primary ezafe chain the last noun in the chain takes the
oblique case while other nouns in the ezafe chain are marked for ezafe:

(8) K-95
av-a çem-ê Dijlê
Water-CONS.F river-CONS.M Tigris.OBL
‘The water of Tigris River’

As far as the primary ezafe markers in the definite state is concerned, Xerbi
Kurmanji expose general similarity to that found in the standard Kurmanji, yet the

32
following table reveals some significant phonological differences that give rise to some
syntactic complexity to primary ezafe constructions in Xerbi Kurmanji:

As mentioned in table 3.4, the plural definite ezafe suffix -ên is regularly
simplified to -ê, and consequently the form of ezafe marker for masculine singular nouns
and common plural nouns are quite identical where extracting meaning depends on the
context and the verbal conjugation. In the following example, the 3PL copula postposed
to the verb determines the number of the head noun:

(9) K-34, k-95, k-96

ç'îya-yê Kurdistan-ê bilind in
Mountain- CONS.PL Kurdistan-OBL high COP.3PL
‘The mountains of Kurdistan are high.’

In the absence of verb agreement inflection, the number of the head noun can be
ambiguous in an ezafe construction unless it occurs in an appropriate context:

(10) K-95, K-96

Heval-ê bav-ê mi
Friend-CONS.PRIM father-CONS.PRIM 1SG.OBL
‘The friend(s) of my father’

33
 The definite primary ezafe marker is usually a bound morpheme that is suffixed
to the host noun, but it can occasionally occur as a free morpheme in the highly careful
speech:

(11) K-95
Ev kitêb a min i
This book CONS.PRIM.F 1SG.OBL COP.3SG
‘This is my book’

The noun dê ‘mother’ has the irregular ezafe form c(iy)a when occurring as a
modified noun in an ezafe construction before adding a possessive element:

(12) K-95, K96

ca keçk-ê
mother.CONS girl.OBL
‘The girl’s mother’

(13) K-34
ciya k’eçk-ê
mother.CONS girl.OBL
‘The girl’s mother’

The primary ezafe marker in the indefinite state, on the other hand, is normally
realized in the standard Kurmanji through the ezafe markers: -î (M.SG), -e (F.SG) and -e
(PL) which postposed to indefinite nouns (Haig & Öpengin 2015: 22). In Xerbi Kurmanji,
ezafe markers are optional with indefinite M.SG and F.SG nouns while totally not
realized with indefinite plural nouns (see table 3.5 and examples 14-21).

Table 3.5: Ezafe markers in the indefinite state: zilam ‘man’, jinik ‘woman’, mal
‘house’

Indefinite ezafe markers

M.SG zilamek-(î)
F.SG jinikek-(ê)
malin-∅
PL.

34
 (14) K-34
zilam-ek-î ixtîyar
Man.M-INDEF-CONS.M old
‘An old man’

(15) K-96
zilam-ek meżin
Man.M-INDEF.CONS old
‘An old man’

(16) K-95
e di şirk-ak-ê derman-a
1SG.DIR ADP company.F-INFEF-CONS.F medicine-OBL.PL
di-şuẋulî-m
PROG- work.PST-1SG
‘I used to work at a medicines company.’

(17) K-95
menṭîq-ak feqîr i
Area.F-INDEF.CONS poor COP.PRES.3SG
‘It is a poor area.’

(18) K-95
mal-in hindik li gund hen-i
House-INDEF.PL.CONS few ADP village.OBL exist.PRS-3SG
‘There are very few houses in the village.’

We opened up this section by saying that the primary ezafe is mainly used to link
a head noun to a possessive noun or an adjective modifier, the data nevertheless shows
that the primary ezafe marker can also bind a head noun to longer constituents such as
adpositional phrases as in ex. no. 19; adjectival phrase as in ex. no. 20 or relative causes
as in ex. no. 21.

(19) K-95
ew kitêb-a [li wê de] a bir-ê
that book-CONS.F ADP that ADP CONS.SEC brother-CONS
min i
1SG.OBL COP.3SG
‘That book over there is my brother’s.’

35
 (20) K-95
Neqrî wek beroş-ek-ê [gelkî meżin] i
Naqri.DIR like pan-INDEF-CONS very big COP.3SG
‘Naqri is like a very big pan.’

(21) K-96
ew xelk-ê [me li sûk-ê dît-in] feqîr bû-n
those people.CONS 1PL.OBL ADP market-OBL see.PST-PL poor be.PST-PL
‘The people, we met at the market, were poor.’

3.3.3.2. The Secondary Ezafe

Ezafe in Kurmanji is not only limited to the primary ezafe discussed above. There
is another type of ezafe in Kurmanji called secondary ezafe (Thackston 2006: 15). In the
primary ezafe domain, the noun-noun strings can be expanded through the primary
ezafe chain as we have seen in ex. no. 8, yet each of the nouns can only modify the
preceding noun. The noun-adjective string, for its part, cannot be extended using the
primary ezafe marker, yet it can modify a preceding head noun:

(22) K-33
Keçk-a [zilam-ê kal]
Daughter-CONS.PRIM man-CONS.PRIM old
‘The old man’s daughter’

The secondary ezafe marking system is usually used to link more modifiers to the
noun phrase outside the primary ezafe domain and regulations, i.e. it is used to stretch
the primary ezafe constructs using certain functional morphemes. These functional
morphemes are termed as extenders by Thackston and he depicts the exact
environment in which the secondary ezafe extenders are used: adding a noun or an
adjective modifier to the noun-adjective strings or modifying the first noun (head) in
noun-noun strings (2006: 15). What is relative to the present study is the type of
extenders manipulated in Xerbi Kurmanji to which the rest of this section will be
dedicated.

The standard Kurmanji uses the extender particles yê, ya and yên for masculine
singular, feminine singular and plural respectively (Bedir-Xan 2002: 87-88). The data in

36
hand exposes that Xerbi Kurmanji has two sets of the secondary ezafe extenders: the
particle extenders (table 3.6) and the enclitic extenders (table 3.7); these two types of
extenders are functional parallel but morphologically and syntactically different.

The first set of secondary extenders in Xerbi Kurmanji, the less common, includes
the particle extender ê for M.SG and common PL; and the particle extender a with F.SG
as mentioned in the following table.

Table 3.6: Particle extenders in Xerbi Kurmanji and the standard Kurmanji

The standard Kurmanji Xerbi Kurmanji

(Thackston 2006:15)
M. SG yê ê
F. SG ya a
PL yên ê

The particle extenders Xerbi Kurmanji can be seen as a simplified form of their
counterparts in the standard Kurmanji. Table 3.6 lists the particle extenders both in
Xerbi Kurmanji and the standard Kurmanji showing how Xerbi Kurmanji tends to
preserve the vowels of the particle extenders while dropping the consonants, and
consequently Xerbi Kurmanji seems to have lost the inflection for number as the
extender for M.SG and common PL is formally identical:

(23) K-34
ʕeyd-a wetenî a k’urd-a yi
Feast-CONS.PRIM national CONS.SEC Kurd-PL COP. 3SG
‘It is the Kurds’ national feast.’

(24) K-33
Lawik-ê Nebîl ê didwa
Boy-CONS.PRIM Nebil.OBL CONS.SEC second
‘The second child of Nebil’

(25) K-95
Xort-ê gund ê xwende
Chap-CONS.PRIM.PL village.OBL CONS.SEC.PL educated
‘The educated chaps of the village’

37
 Enclitics are the second set of secondary ezafe extenders found in Xerbi Kurmanji.
Although particle extenders mentioned in table 3.6 are familiar and quite acceptable for
Xerbi Kurmanji speakers, the secondary ezafe enclitics, listed in table 3.7 below, are
observably dominant in expressing the secondary ezafe and intensively used in Xerbi
Kurmanji. Enclitic extenders are postposed to the last item of the primary ezafe
construction (noun, adjective or pronoun) before adding more modifiers (see examples
26-28). This type of the secondary ezafe extenders exposes to main properties that
features it from the first set of ezafe extenders: the first dissimilarity is morphological
where enclitic extenders, unlike the particle ones, are bound morphemes which
normally suffixed to the preceding free morpheme, the host nominal form. The second
difference is syntactic where neither gender nor number is expressed by the enclitic
extender.

Table 3.7: enclitic extenders in Xerbi Kurmanji

Enclitic Extenders
Postconsonantal -(în)î
Postvocalic -(n)î

(26) K-34
Milet-ê me-nî k’urd
People-CONS.PRIM 1PL.OBL-CONS.SEC Kurdish
‘Our Kurdish people’

(27) K-96
Xwarn-ê me-î Kurmanc-a
dish-CONS.PRIM 1PL.OBL-CONS.SEC Kurd-OBL.PL
‘Our Kurdish dishes.’

(28) K-95
Mal-ik me-î mezin hebû
House-INDEF.CONS.PRIM 1PL.OBL-CONS.SEC big exist.PST
‘We had a big house’

It sounds that the secondary ezafe extender in Xerbi Kurmanji undergoes a kind of
syntactic and morphological change from system to another. It is true that the two sets
of extenders are familiar to Xerbi Kurmanji speakers, yet the heavy use of enclitic
extenders is so prominent in the data given.

38
 3.4. Noun Modifiers

In this section, we are going to discuss some grammatical units whose function is
basically restricted to define the noun in Xerbi Kurmanji. Elements such as adjectives,
demonstrative adjectives, numbers and quantifiers are not essential arguments in the
grammatical clause but optionally used to provide more information about the head
noun.

There is a general tendency to classify Kurmanji noun phrases as head initial

(Haig & Matras 2002: 5); this can be related to the impact of ezafe state which generally
dominates phrase modification in Kurmanji. Nevertheless, Xerbi Kurmanji tends to have
some premodifiers along with normal postmodifiers.

3.4.1. Premodifiers

The noun premodifier, as its name implies, precedes the head noun it modifies.
In the data given, we can distinguish the following classes of premodifiers in Xerbi
Kurmanji:

3.4.1.1. Demonstrative Determiners

Traditionally, demonstratives in Kurmanji exposes a two-way distinction with

respect to a proximity of an object relative to the speaker, proximal or distal (Bedir-Xan,
2002: 82); corresponding to the English ‘this’ and ‘that’. Xerbi Kurmanji has a similar
demonstrative system to that found in the standard Kurmanji as the following table lists:

39
 Depending on their grammatical role, demonstratives in Xerbi Kurmanji can
function as demonstrative determiners or demonstrative pronouns (see section 3.5.1).
When occurring before a noun, demonstratives function as premodifiers in Xerbi
Kurmanji. In the direct case, there is no inflectional agreement between the noun and its
determiner demonstrative, and therefore the number of such noun phrases would be
vague; only the context and verbal conjugation can disambiguate such noun phases:

(29) K-34, K-95, K-96

ew kitêb
DEM.DIS.DIR book.DIR
‘That book/those books’

In the oblique case, nevertheless, determiner demonstratives inflectionally

agree in case, gender and number with the following noun. Consider the following
examples and compare with examples 29 mentioned above:

(30) K-34, K-95

ez vê pîrek-ê nas di-k-im
1SG.DIR DEM.PROX.OBL.F.SG woman-OBL.F.SG recognition AFF-do-1SG
‘I know this woman’

(31) K-34, K-96

ez vî xort-î nas di-k-im
1SG.DIR DEM.PROX.OBL.M.SG chap-OBL.M.SG recognition AFF-do-1SG
‘I know this chap’

(32) K-95, K-96

Va ç'enṭ-a
DEM.PROX.OBL.PL bag-OBL.PL
‘These bags’

3.4.1.2. Cardinal numerals

In Xerbi Kurmanji, the cardinal numbers from one to twenty are represented by
one word similar to their counterparts in English. As for numbers ranged between
twenty and ninety nine, except for multiples of ten whose second digit is zero, the
cardinal numbers are represented by two words connected by the conjunction û ‘and’,
see table 9.

40
 When cardinal numbers quantify the head noun in a noun phrase, they occupy a
pre-modification position defining the following noun. The following table lists some
cardinal numbers in Xerbi variety of Kurmanji:

Almost all cardinal numbers in Xerbi Kurmanji are liable to be used as noun
premodifiers. However, the only exception is the number yek ‘one’ which does not take
an attributive form, and hence the only way to express the quantity of the noun in this
case is through the indefinite enclitic suffixed to the noun itself (review section 3.3.1.2
discussed above).

Concerning number such as one hundred, one thousand, one million ...etc, Xerbi
Kurmanji expresses them without the number ‘one’ where the meaning is implicitly
preserved as long as not modified by any other number quantifier.

Numbers two and three, observably take the short forms di and sê respectively
when used as modifiers:

(32) K-34, K-95, K-96

di keçik
Two girl.DIR.PL
‘Two girls’

41
 (33) K-34, K-95, K-96
sê kitêb
Three book.DIR.PL
‘Three books’

Cardinal numbers, similar to adjectives, are indeclinable and expose no

inflectional agreement in number, gender or case with the noun they modify as shown
in ex. no. 32, 33 and 24.

(34) K-33
ez sê zilam-a di-bîn-im
1SG.DIR three man-OBL.PL PROG-see.PRES-1SG
I see three men.

3.4.1.3. Quantifiers

The quantifier class in Xerbi Kurmanji is largely diversified and exposes no

agreement with the head noun. Table 3.10 lists some intensively used quantifiers in
Xerbi Kurmanji:

Quantifiers naturally tend to appear in preposed position to the head noun; in

such prepositive position, the quantifiers are largely uninflected modifiers and show no
agreement with the head noun:

(35) K-95, K-96

doh mi gelek kitêb k'irî-n
Yesterday 1SG.OBL many book.DIR.PL buy.PST-PL
‘Yesterday I bought many books.’

42
 It is noticed that the quantifier hinik/ hinek ‘some, a few, a little’ can quantify
both countable and uncountable nouns, while the quantifier piçik/ piçek ‘some, a little,’
can only modify uncountable nouns:

(36) K-95, K-96

piçik xwê.
little salt.DIR.UNCOUNT
‘a little salt.’

(37) K-33
hinek xwê.
little salt.DIR.UNCOUNT
‘a little salt.’

(38) K-96
hinek nan
some bread.DIR.UNCOUNT
‘Some bread.’

(39) K-95
hinik/piçik nan
some bread.DIR.UNCOUNT
‘Some bread.’

(40) K-33
hinek kitêb
few book.DIR.PL.COUNT
‘a few books.’

(41) K-95, K-96

hinek kitêb
some book.DIR.PL.COUNT
‘Some books.’

The quantifier t’i ‘any’ modifies nouns only when the clause shows negative polarity:

(42) K-95, K-96

doh mi t’i kitêb ne-k'irî-n
yesterday 1SG.OBL any book.DIR.PL NEG-buy.PST-PL
‘Yesterday I did not buy any books.’
(43) K-95, K-96
Keçk-a piçûk t'i sêv ne-xwar-in îro
girl-CONS small any apple.DIR.PL NEG-eat.PRES-PL today
‘The little girl has not eaten any apples today.’

43
 Some quantifiers, however, show flexibility in position and can also be postposed
to the noun phrase, compare the position of the quantifier ḥemi ‘all’ in following two
examples:

(44) K-96
ḥemi istaz û tulab li derve rabukirî ni
all teacher.DIR.PL and student DIR.PL ADP outside standee COP.PL
‘All the students and teachers are standing outside

(45) K-95
ṭilab û miʕelim ḥemi ji derve sekinî ni
student.DIR.PL and teacher.DIR.PL all ADP outside standee COP.PL
‘All the students and teachers are standing outside’

The quantifier giş(tik) ‘all’ is exceptionally restricted to postpositive position

relative to the noun it modifies:

(46) K-34
qedeḥ giştik şikest-in
glass.DIR.PL all break.PST-PL
‘all of the glasses broke.’

(47) K-96
heval-ê mi giş
friend-CONS.PL 1SG.OBL all
‘all my friends.’

One of the interesting observations is that when quantifiers follow the head
noun they agree with the head noun in case and number; the agreement, as usual, is
inflectionally realized only in the oblique case:

(48) K-34
zarok-a roj-ê giştik-î lîst
boy-OBL.PL day-OBL.SG. all-OBL.SG play.PST.3SG
‘The boys played all day.’

(49) K-95
zarok-a roj-ê ḥem-î lîst
boy-OBL.PL day-OBL.SG all-OBL.SG play.PST.3SG
‘The boys played all day.’

44
 (50) K-95
û wa dehnûk-ê xwe ḥem-a wê
and DEM.DIS.OBL.PL dehnuk-CONS.PL self all-OBL.PL FUT
rax-in
spread.PRS.SUB-PL
‘and they will spread all their Dehnuk (boiled wheat).’

3.4.2. Postmodifiers

The grammatical units that occupy the postmodification position in an NP are

normally connected with the noun by ezafe markers (see ezafe state discussed and
exemplified in section 3.3.3 above). Units such as possessive nouns, adjectives and
ordinal numbers are noticed to be used as postmodifiers in the sample analysed.

3.4.2.1. Genitive-Possessive Nouns

In Xerbi Kurmanji, a noun can modify another noun through the genitive-
possessive construction where the head noun (the object of the possession) is linked to
the following noun modifier (the possessor) by an ezafe marker. The ezafe marker on
the head noun imposes the oblique case on the noun modifier:

(51) K-34, K-95

k'çk-ê zilam
girl-CONS.PL man.OBL
‘The daughters of the man’

3.4.2.2. Adjectives

Adjectives can be classified as postmodifiers in Xerbi Kurmanji due to their

destitution and function in the noun phrase when used attributively; they define the
preceding head noun through an ezafe marker. Adjectives are indeclinable and do not
show agreement of any kind with the head noun they modify:

(52) K-95, K-96

çek-ê kevin
cloth-CONS.PL old
‘The old clothes’

45
 (53) K-34, K-96
ziman-ê Kurdî
language-CONS.M Kurdish
‘The Kurdish language’

Adjectives nevertheless can also be used predicatively in Xerbi Kurmanji.

Adjectives, in this sense, are not governed by the head noun through an ezafe marker,
and hence regarded as arguments or complements rather than modifiers although they
describe the noun. Predicative adjectives are normally suffixed by a present copula or
followed by the light verbs as bûn ‘to become’ or kirin to do’ in the past tense:

(54) K-34, K-95, K-96

Çiya-yê K'urdistan-ê bilind in
mountain-CONS.PL Kurdistan-OBL high COP.PL
‘The mountains of Kurdistan are high.’

(55) K-95
xelk-ê feqîr bû-n
people-CONS.PL poor be.PST-PL
‘The people were poor.’

3.4.2.2.1. Comparative and Superlative Adjectives

The comparative form of adjectives is marked in Xerbi Kurmanji by attaching the

suffix -tir to the adjective in order to express comparison in quantity, quality or degree
between two entities or two groups of entities. In this concern, Xerbi Kurmanji shows no
significant difference from the standard Kurmanji (Bedir-Xan 2002: 91- 92; Thackston
2004: 27).

(56) K-33
ʕamûdê ji Qamişlo bicûk-tir i
Amuda.DIR ADP Qamishli.OBL small-COMP COP.PRES.3SG
‘Amuda is smaller than Qamishli.’

Some adjectives in Xerbi Kurmanji have more than one comparative form; one is
regular by adding the suffix -tir and the other is irregular such as baş ‘good’ > baştir or
ç’êtir ‘better’ and mezin ‘big’ > mezintir or mestir ‘bigger’:

46
 (57) K-96
Ji me ri ç’êtir i
ADP 1PL.OBL ADP better COP.3SG
‘It is better for us.’

The superlative adjectives, on the other hand, are formed in Xerbi Kurmanji by using the
periphrastic particle ḥerî ‘most’ before the adjective:

(58) K-33
Ev kitêb-a ḥerî baş i
DEM.PROX.DIR book-CONS most good COP.3SG
‘This book is the best.’

The sense of superlative, nevertheless, can also be expressed through a special

syntactic structure rather than morphology; when an adjective is connected to the
following noun by an ezafe marker, it gives the superlative sense. In the following
example, the adjective meżin ‘big’ is linked to its noun compliment ʕaɁîlê ‘family’ by and
ezafe marker to express superlative:

(59) K-96
Ew meżn-ê ʕaɁîlê yi
2SG.DIR big-CONS family COP.3SG
‘He is the most prominent (figure) of the family.’

3.4.2.3. Ordinal Numbers

The standard Kurmanji normally has two sets of ordinal numbers: the first
formally derived from the cardinal numbers and the other set is formed similar to the
Persian ordinal numbers by adding the suffixes -emîn (Thackston 2006: 24-25). Xerbi
Kurmanji has only one set of the ordinal numbers that are formed depending on the
cardinal numbers postposed with certain suffixes (see table 3.11).

The ordinal number ‘1st’ is formed from the cardinal number yek ‘one’ + the
suffix -ê besides the Arabic form ʕewil(î)/ewil(î). The ordinal numbers ranging from
second to twentieth are formed by attaching the suffix -a to their cardinal counterparts;
notice that concerning the ordinal number didwa ‘second’ and sisya ‘third’, the final

47
vowels of their cardinal counterparts (dido ‘two’ and sisê ‘three’) are phonologically
modified into the glides <w> and <y> respectively before adding the suffix -a.

Except for 10th and 20th which take the suffix -a, the ordinal numbers that end
in the digit zero are usually postposed with the suffix -î. As the table 3.10 illustrates, the
ordinal numbers ḥeftê-yî ‘seventieth’ and ḥeyştê-yî ‘eightieth’ preserve the final vowel
of the cardinal counterparts (ḥeyştê ‘seventy’ and ḥeyştê ‘eighty’) before adding the
suffix -yî. The number pêncî ‘fiftieth, fifty’ has identical cardinal and ordinal form as the
stem already ends in the vowel <î>.

The data shows that the ordinal numbers are indeclinable; they modify the head
noun showing its sequential order and link to it by an ezafe marker:

(59) K-95
zarok-a didwa
child-CONS.M sencond
‘The second child’

(60) K-96
zarok-ê didwa
child-CONS.F sencond
‘The second child’

(61) K-34, K-95, K-96

car-a sisya
time-CONS third
‘The third time’

48
 3.5. Pronominal Categories

3.5.1. Demonstrative Pronouns and Deictics

Demonstrative pronouns substitute the noun they refer to; the noun is either
known from the context or formerly mentioned where demonstrative pronouns, similar
to personal pronouns, function as anaphors referring to antecedent nouns:

(62) K-95, K-96

mi ev jê7-r got
1SG.OBL this.DIR to him-ADP say.PST.3SG
‘I said this to him.’

3.5.1.1. The Intensifying Particle (han(ê))

Bedir-Xan (2002: 82) mentions the particle ha as a demonstrative pronoun that

generally comes after the demonstrative to enhance the notion of demonstrativeness;
The parallel form in Xerbi Kurmanji is intensifying particle han(ê) which is generally used
to emphasise the word it modifies. The intensifying particle han(ê) modifies a
demonstrative pronoun, a third personal pronouns or a noun predetermined by a
demonstrative; it follows the element it modifies and link to them by an ezafe marker:

(63) K-34
ev şexs-ê hanê bir-ê
DEM.PROX DIR person-CONS INT brother-CONS
min i
1SG.OBL COP.3SG
‘This (particular) person is my brother.’

(64)
ev-ê hanê bir-ê min i
DEM.DIR-CONS INT brother-CONS 1SG.OBL COP.3SG
‘ˈTHIS is my brother.’

7
Jê is the contracted form of ji wî/wê ‘to him/her’ (Thackston 2004: 22).

49
 3.5.1.2. Location Deictics
The location deictics (‘here’ and ‘there’) expose two-referential distinction in
Xerbi Kurmanji referring to locations near and far from the speaker. Xerbi Kurmanji has
two forms of location deictics as clarified in the following table:

(65) K-34, K-95

li vir ‘here’
li wir ‘there’

(66) K-33
vir ‘here’
wir ‘there’

(67) K-96
li vê de ‘here’
li wê de ‘there’

(68) K-96
ew kitêb-ê li wê de ê bir-ê
3SG.DIR book-CONS.PL ADP there ADP CONS.PL brother-CONS
min in
1SG.OBL COP.3PL
‘Those books over there are my brother’s.’

(69) K-95
ew kitêb-ê li wê derê ê bir-ê
3SG.DIR book-CONS.PL ADP there ADP CONS.PL brother-CONS
min in
1SG.OBL COP.3PL
‘Those books over there are my brother’s.’

(70) K-33
ew kitêb-ê li wê dekê ê bir-ê
3SG.DIR book-CONS.PL ADP there ADP CONS.PL brother-CONS
min in
1SG.OBL COP.3PL
‘Those books over there are my brother’s.’

50
 In Xerbi Kurmanji, The location deictics with static meaning are always
introduced by a proposition functioning as prepositional compliments (check examples
68-70). The location deictics, however, do not need a proposition with directional
meaning that implies movement to an endpoint:

(71) K-33
ez ji vir çû-m wir
1SG.DIR from here go.PST-1SG there
‘I went from here to there.’

(72) K-95
ez ji wir hat-im vir
1SG.DIR from there come.PST-1SG here
‘I came from here to there.’

3.5.1.3. Temporal Deictics

Xerbi Kurmanji has several temporal deictics which are basically concerned with
the relative time in which an utterance occurs. The following table includes several
temporal deictics that are prevalent in Xerbi Kurmanji:

Specifying the time of the verb, temporal deictics in Xerbi Kurmanji tend to be
flexible in position and can appear in different places in the clause as the following
examples illustrate.

51
 (73) K-95, K-96
ez ana paṭaṭ-a di-qelîn-im ji bo şîvê
1SG.DIR now potato-OBL.PL AFF-fry.PRS-1SG ADP dinner.OBL
‘I am now frying potatoes for dinner.’

(74) K-96
jinik li ser zarok-a di-k’eni ana
woman.DIR ADP child-OBL.PL AFF-laught.PRS-1SG now
‘The woman is laughing at the children.’

(75) K-95
ana gund-ek-î biçûk i
now village-INDEF-CONS small COP.3SG
‘Now, it is a small village.’

(76) K-95
ez-ê îro cekê kevin bi-şewitîn-im
1SG-FUT today cloth-CONS old SUB-birn.PRS-1SG
‘I am burning the old clothes today.’

(77) K-96
ez-ê cek-ê kevin bi-şewiṭînim îro
1SG-FUT cloth-CONS old SUB-birn.PRS-1SG today
‘I am burning the old clothes today’

Notice that the informants in ex. no. 73 and 74 choose to insert the temporal deictic ana
‘now’ to enhance the progressive mood, as the verbal prefix di- , which marks
progressive in the past tense, is generally neutral in the present tense (see section 4.4.2).

3.5.2. Personal Pronouns

Personal pronouns in Xerbi Kurmanji do not differ much from their counterparts in
the standard Kurmanji. Table 3.14 below, nonetheless, shows that personal pronouns in
Xerbi Kurmanji involve some phonological differences:

52
 The norm for Xerbi Kurmanji speakers is to pronounce the first person pronoun
in the oblique case mi(n) without an ending /n/, yet the final /n/ is compulsory if the
pronoun is suffixed by a copula (see examples 84 and 85 below). The second person
singular in the direct case tends to be ti where it is normally tu in the standard Kurmanji,
see the following example:

(78) K-33, K-95, K-96

ti ç'û mal-ê
2SG.DIR go.PST home-OBL
‘You went home.’

The second person plural in the direct case has some other forms besides the standard
form hun:

‘You (PL) went home.’

(79) K-34
hûn ç’û-n mal-ê
2PL.DIR go.PST-PL home-OBL

(80) K-95, K-33

ûn ç'û-n mal-ê
2PL.DIR go.PST-PL home-OBL

(81) K-96
win ç'û-n mal-ê
2PL.DIR go.PST-PL home-OBL

53
The ending nasal consonant /n/ of the third person plural is optional in the oblique case:

‘They saw them’

(82) K-34
wa wan dît
3LP.OBL 3LP.OBL see.PST.3SG

(83) K-95
wa ew dît-in
3LP.OBL 3LP.DIR see.PST-PL

It is significant to mention that Kurmanji in general employs the distal

demonstrative pronouns as third person pronouns. The distal demonstrative pronouns,
interestingly, carry over some of their syntactic features when used as third person
pronouns, and hence third person pronouns in Kurmanji are gender-specific (M or F) in
the oblique case, but not in the direct case:

(84) K-95, K-96

ew wek bir-ê min i
3SG.DIR like brother-CONS.M 1SG.OBL COP.3SG
‘He is like my brother.’

(85) K-95, K-96

ew wek xw-a min i
3SG.DIR like sister-CONS.F 1SG.OBL COP.3SG
‘She is like my sister.’

(86) K-34
wê wilo ji mi-r got
3SG.OBL.F so ADP 1SG.OBL-ADP say.PST.3SG
She told me this

(87) K-96
mi ne-da wî
1SG.OBL NEG-give.PST.3SG 3SG.OBL.M
I did not give (it) to him.

One of the observations frequently noticed throughout the data is that Xerbi
Kurmanji has the weak form e for the first personal singular pronoun in the direct case

54
ez; this weak form, if found, occurs in the connected speech unless followed by a vowel
sound:

(88) K-34
e tiş-kî na-k-im
1SG.DIR thing-INDEF NEG-do.PRS-1SG
‘I am not doing anything.’

(89) K-95
e li Mûsil-ê ma-m
1SG.DIR ADP Mosul-OBL stay.PST-1SG
‘I stayed in Mosul.’

3.5.2.1. The Personal Pronoun Intensifying Enclitic (-na)

The heavy use of the intensifying enclitic -na is notable in the data given and, as a
matter of fact, it features the use of the third personal pronouns in Xerbi Kurmanji. The
emphatic -na is usually postposed to the third person pronouns in the oblique case in
order to intense the pronoun that hosts it. The emphatic -na is observably not marked
for gender or number:

(90) K-95
wî-na wilo kir
3SG.OBL.M-INT so do.PST.3SG
‘He did so.’

(91) K-96
wê-na ev tişt ji mi-r
3SG.OBL.F-INT DEM.PROX.DIR thing.DIR ADP 1SG.OBL-ADP
got
say.PST.3SG
‘She told me this thing.’

(92) K-33, K-96

wa-na ew dît-in
3PL.OBL-INT 3PL.DIR see.PST-3PL
‘They saw them.’

55
 3.5.3. The Reflexive and Intensive Pronoun (Xwe)

The pronoun xwe in Xerbi Kurmanji has two main functions in the clause: it is
either used as a reflexive pronoun co-referential with the clause subject or used as an
intensive pronoun emphasising the noun or pronoun it follows. The pronoun xwe per se
is formally invariant and does not differ concerning persons, genders or number.

The pronoun xwe, as a reflexive pronoun, denotes the same entity of the subject
and has the following distributions in Xerbi Kurmanji:

1- As an objective pronoun corresponding to English use of the reflexive

pronouns:
(93) K-33
Mi xwe di mirêk-ê ri dît
3SG.OBL REF in mirror-OBL ADP see.PST.3SG
‘I saw myself in the mirror.’

2- As a possessive pronoun in an objective ezafe construction:

(94) K-95, K-96

mi şiẋl-ê xwe xelas kir
1SG.OBL work-CONS.M REF finish do.PST
‘I finished my work.’

(95) K-96
mi ṣol-a xwe ẋeyirand
1SG.OBL shoe-CONS.F REF change.PST.3SG
‘I changed my shoes.’

(96) K-95, K-96

mi heval-ê xwe dît-in
1SG.OBL friend-CONS.PL REF see.PST-PL
‘I saw my friends.’

3- As a pronominal complement in an adpositional phrase (objective or

possessive ):

56
 (97) K-96
zilam ker dû xwe-d di-kişand
man.OBL donkey.DIR ADP REF-ADP PROG-pull.PST.3SG
‘The man was pulling the donkey behind him.’

(98) K-95, K-96

mi bi lay-ê bir-ê xwe-r list
1SG.OBL ADP son-CONS brother-CONS REF-ADP play.PST.3SG
‘I played with my nephew.’

On the other hand, notwithstanding the intensive pronoun xwe looks formally
identical to the reflexive one, it has a quite different function. The intensive pronoun xwe
in Xerbi Kurmanji tends to function as an emphatic appositive emphasising the preceding
noun or pronoun and needs the adposition bi to be introduced:

(99) K-33
mi bi xwe ew dît
1SG.OBL ADP INT 3SG.DIR see.PST.3SG
‘I saw him myself.’

(100) K-33
mi Ḥesen bi xwe dît
1SG.OBL Hassan.DIR ADP INT see.PST.3SG
‘I saw Hassan himself.’

57
4 Verbs
The verb in Kurmanji is composed of the lexical stem, affixed with a series of
inflections. The verbal stem in Kurmanji is tense-dependent where the verb usually has
two stems, present and past (Haig, Öpengin 2015: 26). In this chapter, the verb in Xerbi
Kurmanji will be put under the scrutiny of analysis showing its different properties and
inflections.

4.1. Light Verb Constructions (complex predicate)

Light verb constructions are extensively used in Xerbi Kurmanji as it is the case in
the standard Kurmanji where the light verb construction usually consists of a nonverbal
element(s) followed by a light verb (Haig 2002: 22-23). Some light verb constructions are
written as one word and others as two separate words where the light verb in complex
predicates tends to be the functional element and takes different affixes of AGR, TAM
and negation (Thackston 2006: 36-37).

Analysing the light verb constructions found in the data shows that the
morphological structure of light verb constructions determines their orthography (one
word or more): on the one hand, the complex predicates that consist of a cranberry
morpheme8 + a light verb usually written as one word:

8
A cranberry morpheme is a bound morpheme that has no semantic content, yet distinguishes
one word from another (Crystal 2008 : 121).

58
 (101) K-96
Em derket-in ji Surî
1SG.RIR go out.PST-PL ADP Syria.OBL
‘We went out of Syria’

On the other hand, the non-verbal elements in the complex predicate are
sometimes free morphemes (nouns or adjectives), and as such, they are written as
separate words:

(102) K-95, K-96

ez nexweş bû-m
1SG.DIR ill be.PST-1SG
‘I was ill’

So far we formally discussed the light verb constructions that occur as one word
and as two separate words, yet the light verb constructions can take longer forms in
Xerbi Kurmanji; the data in hand exposes that the non-verbal element of the light verb
construction can be an adpositional phrase as the following table clarifies:

59
 4.1.1. Light verbs Valency

Some light verbs are transitive or agentive by nature, referring to an overt or

implicit patient, such as kirin ‘to do’, birin ‘to take’, dan ‘to give’ and xistin ‘to drop’;
while other light verbs are intransitive such as bûn ‘to become’, ç’ûn ‘to go’ and ketin ‘to
fall’. Table 4.4 illuminates how light verbs change in the same light verb construction
depending on the valency. Notice that for the intransitive light verb constructions, the
implicitly understood agent, quite in contrast with the implicit patient discussed in
section 4.4.6.2 bellow, does not affect the valency of the grammatical structure
(ergativity); and hence in examples such as kitêb vebû ‘the book opened’, the theta-grid
of the verb vebûn ‘to open’ is satisfied by one argument which is the patient subject
kitêb ‘book’ without considering the implicit agent; this is similar to structure of the
clause ‘the glass broke’ in English.

With some compound light verb constructions, the object or the adpositional
phrase compulsorily mediates the two parts of the complex predicate:

(103) K-96
mi dest bi camʕa ji kir
1SG.OBL hand ADP university too do.PST.3SG
I stated university too.

(104) K-34
mi zor-a wî bir-î-ye
1SG.OBL difficult-CONS 3SG.OBL.M take.PST-3SG-PERF
I have defeated him.

60
 The light verb construction in Kurmanji in general and in Xerbi Kurmanji in
particular is an interesting topic to be considered in depth in future research.

4.2. Arabic Loan Verbs

The heavy use of Arabic loan verbs is another prominent feature of Xerbi
Kurmanji. Kurmanji tends to borrow from Arabic because it is recognised as the formal
language of education and language of majority in the state of Syria.

In the process of integrating Arabic loan verbs, Xerbi Kurmanji uses two main
strategies: either by using light verb constructions or integrating Arabic verbal stems
into Kurmanji inflectional system (see loan verb integration strategies mentioned by
Matras 2009: 176 after Wichmann and Wohlgemuth 2008).

Firstly, the Arabic loan verbs are integrated into Xerbi Kurmanji by inserting the
verbal noun form of the Arabic verb into the light verb construction, Xerbi Kurmanji
shares with some other languages such as Romani in borrowing the verbal noun form or
what is called masdar in Arabic into the light verb constriction (Matras 2012: 241). Xerbi
Kurmanji regularly uses two light verbs in the light verb constructions depending on the
verb valency where the light verb kirin ‘to do’ is used with transitive verbs while the light
verb bûn ‘to become’ is utilised with intransitive light verbs. The following two examples
illustrate how the Arabic verbal noun istiahlak ‘consuming’ is added to the light verb
forming a light verb construction:

(105) K-95
Seyar-ê benzîn ḥemi istihlak kir
Car-OBL petrol.DIR all consuming do.PST.3SG
‘The car consumed all the petrol.’

(106) K-33
benzîn ḥemi istihlak bû
Petrol.DIR all consuming become.PST.3SG
‘All the petrol consumed.’

61
 Secondly, the full integration strategy which involves accommodating the
derived stem from Arabic to Xerbi Kurmanji inflectional system of verbs. In the following
examples, the present stem mesiḥîn ‘to wip’ is derived from the Arabic verb meseḥ ‘to
wip’ and the past stem qeşart ‘to peel’ is derived from the Arabic verb qeşer ‘to peel’:

(107) K-95, K-96

jinik ana ṭawl-ê di-mesiḥîn-i
Woman.DIR now table-OBL AFF-wip.PRS-3SG
‘The woman cooled the pan.’

(108) K-95, K-96

Jink-ê pîvaz qeşart
Woman-OBL onion.DIR peel.PST.3SG
‘The woman peeled the onion.’

The reason why Kurmanji Kurdish selectively chooses one strategy for some verbs
and another strategy for others is still a matter of debate, however, I have a strong feeling
that phonological and prosodic structure of the Arabic verbs plays a crucial role in the
process of Arabic loan verb integration.

4.3. Present Copula

In Xerbi Kurmanji, the present copula enclitics follow the usual Kurmanji scheme,
yet with some phonological modification. The copula is postposed to the non-verbal
predicate agreeing with the subject. Copulas in Kurmanji are traditionally written as
separate morphemes although apparently being bound morphemes. Compare the
copula scheme in Xerbi Kurmanji with their counterparts in the standard Kurmanji
mentioned in the following table:

Table 4.5: Copular personal enclitics in Xerbi Kurmanji and the standard Kurmanji

Standard Kurmanji
Xerbi Kurmanji
(Haig, Öpengin 2015: 29; Thackston 2006: 30)
Person Postconsonantal Postvocalic Postconsonantal Postvocalic
1SG im mi im me
2SG i yi î yî
3SG i yi e ye
PL (1,2,3) in ni in ne

62
 While the first 1SG postconsonantal copular im is identical to the usual one in
Kurmanji, the postvocalic 1SG copula mi shows a slight phonetic distinction compared to
the usual 1SG copula and me:

(109) K-96
Ez ji bajar-ê Qamişlo mi
1SG.DIR ADP city-CONS Qamishli COP.1SG
I am from Qamishli City.

Unlike the standard Kurmanji, the 2SG and 3SG Copulas are formally identical in Xerbi
Kurmanji and phonetically distinctive from their counterparts in the standard Kurmanji:

(110) K-95, K-96

ew wek bir-ê min i
3SG.DIR like brother-CONS 1SG.OBL COP-3SG
‘He is like my brother’

(111) K-95
ew dûrî me yi
3SG.DIR far 1PL.OBL COP.3SG
‘He is fare from us.’

(112) K-95
ti jehatî yi
2SG.DIR good COP.2SG
‘You are good.’

As for the plural persons, the postvocalic copula ni in Xerbi Kurmanji shows a slight
phonological difference from the standard Kurmanji copula ne:

(113) K-96
Em ser ḥidûd-ê Tirkî ni
1PL.DIR ADP border-CONS Turkey COP.PL
‘We are on the border with Turkey.’

63
 4.4. Verbal Morphology (TAM & AGR)

The verbs in Kurmanji are composed from the lexical root, attached with
different affixes to express tense-aspect-modality (TAM) and person agreement (AGR)
(Haig & Matras 2002: 6). In this paper, the verbal morphology will be analysed in the
light of the present stem and past stem.

4.4.1. Person Concord (PRS)

In the present tense, the person agreement inflection on lexical verbs shows
some syntactic and phonological differences from the usual Kurmanji scheme. The
following table lists person concord suffixes that attach to present stems in Xerbi
Kurmanji:

The 1SG agreement suffixes, whether postconsonantal or postvocalic, are quite

identical to the ones found in the standard Kurmanji:

(114) K-34, K95

ez di-xu-m
1SG.DIR AFF-eat.PRS-1SG
‘I eat.’

(115) K-95
ez vî tiştî ḥer şev di-bêj-im
1SG.DIR this thing-OBL every night AFF-say.PRS-1SG
‘I say this every night.’

The 2SG concord in Xerbi Kurmanji shows significant difference from that found
in the standard Kurmanji where the postvocalic concord of the 2SG has been lost on

64
present stems; see ex. no. 116; compare with the usual postvocalic agreement marker -
yî in the standard Kurmanji (Haig & Öpengin 2015: 28). The agreement mark of the 2SG
appears only on the present stem ending in a consonant; and the concord suffix per se
tends to be the short vowel <i> rather than the usual long vowel <î>, ex. no. 117 and 118.

(116) K-33
ti mal-ê di-şo
2SG.DIR house-OBL AFF-wash.PRS.2SG
‘You wash the house.’

(117) K-95
gi ti xweşkayî ne-şuẋul-i tê feqîr bi-mîn-i
if 2SG.DIR well NEG-work.PRS-2SG 2SG.FUT poor SUB-stay.PRS-2SG
‘If you don’t work well, you will remain poor.’
(118) K-33, K-96

gi ti gelekî ne-şuẋul-i tê feqîr bi-mîn-i

if 2SG.DIR much NEG-work.PRS-2SG 2SG.FUT poor SUB-stay.PRS-2SG
‘If you don’t work much, you will remain poor.’

As table 4.6 exposes, the verb inflectional agreement with the 3SG is syntactically
identical to that found in the standard Kurmanji where it appears only on present verbs
ending in a consonant; the postconsonantal agreement marker of the 2SG, nevertheless,
is phonetically modified where Xerbi Kurmanji tends to use the verbal concord suffix -i
but not the usual -e:

(119) K-95
jinik tim bi zarok-a di-k’en-i
Woman.DIR always ADP child-OBL.PL AFF-laugh.PRS-3SG
‘The woman always laughs at children.’

(120) K-96
Jinik ḥer tim li ser zarok-a di-k’en-i
Woman.DIR every time ADP child-OBL.PL AFF-laugh.PRS-3SG
‘The woman always laughs at children.
(121) K-34, K-95, K96
ew tê
3SG.DIR come.PRS.3SG
‘He/she is coming.’

65
 Xerbi Kurmanji totally conforms to the standard Kurmanji in the inflectional
agreement of 1PL, 2PL and 3PL on the present verb stems where the present verb stems
are either suffixed with the postconsonantal agreement marker -in or the postvocalic -n:

(122) K-95, K-96

zarok kitêb-ê di-xwîn-in
child.DIR.PL book-OBL AFF-read.PRS-PL
‘The children are reading/read the book.’

4.4.2. The Present Simple and Progressive

The present simple and present progressive are mainly formed in Xerbi Kurmanji
from the natural prefix di + present stem before adding different conjugations. The
habitual and progressive actions are inflectionally not distinctive in the present tense,
and hence the aspectual distinction between these two types of actions is contextually
understood; ex. no. 122 above.

The present simple and present progressive are negated by substituting the
natural present prefix -di by the regular negative prefix -na or the less common -ni:

(123) K-96
ez t'iştek.î na-k-im
1SG.DIR thing.OBL NEG-do-1SG
‘I am not doing anything.’

(124) K-95
ez nav-ê wî nas na-k-im
1SG.DIR name.CONS 3SG.OBL recognition NEG-do.PRS-1SG
‘I do not know his name.’

(125) K-34
ez nav-ê wî ni-zan-im
1SG.DIR name.CONS 3SG.OBL NEG-know.PRS-1SG
‘I do not know his name.’

4.4.3. The Present Subjunctive

The present subjunctive mood in Xerbi Kurmanji does not differ much in form
and usage from the standard Kurmanji, see (Thackston 2006: 37-42); it is formed from
the prefix bi- + present stem + a personal suffix mentioned in the table 4.6. The present

66
subjective prefix bi-, nonetheless, does not appear on some verbs (see examples 126
and 127). The present subjunctive is negated by substituting the subjunctive bi by the
negative prefix ne- or na- (check ex. no. 129); the negative prefix is simply prefixed to
the verbs that do not inflectionally expose the subjunctive mood. In the sample given,
verbs in the present subjunctive form appear in the following syntactic environments:

- In the imperative sentences:

(126) K-96
hinek nan bîn
some bread.DIR bring.PRS.SUBJ.2SG
‘Bring some bread.’

(127) K-33
hinik nan ji mi-r werî
some bread.DIR ADP 1SG.OBL-ADP bring.PRS.SUBJ.2SG
‘Bring some bread.’

- As complements of auxiliaries:

(128) K-34, K-95, K-96

ez kar-im bi-xwîn-im
1SG.DIR can.PRS-1SG SUBJ-read.PRS-1SG
‘I can read.’

- In the future tense (see examples in section 4.4.4 below).

- In the dependent clause (if-clause or protasis) used in present

conditional sentences. Being in the future tense, the verb in the main
conditional clause (apodosis) also takes subjunctive form:

(129) K-96
gi ti gelekî ne-şuẋul-i
if 2SG.DIR much NEG-work.PRS.SUBJ-2SG
tê feqîr bi-mîn-i
2SG.DIR.FUT poor SUBJ-stay.PRS-2SG
‘If you don’t work much, you will remain poor.’

67
 4.4.4. The Future Tense

The future tense in Xerbi Kurmanji is formed by the future markers -ê or wê +

present subjective. The future suffix -ê, on the one hand, is only attached to the
personal pronouns when they function as the subject of the future-tense verb (see
examples 130 and 131). It is noticed that when the future marker -ê is suffixed to the
2SG ti, the future marker substitutes its ending vowel (see ex. no. 132).

On the other hand, the future particle wê accompanies lexical nouns functioning
as the subject in the future tense. The future particle wê naturally precedes the noun
subject of the future tense (check examples 133 and 134), yet it can also, less likely,
appear after the noun:

(130) K-96
sibe ez-ê her-im bajar
tomorrow 1SG.DIR-FUT go.PRS.SUBJ-1SG town.OBL
‘Tomorrow I will go to town’

(131) K-96
ez-ê bi-hêl-im ti raj-i va ç'enṭ-a
1SG-FUT SUB-let.PRS-1SG 2SG.DIR carry.PRS-2SG DEM.PL bag-OBL.PL
‘I will make you carry these bags.’

(132) K-95
t-ê feqîr bi-mîn-i
2SG.DIR-FUT poor SUBJ-stay.PRS-2SG
‘You will stay poor.’

(133) K-95, K-96

sibe wê baran b-ê
tomorrow FUT rain.DIR SUBJ-come.PRS.3SG
‘Tomorrow it will rain.’

(134) K-95
wê ca wan qiṭʕ-ê ḥilû bi-d-i
FUT mother.CONS 3PL.OBL piece-CONS.PL sweet.OBL SUBJ-give-3SG
wan
3PL.OBL
‘Their mother will give them candies.’

68
 What characterises the negative form of the future tense in Xerbi Kurmanji is the
loss of future markers both with nouns and pronouns where the future sense is
contextually understood:

(135) K-96, K-33

sibe ez na-r-im bajar
Tomorrow 1SG.DIR NEG-go.PRS.SUBJ-1SG town.OBL
‘Tomorrow I will not go to town.’

(136) K-33
sibe Ḥesen na-r-i bajar
Tomorrow Hassan.DIR NEG-go.PRS.SUBJ-3SG town.OBL
‘Tomorrow Hassan will not go to town.’

4.4.5. Person Concord (PST)

The following table lists the person concord inflections suffixed to the past stem
in Xerbi Kurmanji:

Table 4.7: Person concord inflection on the past stem in Xerbi Kurmanji

Past
person Postconsonantal postvocalic

1SG -im -m
-∅ (default)
2SG
-î (perfect9) -∅
3SG
-i (Past Subjunctive)
PL (1,2,3) -in -n

The 1SG agreement, attached to the past stem, is the usual suffix (i)m (see table
4.7 and consider the following examples:

(137) K-33, K-95, K-96

ez k'et-im
1SG.DIR fall.PST-1SG
‘I fell.’

9
The present perfect in Kurmanji is normally formed from the past verbal stem, and hence it is
analysed along with other past verbal forms in this paper.

69
 (138) K-96
ḥeya ana ez ne-ç'û-m-i P'arîs-ê
till now 1SG.DIR NEG-go.PST-1SG-PERF Paris-OBL
‘I have not yet been to Paris.’

As table 4.7 clarifies, the 2SG and 3SG, unlike their counterparts in the standard
Kurmanji, expose identical inflectional agreements on the verb in Xerbi Kurmanji. The
postvocalic inflectional concord is normally dropped with 2SG and 3SG in Xerbi Kurmanji:

(139) K-95, K96

ti ç'û mal-ê
2SG.DIR go.PST.2SG home-OBL
‘You went home.’

(140) K-95, K-96

ew ç'û mal-ê
3SG.DIR go.PST.3SG home-OBL
‘(s)he went home.’

The postconsonantal inflectional concords of 2SG and 3SG vary depending on the
past tense form:

a. The verbal past stem in the past simple, past progressive and pluperfect
exposes no postconsonantal inflectional agreement with 2SG and 3SG:

(141) K-95, 96
Ti hat mal-ê
2SG.DIR come.PST.2SG home-OBL
‘You came home.’

(142) K-95, 96
Ew di-hat mal-ê
3SG.DIR PROG-come.PST.3SG home-OBL
‘(s)he was coming home.’

(143) K-95
Ew hat-ibû mal-ê
3SG.DIR come.PST-PLU.3SG home-OBL
‘(s)he had come home.’

70
 b. In the present perfect, the postconsonantal concord of 2SG and 3SG is the
suffix -î:

(144) K-33
te rûnişt-î-yi
2SG.DIR see.PST-2SG-PERF
‘You have sat down.’

(145) K-96
mi qelʕ-a Diyarbek’ir ne-dît-î-yi
1SG.OBL castle-CONS Diyarbakir.OBL NEG-see.PST-3SG-PERF
‘I have not seen Diyarbakir castle.’

c. In the past subjunctive, the postconsonantal concord of 2SG and 3SG is the
suffix -i:

(146) K-33
Gerek ti hat-ib-i Doda
probably 2SG.DIR come.PST-SUB-2SG Doda.OBL
You probably have come to Doda.

Finally, the plural concord of different personal pronouns is the regular suffix (i)n
attached to the past stem:

(147) K-95, K-96

em ç'û-n
1PL.DIR go.PST-PL
‘We went.’
(148) K-33, K-95, K-96
we ew dît-in
3PL.OBL 3PL.DIR see.PST-PL
You (PL) saw them.

(149) K-95
me gelek kitêb ser tarîx-a kurdî
1SG.OBL many book.DIR.PL ADP history-CONS Kurish
xwend-in-i
Read.PST-PL-PERF

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 4.4.6. The Past Tense Inflections (TAM)

This section deals with past simple, past progressive, perfect, pluperfect and past
subjunctive which derive from the past verbal stem. Being an ergative language in the
past, verb conjugations in Xerbi Kurmanji varies depending on the verb valency.

4.4.6.1. Past Verb Conjugations (Intransitive)

The past intransitive verb usually agrees with the agent subject. The following
table summarizes the different conjugations attached to the past stem when the verb is
intransitive:

The intransitive past simple verb is usually formed from the bare past stem +
person concord (review ex. no. 137, 138); and the past progressive intransitive verb uses
the same form, but prefixed with the imperfective progressive marker di- (check ex. no.
142).
The intransitive present perfect verb is formed from the past stem + concord +
the perfect marker (y)i. Notice that the present perfect marker (y)i is sensitive to the

72
nature of the previous segment i.e. the ending segment of the person concord marker
whether consonant or vowel (check ex. no. 144).

As for the intransitive pluperfect form, it consists of the past stem + the
pluperfect marker (i)bû + person concord. The pluperfect marker (i)bû mediates the past
stem and the person concord marker and it is sensitive to the ending segment of the
past stem (consonant or vowel); ex. no. 143.

Finally, the past subjunctive structure is the past stem + the past subjective
marker (i)b + person agreement. The past subjunctive marker, similar the past perfect
one, occur between the past stem and person concord and it is also affected by the
preceding segment (see ex. no. 146).

What is so prominent about the morphosyntax of Xerbi Kurmanji is that 2SG and
3SG tend to show identical conjugation through different tense forms.

4.4.6.2. Past Verb Conjugations (Transitive)

In Xerbi Kurmanji, The past transitive verb whose patient is overt takes full
conjugations (AGR and TAM) just like the intransitive verb conjugation mentioned in the
table 4.8, yet the inflectional agreement is usually with the overt patient rather than the
agent subject (ergative). Take another look at ex. no. 145 and 149; and consider the
following examples:

(150) K-95, K-96

mi heval-ê xwe dît-in
1SG.OBL friend-CONS.PL REF see.PST-PL
‘I saw my friends.’
(151) K-96
me musaʕedat di-şand-in ji hinder-ê Surî ri
1PL aid.DIR.PL PROG-send.PST-PL ADP inside-CONS Syria ADP
‘We used to send aids into Syria.’

(152)K-95
me gelek kitêb ser tarîx-a kurdî xwend-in-i
1SG.OBL many book.DIR.PL ADP history Kurdish read.PST-PL-PERF
‘I have read a lot of books on Kurdish history.’

73
 (153) K-33
divê te ders-ê xwe danî-b-in
must 2SG.OBL lesson-CONS.PL REF write.PST-SUBJ-PL
‘You must have written your lessons.’

The object patient, nevertheless, can sometimes be implicitly understood and not
directly mentioned in the sentence. In such cases, the past transitive verb normally
tends to take the neutral third person conjugation with all persons; conceder the
following table and examples:

Table 4.9: the conjugation of the past transitive verbs: xwarin ‘to eat’, berdan ‘to
release’ with an implicit patient
Past simple Past progressive Perfect Pluperfect Past SUB
(Past stem + 3SG) (PROG+ Past stem + (Past stem + 3SG + (Past stem + PLU + (Past stme + SUBJ +
3SG) PERF) 3SG) 3SG)
xwar di-xwar xwar-î-yi xwar-ibû Xwar-ib-i
berda berdi-da berda-yi berda-bû berda-b-i

(154) K-96
mi ne-dî
1SG.OBL NEG-see.PST.3SG
‘I did not see.’

(155) K-95
me li Şam-ê xwend
1PL.OBL ADP Damascus-OBL study.PST.3SG
‘We studied in Damascus.’

(156) K-96
mi li wê de di-xwend
1SG.OBL ADP there ADP PROG-study.PST.3SG
‘I used to study there.’

In Xerbi Kurmanji, the pronominal patient object can either take oblique or direct
case with the past transitive verb (see section 5.2.1.2); with the patient pronoun in the
oblique case, the past transitive verb takes the neutral 3SG conjugation similar to the
past transitive verbs with an implicit patient mentioned in table 4.9. Compare the
following two examples:

74
‘I saw them.’
(157) K-95, K-96
mi ew dît-in
1SG.OBL 3PL.DIR see.PST-PL

(158) K-34
mi wan dît
1SG.OBL 3PL.OBL see.PST.3SG

75
5. Other Syntactic features
In this section, I am going to cover some syntactic issues in Xerbi Kurmanji as far
as the word count for this dissertation permits.

5.1. Adpositional Phrases

Adpositional phrases in Xerbi Kurmanji maximally consist of three elements:

preposition + nominal complement + postposition. However, some adpositional phrases
include the first two elements without postpositions. The following table lists some of
the common adpositions in Xerbi Kurmanji.

Table 5.1: Some adpositions in Xerbi Kurmanji

Adpositions Gloss
li at, in
(li) bin below, under
(li) ser above, on
(li) ber beside
(li) cem beside
(li) derve outside
(li) … de in
ji for, of, from
(ji) bo for
(Ji) derve outside
Ji … re/ri for, to
bi at, with (instrumental), for
bi … re/ri with, to
di … de/di in, within
(di) nav … de/di among, amidst
(di) neqeba … de/di between

5.1.1. Prepositions
There are primary prepositions in Xerbi Kurmanji such as li ‘at, in’; ji ‘for, of,
from’; di ‘in, within’ and bi ‘at, with, for’. Besides occurring on their own, the primary
propositions, except for bi, can also accompany other prepositions forming compound
prepositions, yet the primary prepositions tend to be optional in such preposition
strings. Compare the following two examples.

76
 ‘The books are on the table.’
(159) K-95
Kitêb li ser ṭawlê ni
book.DIR.PL on table.OBL COP.PL

(160) K-34
Kitêb ser ṭawlê ni
book.DIR.PL on table.OBL COP.PL

As table 5.1 shows, the propositions can have different meanings, yet it is
observed from the data that the prepositions li, whether on its own or in a longer
preposition string, is essentially correlated with static location (see examples 159-162).

(161) K-34, K-95, K96

li mal-ê
in house-OBL
‘In the house’

(162) K-95
lawk-ê piçûk li bin dar-ê yi
boy-CONS little under tree-OBL COP-3SG
‘The little boy is under the tree.’

5.1.2. The Adpositional Complement

Adpositional phrases normally assign the oblique case to their nominal
complements as we have already mentioned in section 3.3.2.2. The adpositional phrase
can also take an ezafe construction as its complement:

(163) K-95
ji xw-a mi ri
for sister-CONS 1SG.OBL ADP
‘for my sister’

5.1.3. Postpositions
Postpositions in Xerbi Kurmanji such as re/ri and de/di appearing in some
adpositional phrases tend not to bear much semantic content per se but act as
functional elements to create certain meaning along with other components of the

77
adpositional phrase. Compare the instrumental adposition bi ‘with’ with the
participational adposition bi … re ‘with’ in the following two examples.

(164) K-95
Lîmon bi dest-ê xwe ʕeṣirand
lemon with hand-CONS REF sqreez.PST.3SG
‘(He) squeezed the lemon with his hand.’

(165) K-95, K-96

ez bi ap-ê xwe-r di-şuẋul-im
1SG.DIR with uncle-CONS REF-ADP AFF-work.PRS-1SG
I work with my uncle.

What features the usage of the postposition re in Xerbi Kurmanji is the general
tendency to be contracted with the preceding pronominal category where the
postposition loses its vowel is such cases, review ex. no. 165 and consider the following
example.

(166) K-96
mi ji we-r got ev tişt
1SG.OBL to 2PL.OBL-ADP say.PST.3SG this thing.OBL
‘I said this thing to you.PL’

Nonetheless, the postposition re/ri, is normally not contracted when occurring close-
finally as clarified in ex. no. 163.

5.1.4. Contracted adpositional phrases

Thackston (2006: 22) mentioned the following contracted forms of prepositions
with third 3SG:

bi + wê/wî > pê
di + wê/wî > tê
ji + wê/wî > jê
li + wê/wî > lê

78
 These contracted forms exist in Xerbi Kurmanji as well. Moreover, the data
shows that some of these contracted forms can even take longer forms by including the
postposition re, and hence the whole adpositional phrase can be contracted into the
following forms:

bi + wê/wî + re/ri > pêr

di + wê/wî + re/ri > têr
ji + wê/wî + re/ri > jêr

(167) K-96
ez pêr ne-şteẋilî-m
1SG.DIR with him NEG-speak.PST-1SG
‘I did not speak to him.’

(168)
mi ev jêr got
1SG.OBL this to him say.PST.3SG
‘I said this to him.’

Finally, the adpositional phrase itself can be an element in larger verbal

constructions such as complex predicates (review light verb constructions in section 4.1).

5.2. Clouse structure in Xerbi Kurmanji

Xerbi Kurmanji does not show consistency in structure. While phrases are in
general head-initial, clauses tend to be head-final as verbs tend to appear in the final
position of Kurmanji clauses. As a matter of fact, such structural inconsistency features
the West Iranian family including different varieties of Kurdish (Haig & Matras 2002: 5).
Hence, Xerbi Kurmanji tends to have the OV clause structure where the nature of the
lexical verb (TRANS or INTRANS) determines the argument structure of the clause. The
indirect object and goal are restricted to post verbal position in Xerbi Kurmanji, yet the
indirect object precedes the lexical verb if introduced by an adposition:

(169) K-95
we ew da mi
2PL.OBL 3SG.DIR.DO give.PST.3SG 1SG.OBL.IO
‘you.pl gave it to me.’

79
 (170) K-96
ew ç'û-n mal-ê
3PL.DIR go.PST-PL home-OBL.GOAL
‘They went home.’

(171) K-95
wî-na ev tişt ji me-r anî-n
3SG.OBL.M-INT this thing.DIR.PL ADP 1PL.OBL.IO-ADP bring.PST-PL
‘He brought these things for us.’

The rich inflectional system on verbs gives Xerbi Kurmanji the advantage of being
a pro-drop language where certain grammatically inferable constituents may be omitted.
The 3SG agreement on the verb determines the covert subject in ex. no. 172, and the
covert object in ex. no. 173.

(172) K-95, K96

ç'û Erbîl-ê
go.PST.3SG Arbil-OBL
‘(he/she) went to Arbil.’

(173) K-96
mi nedî
1SG.OBL NEG-see.3SG
I didn't see (him/her)

5.2.1. Alignment and Verbal Agreement in Xerbi Kurmanji Clauses

Clauses of Xerbi Kurmanji in general exhibit two patterns of alignment; the

ergative alignment conditioned by past transitive verbs (split-ergativity) and the
accusative alignment elsewhere; and therefore, in line with the general trend of
different varieties of Kurmanji, alignment in Xerbi Kurmanji is subject to tense and
aspect, and verb valency as observed by different linguists in the literature of Kurmanji
(Bynon 1979; Bubeník 1989, Matras 1997).

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 5.2.1.1. Nominative-Accusative Alignment
Clauses in Xerbi Kurmanji undergo nominative-accusative alignment in the
present tense, regardless of the verb valency, and in the past tense when the verb is
intransitive. The subject takes the direct case whereas the object takes the oblique case
and the verb systematically agrees in person and number with the subject:

(174) K-34, K-95, K-96

ez tê-m
1SG.DIR come.PRS-1SG
‘I am coming.’

(175) K-34, K-95, K-96

ez ḥesen di-bîn-im
1SG.DIR Hassan.OBL AFF-see.PRS-1SG
‘I see Hassan.’

(176) K-34, K-95, K-96

em ç'û-n mal-ê
1PL. go.PST-PL home-OBL
‘We went home.’

An exception comes from the intransitive light verb construction bazdan ‘to run’
where its lexical subject tends to exhibit an unstable alignment, consider examples 177-
182. Notice the unusual verb agreement with plural oblique subject in ex. no. 181.

‘The woman ran.’

(177) K-34
Pîrek-ê bazda
woman-OBL.F run.PST.3SG

(178) K-95
Pîrek bazda
woman.DIR.F run.PST.3SG

(179) K-96
jinik bazda
woman.DIR.F run.PST.3SG

81
 ‘The women ran.’
(180) K-34
Pîrek-a bazda
woman-OBL.PL run.PST.3SG

(181) K-95
Pîrek-a bazda-n
woman-OBL.PL run.PST-PL

(182) K-96
jinik bazda-n
woman.DIR.PL run.PST-PL

5.2.1.2. Alignment with Past Transitive Verbs

With past transitive verbs, Xerbi Kurmanji exposes two types of alignment. First,
the usual canonical ergativity (oblique agent and direct patient) where the verb agrees
in person and number with the direct patient object (Haig 2004: 100). As nouns in the
direct case are normally not inflected for case and number, I intentionally elicited the
following examples where the patient apparently contrasts with the agent in number in
order to show how clearly the verb agrees with the patient object:

(183) K-95, K-96

zilam-a mal lêkir
man-OBL.PL house.DIR build.PST.3SG
‘The men built the house.’

‘The woman peeled the onions.’

(184) K-34
pîrek-ê pîvaz qeşart-in
woman-OBL onion.DIR.PL peel.PST-PL

(185) K-95
jink-ê pîvaz qeşart-in
woman-OBL onion.DIR.PL peel.PST-PL

The second and less common type of past transitive aliment is the double
oblique construction where both agent and patient constituents share the oblique case
and the verb usually inflected with the empty place neutral 3SG showing no agreement

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with any of its arguments. Double oblique construction is approached closely by Matras
(1997) and Haig (2004) among others. It observed that double oblique constructions in
Xerbi Kurmanji are optionally surfaced when the patient is a personal pronoun but not a
lexical noun. In other words, if the patient of the past transitive verb is a personal
pronoun, then both the canonical ergative alignment and the double oblique alignment
are possible:

‘I saw them.’
(186) K-95, K-96
mi ew dît-in
1SG.OBL 3PL.DIR see.PST-PL

(187) K-34
mi wan dît
1SG.OBL 3PL.OBL see.PST.3SG

‘You (SG) saw us.’

(188) K-95
Te em dît-in
2SG.OBL 1PL.DIR see.PST-PL

(189) K-34
Te me dît
2SG.OBL 1PL.OBL see.PST.3SG

5.2.2. Subordination in Xerbi Kurmanji

Some clauses in Xerbi Kurmanji function as subordinate clauses within larger

constructions known as matrix clauses. The subordinate clauses are normally introduced
by conjunctions called subordinators. Table 5.2 lists the main subordinators found in the
data under analysis. Notice that the usual subordinator gi can optimally appear after
different preposition subordinators.

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 Table 5.2: Some subordinators in Xerbi Kurmanji
Subordinator Gloss
gi if
heger (gi) if
ç’aẋa (gi) when
gava (gi) when
berî (gi) before
piştî (gi) after
ji…di since
ji bo (gi) In order to
ji ber (gi) because

The embedded subordinate clauses in Xerbi Kurmanji can take different forms
depending on their function within the main clause:

- As a temporal adjunct clause:

(190) K-95
carê [gava gi e li Şamê bûm]
occasionally when 1SG.DIR ADP Damascus be.PST-1SG
ez di-ç’û-m gund
1SG.RIR PROG-go.PST-1SG village
‘When I lived in Damascus, I occasionally used to go to the village.’

(191) K-95
[piştî ev frêzer derket-in]
after these freezer.DIR.PL appear.PST-PL
kes-î ne-ma dermale girt-in
anyone-OBL NEG-longer dermale.DIR.PL take.PST-PL
‘After freezer sets had appeared, no one took Dermale10 anymore.’

- As a conditional adjunct clause:

(192) K-96
[gi zarok-ê piçûk zûka her-i razê]
if child-CONS.M little early go.PRS.SUBJ-3SG sleep.PRS.SUBJ.3SG
wê ca wî-na qiṭʕ-ak ḥelwa
FUT mother.CONS 3SG.OBL-INT piece-INDEF.CONS sweet
bi-dê
SUBJ-give.PRS.3SG
‘If the little boy goes to sleep early his mother will give him a candy.’

10
A calf that is fed and reared up in order to be slaughtered for its meat later on where the
meat was usually salted in order to be stored.

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 - As a complement argument of the verb:

(193) K-95
ḥer yek di-r-i
every one AFF-go.PRS-3SG
[bes ji bo ehil-ê xwe bi-bîn-i]
only in order to relative-CONS.PL REF SUBJ-see.PRS-3SG
‘Everyone goes only in order to see his relatives.’

(194) K-96
ez bi nêt im
1SG.DIR ADP intention COP.1SG
[ez macistêr li vê de bi-xwîn-im]
1SG.DIR Masters here SUBJ-study.PRS-1SG
‘I intend to study a master’s degree here.’

- As a relative clause functioning as an adjuct within the noun phrase:

(195) K-95
xelk-ê [ gi me li sûk-ê dît-in]
people-CONS whom 1PL.OBL ADP market-OBL see.PST-PL
feqîr bû-n
poor be.PST-PL
‘The people we met at the market were poor’

5.2.3. Coordination in Xerbi Kurmanji

Coordination is usually applied in Xerbi Kurmanji to join to constructions of equal

status. The two constructions are normally linked by coordinators such as û ‘and’, bes
‘but’ and ya ‘or’. The contrastive coordinator bes ‘but’ is borrowed from Arabic into
Xerbi Kurmanji and overwhelmingly used instead of the original contrast coordinator lê.

Xerbi Kurmanji has Coordination of all categories:

- Noun phrase coordination:

(196) K-
[ṭilab û miʕelim] ḥemi ji derve sekinîn-i
student.DIR.PL and teacher.DIR.PL all ADP outside stand.PRS-3SG
‘All the students and teachers are standing outside’

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 - Adjective coordination:

(197) K-95
Doda gundek [biçûk û kevn] i
Doda village-INDEF.CONS small and old COP.3SG
‘Doda is a small and old village.’

- Verb phrase coordination:

(198) K-33
zilam rabû bes ne-ç’û
man stand.PST.3SG but NEG-go.PST.3SG
‘The man stood up, but did not go.’

- Clause coordination:

(199) K-34
mêrik ker di-kşand
man.OBL donkey.DIR PROG-pull.PST.3SG
bes ker ne-dihat
but donkey NEG-come.PST.3SG
‘The man was pulling the donkey but the donkey did not advance.’

5.2.4. Arabic Loan Grammatical Function Categories

Aside from the heavy lexical borrowing from Arabic, Xerbi Kurmanji also employs
a significant number of Arabic loan grammatical function words or what Matras (1998)
calls ‘Utterance Modifiers’. Utterance modifiers include categories such as discourse
markers, coordinators, subordinators, phrasal adverbs, focus particles among others.
The following table lists the main utterance modifiers observed in the sample.

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 Table 5.3: Some Arabic loan utterance modifiers in Xerbi Kurmanji

Arabic Loan Utterance modifiers Gloss

bes but
ew or
sewan whether
inû that
lîʔenû because
bilmuqabil on the other hand
Discourse markers
ḥeṭa until/up to
and Connectors
ila But/unless
ʕeal kulî ḥal however/Whatever the case
fe a resumption particle that
generally means ‘so’
meḥreba hello
ehlên welcome
fiʕlen indeed
ṭebʕen of course/ certainly/naturally
Phrasal Adverbs and T’eqrîben approximately/about
focus particles ebeden never
bes only
biʕtîbar taking in consideration/regarding
Condition inşaɫa God willing
Indefinite determiner ey any

It is worth mentioning that Xerbi Kurmanji speakers tend to use the Arabic
coordinators bes ‘but’ and ew ‘or’ where the contrast coordinator bes has almost
replaced the original one lê, whereas the Arabic sequential coordinator ew ‘or’ is only
occasionally used in Xerbi Kurmanji and the original one ya is more common. However,
Xerbi Kurmanji did not borrow the sequential coordinator ‘and’ from Arabic. This
observation is significant and does support Maras’ postulation that expressions of
contrast are in general more liable to be borrowed than other coordinators where the
process of borrowing Arabic coordinators into Xerbi Kurmanji neatly conforms to Matras’
hierarchy of contrast-dependent borrowability: ‘but > or > and’ (2009: 194).

(200) K-95
ṭebʕe ana jî hey-i bes berê betir hebû
certainly now too exist.PRS-3SG but before more exist.PST.3SG
‘Certainly, it exists nowadays too, but it used to exist more so in the
past’

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 (201) K-33
Tê vê qelem-ê bi-d-i Rodî ew Nabîl
2SG.FUT this.OBL pen.OBL SUB-give.PRS-3SG Rodi or Nabil
‘You will give this pen to Rodi or Nabil.’

Other Arabic discourse markers and connectors used in Xerbi Kurmanji are
mentioned in table 5.3 and the following elicited examples look at such utterance
modifiers:

(202) K-95
medres-a me ḥeṭa ṣefa şeşa li gund hey-i
school-CONS 1PL.OBL up to grade six ADP village exist.PRS-3SG
‘We have a school up to sixth grade in the village.’

(203) K-96
Ke musteqbelen vêde ji me-r ç’êtir i
As in future here ADP 1PL.OBL-ADP better COP.3SG
‘For the future, here is better for us.’

(204) K-96
fe em derket-in ji Surî
so 1PL.DIR go out.PST-PL ADP Syria
‘ hence we left Syria.’

Phrasal adverbs and focus particles are another type of Arabic loan utterance
modifiers in Xerbi Kurmanji. The following examples shed light on this category:

(205) K-95
Neqeba me-û Qamişlo teqrîben diwazde
between 1PL.OBL-and Qamishli about twelve
kîlomitr i
kilometre COP.3SG
‘(The distance) between us and Qamishli is about twelve Kilometres.’

(206) K-95
em ser ḥidûd-ê Tirkî ni ṭebʕen
1PL.DIR ADP border-CONS Turkey COP.PL naturally
‘We are naturally on the border of Turkey.’

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 Arabic religion-related expressions are also profusely found in Xerbi Kurmanji.
consider the condition expression inşaɫa ‘God willing’ in the following example:

(207) K-96
fe inşaɫa zê bi-ḥawilîn-im be-kemilîn-im
so God willing 1SG.FUT SUB-try.PRS-1SG SUB-complete.PRS-1SG
xwendin-a xwe livir
study-CONS REF here
‘So, God willing, I will try to pursue my education here.’

89
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