Kurmanji Kurdish

A Reference Grammar
with Selected Readings
W. M. Thackston
ii
CONTENTS
PHONOLOGY
Alphabet and sounds 1 ......................................................................................
The aspirated and unaspirated stops 3 ...............................................................
Stress 4 ..............................................................................................................
Orthographic variants 4 .....................................................................................
Doubled consonants 4 .......................................................................................
The furtive i....................................................................................................4
SUBSTANTIVES
1. The Noun 7 .................................................................................................
1.1. Gender 7 ..................................................................................................
1.2. Inection 7 ..............................................................................................
2. Demonstrative Adjectives and Her Every 9 ............................................
3. The Indenite State 10 ...............................................................................
4. The Primary Construct Case 11 .................................................................
4.1 The Adjectival Construct 12 ....................................................................
5. The Secondary Construct: The Construct Extender 14 ..............................
6. Synopsis of Noun States of Cases 16 .........................................................
7. Personal Pronouns 17 .................................................................................
7.1 The Reexive Pronoun Xwe 19 ................................................................
8. Prepositions, Postpositions, Circumpositions 19 .......................................
8.1. Contracted Prepositions 21 .....................................................................
9. Numbers 21 ................................................................................................
9.1. Ordinal Numbers 24 ................................................................................
9.2. Months of the Year and Days of the Week 25 ........................................
9.3. Telling Time 26 .......................................................................................
10. Comparative and Superlative Adjectives 26 ............................................
iii
THE VERB
11. Present Copulas 29 ...................................................................................
12. To Have and the Existential Verb Hebn 30 .........................................
13. The Innitive 31 .......................................................................................
14. The Present Tense 32 ...............................................................................
15. Compound Verbs 34 ................................................................................
16. The Formation of the Present Subjunctive 35 ..........................................
16.1 Uses of the Present Subjunctive 37 ........................................................
16.2. The Future Tense 40 ..............................................................................
16.2. Xwestin To Want 41 ...........................................................................
16.3. Karn To Be Able 41 ..........................................................................
17. The Imperative 42 ....................................................................................
17.1. The Vocative 43 ....................................................................................
18. The Simple Past (Intransitive) 43 .............................................................
18.1. The Past Habitual/Progressive (Intransitive) 44 ...................................
18.2 The Simple Past (Transitive): The Ergative 45 ......................................
18.3 Number Agreement in Extended Ergative Verbs 48 ..............................
18.4 The Past Tense of Xwestin 49 ................................................................
18.5. Loss of Ergativity 49 .............................................................................
19. The Past Participle 49 ...............................................................................
20. The Present Perfect Tense (Intransitive) 50 .............................................
20.1. The Present Perfect Tense (Transitive/Ergative) 50 .............................
21. The Past Perfect Tense (Intransitive) 52 ..................................................
21.1. The Past Perfect Tense (Transitive/Ergative) 53 ..................................
21.2. The Past Perfect Tense of Karn and Zann 57 .....................................
22. The Past Subjunctive 55 ...........................................................................
23. The Future Perfect Tense 56 ....................................................................
24. The Modal of Karn 57 ............................................................................
25. The Irrealis Mood 57 ................................................................................
25.1. The Past Conditional 58 ........................................................................
iv
25.2. The Past Perfect Conditionals 59 ..........................................................
26. The Passive Voice 62 ...............................................................................
27. Postposed Verbal Complements 63 .........................................................
28. Factitive Verbs 64 ....................................................................................
28.1. The Periphrastic Factitive Construction 65 ...........................................
OTHER SYNTACTICAL FEATURES
29. Subordinate Clauses and Subordinating Conjunctions 66 .......................
30. Relative Clauses 67 ..................................................................................
31. The Emphatic J 70 ..................................................................................
32. Expressions of Temporal Duration 71 .....................................................
33. Sequence of Tenses after Past Verbs of Perception 71 ............................
34. Questions with Ma 72 ..............................................................................
Synopsis of Verb Tenses and Moods 74 ...........................................................
Common Verbs with Irregular Present Stems 79 ..............................................
Conversion Table for Arabic and Cyrillic 81 ....................................................
Grammatical and Orthographic Differences between Standard Kurmanji
and Ex-Soviet Kurmanji 83 .......................................................................
READINGS
Qedrcan, Rojn Derbasby 86 ...............................................................
Osman Sebr, ar Leheng: Leheng I: Ferzende Beg 91 .........................
Kurdo Husn, Baoke 94 ........................................................................
Sahn B. Sorekl, Vegera Mal 101 ........................................................
Cumhriyeta Kurd ya Mehabad 107 ...................................................
Firat Cewer, Kzika Bnav 111 ............................................................
__________, Li Mala Rewen Bedir-Xan 116 .......................................
__________, Sedsaliya Celadet Al Bedir-Xan 120 ...............................
Nredn Zaza, Xurd 130 ......................................................................
__________, Gul 133 ...........................................................................
Zeynelabdn Zinar, Bav Naz 138 .......................................................
v
Mahmut Baks, ar Aliy Me Agir E 145 ..............................................
Hesen Met, Labrenta Cinan 152 ...........................................................
Reading Selections in Cyrillic-Script Kurmanji
Bepem+ Hexem6ep! 157 ........................................................................
Kop y Kopc+an! 158 ..........................................................................
An+onomna Kyn+ypne y Ene Xe6a+e! 162 ............................................
Ane+nc Anaponnan: Psro-Ceno! 165 ....................................................
K+e6e Tese: Kopc+ana Bamyp Hpo! 173 .......................................
Reading Selections in Arabic-Script Kurmanji
Celadet Ali Bedir-Xan, !"# $ %&'()!"# *+&, %&-./&01 /Kurd Kurdistan
Bi av Biyaniyan 175 .........................................................................
__________, 20(3 456 789: ;:&< => ?@: /Sx Evdirehman Garis
Rehmet 180 ...................................................................................
Perwz Cihan, A:=< BC B/D /Gur Tekane 187 ...........................................
KurdishEnglish Vocabulary 196 .....................................................................
Ex-Soviet KurdishEnglish Vocabulary 245 ....................................................
General Index 264 .............................................................................................
vi
PREFACE
KURDISH BELONGS to the Western Iranian group of the Indo-Iranian branch
of the Indo-European family. The two principal branches of modern literary
Kurdish are (1) Kurmanji, the language of the vast majority of Kurds in
Turkey, Syria, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, and of a few in Iraq and Iran, the
area designated by Kurdish nationalists as North Kurdistan (Kurdistana
Bakr),
1
with an estimated fteen to seventeen million speakers, and (2)
Sorani, the language of most Kurds in Iraq (four to six million speakers)
and Iran (ve to six million speakers), the area designated as South
Kurdistan (Kurdistana Ba!r). Although the two languages are closely
related, Kurmanji and Sorani are not mutually intelligible and differ at the
basic structural level as well as in vocabulary and idiom. Since all varieties
of Kurdish are not only closely related to Persian but have also been mas-
1
The line dividing Kurmanji from Sorani runs roughly diagonally from northeast
to southwest. The extreme northwest of Iran and the northernmost tip of Iraq fall
into the Kurmanji-speaking area. An article in Hawar (No. 2 [1932], p. 9) explains
the geographical distribution as follows: La langue Kurde se divise en trois dia-
lectes principaux: 1- Le dialecte du Nord, 2- Le dialecte du Sud, 3- Le dialecte du
Nord-Ouest. (1) Le dialecte du nord est parl par tous les Kurdes du Kurdistan
occup par les turcs, par les Kurdes de la Caucasie jusqu Kere-Bax [Qarabagh],
par ceux de la rpublique dErivan, par les Kurdes de la Syrie, par une partie des
Kurdes de lIrak habitant le Mont Sindjar et la contre situe au nord dune ligne
partant du sud du Sindjar par Mosil, et atteignant lest la ville de Rewandiz,
ensuite par les Kurdes de la Perse habitant le nord et louest du lac de Urm, par les
Kurdes du Khorasan, au nord-est de la Perse. (2) Le dialecte du sud est parl par
les Kurdes de lIrak et de la Perse partir du sud de la ligne MosilRewandiz et du
lac de Urm vers le sud et sud-est, jusquaux limites mridionales des Kurdes
Bextiyar. (3) Le dialecte Nord-ouest est le dialecte des Kurdes Dumil. Du Dumil
on ne peut pas tracer une limite xe quelconque, parce que trop melang avec les
Kurdes Qurdmanc parlant le dialecte du Nord le Qurdmanc. Tout de mme les
points de condensation de ce dialecte sont: Drsm, Palo, Genc, epekr, Maden,
Pran, Egil, Swereq, Par, ermiq.
vii
sively inuenced by Persian, the dominant literary and cultural language of
the area for the last millennium, Kurdish is best approached with a knowl-
edge of Persian, and for that reason reference to Persian syntax has been
freely made throughout the presentation of the grammar.
Sorani has been the second ofcial language of Iraq since the creation of
that country after World War I and has many decades of literary activity
behind it. Kurmanji, which was given its present written form by Jeladet Ali
Bedir-Khan in the early 1930s, is still far from being a unied, normalized,
or standardized language. For historical and political reasons it has not been
a written means of communication in the largest area in which it is spoken,
and only recently has publication in Kurmanji begun in earnestand that
mostly among migr communities in Europe, Sweden in particular. With
the abundance of regional dialects, it is not possible to give a description of
all the variants that may be encountered, although every effort has been
made to describe the main ones that occur in the written language. There
are, for example, regions in which the umlauted of Turkish is a regular
feature of the spoken language, but it is not indicated in the writing system.
There are areas in which Kurdish has become so inextricably entangled with
Turkish and/or Arabic and/or Persian that the grammatical structure of the
language has been affected, while the Kurmanji of former Soviet areas like
Azerbaijan and Armenia, which has been written in Cyrillic letters since the
late 1930s, has been inuenced by Russian.
1
The language described herein
is, to the extent possible, what has been adopted as a norm by the majority
of writers.
The readings, chosen to give samples of a broad range of prose writing,
are provided with running vocabulary glosses beneath the texts, and the
glosses in the readings are also contained in the KurdishEnglish vocabu-
lary at the end of the book. Words considered to be absolutely basic vocab-
ulary are not glossed in the notes, since it is assumed that these words either
are known already or will be actively acquired by looking them up in the
1
Like most regional and ethnic languages of the early Soviet Union that did not
have a traditional alphabet and a long history of literature, Kurmanji was given a
Latin-based alphabet in 1929, but it, like the others, was Cyrillicized by Stalins
decree in 1937. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan has switched to a
modied Latin alphabet, and it is assumed that the little Kurdish written in Azerbai-
jan has followed suit. Kurdish produced in Armenia is now written in both Cyrillic
and a slightly modied form of the normal Latin Kurmanji letters (see the conver-
sion table for Arabic and Cyrillic on p. 80).
KURMANJI KURDISH
viii
vocabulary in the back. Generally words are not glossed more than once in
the notes because any word encountered a second time should be learned
actively. Words are glossed after the rst instance only if they are rare
enough to warrant being ignored for acquisition. The KurdishEnglish
vocabulary contains over 3,000 words, which should represent a good basic
working vocabulary for the language.
Kurmanji has been and is written in a variety of alphabets. Foremost
today is the Kurmanji used in Turkey and Europe, which is written in a
modied Turkish Latin alphabet. In Armenia and Azerbaijan,
1
Kurmanji is
written in Cyrillic letters, and enough readings in Cyrillic Kurmanji have
been given, together with a brief analysis of the main differences between
Turkey Kurmanji and ex-Soviet Kurmanji, to enable the student to develop
a facility in reading that medium. There were once Kurdish-speaking Arme-
nians in the Ottoman Empire, and they wrote Kurmanji in the Armenian
alphabet. With the exception of Syria, Kurmanji is not widely spoken in
countries that use the Arabic alphabet, and since Syrian Kurds use the Latin
script when they write Kurdish, the Arabic script is little used for modern
Kurmanji. In the early days of literary Kurdish, however, when the Arabic
alphabet was still widely known in Turkey and Latin-script Kurdish was
new in Syria, Arabic was used in tandem with the Latin. Two articles by
Jeladet Ali Bedir-Khan from early issues of the journal Hawar, when it was
published in both alphabets, are given as examples. Some Iranian Kurdish
journals include a few pages of Arabic-script Kurmanji for the Kurmanji-
speaking Kurds who live in Iran, and a specimen of this type, a story by
Perwz Chan, is given at the end of the reading selections both in the
Sorani-based Arabic script in which it was printed in the Iranian Kurdish
journal E$F Sirwe in 1990 and in the Latin Kurmanji in which it was re-
printed in Alole (pp. 2327), a collection of his stories published by Doz
Yaynlar in Istanbul in 2005. There are some minor differences between
the two versions, and they are signaled by asterisks in the Latin text.
The readings, chosen to give a fair sample of the range of prose writing
1
The major concentrations of Kurdish population in the former Soviet Union are
in Armenia and Azerbaijan. From 1923 to 1929 there was an autonomous Kurdish
region in Azerbaijan called Kurdistana Sor (Red Kurdistan). There are a few Kurds
in Georgia, and there is a Kurmanji-speaking Kurdish population of more than half a
million people in northeastern Iran and Turkmenistan, to which they were exiled in
the seventeenth century.
PREFACE
ix
today, are provided with running glosses beneath the texts, and the glosses
in the readings are also contained in the KurdishEnglish vocabulary at the
end of the book. Words considered to be absolutely basic vocabulary are not
glossed in the notes, since it is assumed that these words either are known
already or will be actively acquired as they occur. Generally words are not
glossed more than once in the notes because any word encountered a second
time should be learned actively. Words are glossed after the rst instance
only if they are considered rare enough to warrant being ignored for acquisi-
tion. The readings and biographical sketches of authors have been taken
mainly from Mehmet Uzun, Antolojiya Edebiyata Kurd, 2 vols. (Istanbul:
Tmzamanlar Yaynclk, 1995), which may be consulted for further read-
ing. The readings in Cyrillic Kurmanji, which have not been glossed but
have a separate vocabulary at the end of the book, have been taken from
Rya Teze, a Kurdish newspaper published in Armenia.
For dictionaries of Kurmanji, the following may be consulted:
Chyet, Michael L. KurdishEnglish Dictionary. New Haven: Yale Uni-
versity Press, 2003.
Fannnmon, Canana+. KopckoBamkopckoAnrno
Pyccknn !"#$%&'. Ufa, 2000.
Izoli, D. Ferheng KurdiTrki TrkeKrte. Istanbul: Deng Yayn-
lar, 1992. A comprehensive dictionary for those who know Turk-
ish. Unfortunately the gender of Kurdish nouns is not indicated.
Kypoen, K. K. Kypcko-Pyccknn Cnonapr. Moscow,
1960.
Rizgar, Baran. KurdishEnglish EnglishKurdish Dictionary. London:
M. F. Onen, 1993. With around 25,000 Kurdish words and phrases,
this is a useful dictionary for reading.
Saadallah, Salah. Saladins EnglishKurdish Dictionary. Istanbul:
Avesta, 2000. Contains around 80,000 entries.
Ha6onon, Pycnan hasaponnn. 3+nmonornnecknn Cnonapr Kypckono
Bsrka. Moscow: Boc+onna hn+epa+ypa, 2001.
For on-line and downloadable dictionaries and word lists for Kurdish and
a variety of languages, see www.ferheng.org.
KURMANJI KURDISH
x
The Phonology of Kurmanji Kurdish
Alphabet and sounds. The Kurdish alphabet is based on the Turkish adap-
tation of the Latin alphabet, and for the most part words are written as they
are pronounced, although there are several important features that are not
indicated in the writing system. These are noted below. International Pho-
netic Alphabet (IPA) equivalents are given in square brackets.
Vowels:

i u
o
e a
is like the ee in beet, IPA [i], as in nv [niv] half.
i is like the i in bit, IPA [I] as in dil [dIl] heart; in closed syllables
ending in m, i is often pronounced as a close central unrounded vowel
[], i.e. very close to the Turkish , as in vedixwim [vQdIxwm] I
drink.
is like the ai in bait, IPA [e], without the y-offglide of English, as in
hz [hez] power.
e is like the a in bat, IPA [Q],
1
as in berhem [bQRhQm] product, ex-
cept (1) in the sequence ew, where it is pronounced [] as in ew [w]
that and dewlet [dwlQt] state, (2) when it is followed by y but not
in the same syllable, in which case it is pronounced like the e in bet
[E], as in odeya [odEyA] room, and (3) in post-stress positions, partic-
ularly word-nally, where it is pronounced [E], as in mirvek [mIro-
1
The [Q] pronunciation of this vowel is taken as standard; for many speakers,
however, it is closer to [E], the vowel of English bet, in all environments.
1
vEk] a man and de [dItSE] he goes.
is like the oo in boot, IPA [u], as in bn [bun] to be.
u is like the u in put and bull, IPA [U], as in du [dU] two; the se-
quences gu and ku are pronounced by some as [gE] and [kE], partic-
ularly in closed syllables like gur wolf, pronounced either [gER] or
[gUR].
o is like the oa in boat, IPA [o], without the w-offglide of English, as
in nod [nod] ninety.
a is like the a in father and balm, IPA [A], as in bav [bAv] father.
Consonants:
bilabial labiodental dental/alveolar palatal velar uvular glotto-pharyngeal
plosive p, p t, t k, k q
b d g
fricative f s x h, h
v z x
! ,
j c
nasal m n
approximate w y
ap, trill r, r
lateral l
b is the b of English [b]
c is pronounced like the j in judge [dZ]
is the aspirated ch like the ch in church [tSH] (see below)
is the unaspirated ch of English eschew plus pharyngealization [tS

]
(see below)
d is like the d of English [d]
f is like the f of English [f]
g is the hard g of English, as in go [g]
h is like the h of English [h]
KURMANJI KURDISH
2
h is pronounced, in areas in which it occurs, like the G of Arabic (a voice-
less pharyngeal fricative, [h]); in areas where it is not so pronounced, it
is not differentiated from h
j is the j of French, the English g in beige [Z]
k is the aspirated k of English key [kH] (see below)
k is the unaspirated k of English sky plus pharyngealization [k

] (see
below)
l is a liquid l as in Persian, like the l in lee [l]
m is the m of English [m]
n is the n of English [n]
p is the aspirated p of English pie [pH] (see below)
p is the unaspirated p of English spy plus pharyngealization [p

] (see
below)
q is a voiceless uvular stop, like the Arabic ! [q]; it is pronounced like
k but farther back in the throat
r is a ap as in Persian and Italian [R]; does not occur word-initially
r is a trill, like the rr of Spanish [r]; all initial rs are trilled; the trilled r
is only sporadically indicated in the orthography by rr (e.g. pir very,
which is sometimes written pirr), otherwise it is not indicated in the
writing system
s is the s of English [s]
! is pronounced like the sh in ship [S]
t is the aspirated t of English tie [tH] (see below)
t is the unaspirated t of English sty plus pharyngealization [t

] (see
below)
v is the v of English [v]
w is the w of English we [w] except before i, , and , when it is a
close back unrounded semivowel [], like the u in French cuire and
huit
x is pronounced like the ch in German Bach and the Arabic H, a voice-
less uvular fricative [x]
x is a voiced uvular fricative [], the ghayn (I) of Arabic; it is the voiced
counterpart to x
PHONOLOGY
3
y is the y of English yes [j]; also indicates the diphthongs ay and ey
z is the z of English [z]
is not part of the orthographic system, but it is given in the vocabulary
to indicate the Arabic ayn (J). In parts of the Kurmanji-speaking area,
particularly those closer to Arabic-speaking areas, the ayn is pro-
nounced as in Arabic (a voiced pharyngeal fricative, []). Vowels pro-
nounced with a preceding ayn are marked with an underscore (e = e,
as in ereb Arab)
The aspirated and unaspirated stops.
p, t, k, and are aspirated stops, as in English pie, tie, key, and chew
p, t, k, and are unaspirated stops, as in English spy, sty, and ski, and
eschew, and are accompanied by slight pharyngealization. They are
not indicated in the writing system, and they are not universally ob-
served by all speakers, but where they occur they contrast on the pho-
nemic level. They are indicated in the this book by an underscore: cf.
plav [pHelAv] wave and plav [p

elAv] shoes, kal [kHAl] unripe

and kal [k

Al] old man, tn [tHin] thirst and tn [t

in] heat, al
[tSHAl] speckled and al [tS

Al] pit, well

Stress. All nouns and adjectives are lightly stressed on the nal syllable.
Most grammatical elements added to nouns (-ek, -, -a) are enclitic and thus
unstressed (mirv > mirvek, gnd > gnd, od > odya), with the excep-
tion of the plural sufxes -n and -an, which are stressed (krd > kurdn,
kurdn).
The hierarchy of stress in verbs is as follows:
(1) The negative prexes na- and ne-, as in nim [nAtSm] I dont
go and n [nQtSu] he didnt go.
(2) Preverbs like ve-, hil-, da-, and wer-, as in vdixwim [vQdIxwm]
I drink, hldidin [hIldIdIn] they lift, dqurtand [dAqURt

And] swal-
lowed it, and wrgerand [wQRgQrAnd] translated it.
(3) The modal prexes di- and bi-, as in daxiftim [dIAxIftm] I was
speaking, and baxive [bIAxIvE] let him speak.
KURMANJI KURDISH
4
(4) When there are no prexes on nite verbal forms, the nal syllable
of the verb stem is stressed, as in axftine [AxIftInE] they have spoken.
(5) The innitive is stressed on the nal syllable, as in axiftn [AxIftIn]
to speak.
Orthographic variants. Some writers prefer to use the Turkish undotted
for i and the dotted i for . They write dizanim as dzanm and zann as
zanin.
Doubled consonants. Doubled consonants are quite rare in Kurdish, and
almost all the doubled consonants of Arabic and Persian loanwords are
reduced to a single consonant, e.g. K LLL M4 muddat > mudet, K LLL N mull > mele,
K L O P) L L B muassasa > muesese, and 3 L M4 shiddat > !idet. The few double con-
sonants that survive are in learned borrowings like ummet religious com-
munity, welle by God, seff class, and muswedde draft copy.
The furtive i. Kurdish does not tolerate all nal consonant clusters. When
an intolerable nal consonant cluster appears, it is broken by the vowel i,
called the furtive i, which disappears when a vowel-initial enclitic or suf-
x is added to the word. Words like aql mind, intelligence, esl origin,
emr age, and emr order are aqil, esil, emir, and emir
1
when by them-
selves or when followed by a consonant-initial sufx (aqil mind, kmaqil
foolish, ew kmaqil b he was foolish, and aqilmend intelligent). When
followed by a vowel-initial enclitic or sufx the i is dropped, as in aql te
your mind, ew kmaql e he is foolish, kmaql foolishness, bi esl xwe
in ones origin, originally, emr min my age and emra serdar com-
manders order. The furtive i is indicated in the vocabulary by an italicized
i, e.g. aqil, esil, emir, fhim. Kurdish writers are not in agreement on the
1
Aqil mind (with furtive i), from the Arabic Q 6 LLL LLL R , is to be distinguished from the
homograph aqil that means intelligent, reasonable (from the Arabic S L & T L R ). The latter
is stable as aqil even in compounds (aqilane intelligently). There are two words
spelled emir, emir (a variant of umr U L " ) age and emir (from the Arabic V K L " ) order;
they both contain furtives is.
PHONOLOGY
5
writing of the furtive i, and many omit it, particularly when it is unstressed,
i.e. some write ez fhim dikim I understand while others write ez fhm
dikim.
For practicing Kurdish pronunciation, there are stories with printed text
and audio available on the internet at www.dibistanakurdi.com. For the
stories, select rok in the Hilbijart list. The words in the stories are
included in the vocabulary at the end of the book.
KURMANJI KURDISH
6
THE GRAMMAR OF KURMANJI KURDISH
SUBSTANTIVES
1. The Noun. A Kurdish noun in the absolute state, i.e. without any end-
ing of any kind, gives (1) the generic sense of the noun and (2) the denite
sense. It is also the lexical form of the noun, i.e. the form in which a noun
is given in a vocabulary list or dictionary. Thus, a noun like kitb book
may, depending upon the context, mean books (in general) or the book
(the one that has already been introduced). There are no articles of any kind
in Kurdish.
1.1. Gender. All Kurmanji nouns are either masculine or feminine. Each
and every word must be learned along with its gender, and there is little
helpful that can be said concerning determining gender, as grammatical
gender appears to be randomly assigned. Beings that are male or female by
nature are assigned to the corresponding grammatical gender class, and as a
rule, the names of towns, cities, and countries are feminine; all abstract
nouns ending in - are feminine; all innitives used as nouns are feminine;
and nouns ending in vowels tend to be feminine.
Words borrowed from Arabic, which has gender, do not necessarily cor-
respond to the gender assignment in Arabic. Kitb book is feminine in
Kurdish; the Arabic word from which it is derived, "# $ $ %& kit"b, is masculine.
Words borrowed from Persian and Turkish, neither of which has gender, are
randomly assigned gender.
1.2. Inection. Nouns are inected in four cases, nominative, oblique,
construct, and vocative. The construct case will be treated in 4 below, and
the vocative will be treated in 17.1.
There are no particular endings for the nominative, and the nominative
7
plural is identical to the nominative singular. Nouns are actually masculine
or feminine only in the singular; the plural is common, and there is no gen-
der differentiation of plural nouns.
In the oblique case, feminine singular nouns add unstressed - (or -y if
the noun ends in a vowel; feminine nouns that end in e either add -y or
change the e to ), unmodied masculine singular nouns do not change,
1
and all plural nouns add stressed -an (or -yan if the noun ends in a vowel).
Words that end in - change the to -iy- before adding any endings. An
example of a masculine noun is mirov man, and examples of feminine
nouns are jin woman and ode room:
NOMINATIVE OBLIQUE
MASC. SING. mirv + mirv
FEM. SING. jn + jn
od

+ y ody
or e > od
PLURAL mirov + n mirovn
jn + n jinn
od + yn odeyn
gund > iyn gundiyn
The nominative case is used for (1) unmodied subjects and predicates of
equational sentences (see 11)
Ode paqij e. The room is clean.
Ev mekteb e. This is the school.
(2) subjects of all intransitive verbs (see 14)
Gund di mvanxana Re!o de rni!-
tbn daxaftin.
The villagers were sitting and talking
in Reshos reception room.
and (3) the patients of all past-tense transitive verbs (see 18.2).
1
When a masculine singular noun is modied by a demonstrative (see 2) or in-
denite (see 3), it does change.
KURMANJI KURDISH
8
The oblique case is used for (1) direct objects of present-tense verbs:
Ez mirv dibnim. I see the man.
Ez mirovn dibnim. I see the men.
Ez jn dibnim. I see the woman.
Ez jinn dibnim. I see the women.
(2) complements of prepositions:
ji mirv from the man
ji mirovn from the men
ji jn from the woman
ji jinn from the women
di ody de
di od de

in the room
(3) the second member of a construct chain (see below 4):
gundn kurdan villages of Kurds
(4) agents of past-tense transitive verbs (see below 18.2).
In the case of nouns coordinated by the conjunction and, only the last
member of a series shows a case ending if there is one.
Tu kitb kovaran dibn? Do you see the books and journals?
Ji bo rojn b, ez plan bernaman
dikim.
Im making plans and programs for
the coming days.
There are a few nouns that contain the vowel a, usually in the nal sylla-
ble, like ba wind, bajar city, ziman language, mar snake, welat
country, and agir re, that may show an internal change of the a to for
the oblique case, i.e. b, bajr, zimn, mr, welt, and gir. The use of the
internal oblique is optional.
2. Demonstrative Adjectives and Her Every. When functioning as
attributive adjectives, the nominative demonstratives are ev this, these and
ew that, those. They modify both singular and plural nouns and show no
differentiation between masculine and feminine. In the oblique, however, ev
SUBSTANTIVES
9
and ew become v and w respectively with masculine nouns, and the noun
echoes the ending by adding -; with feminine nouns ev becomes v, and ew
becomes w, and the noun echoes the ending by adding -; in the plural ev
becomes van and ew becomes wan, and the plural nouns echo them by
adding -an.
When modied by her every, masculine singular nouns, which are not
distinguished in the oblique case when they are unmodied, take the
oblique ending - and feminine nouns add the regular oblique ending -.
NOM. SING. & PL. OBL. SING. OBL. PL.
MASC. ev v van n
ew w wan n
her her
FEM. ev v van n
ew w wan n
her her

ev mirv this man, these men (masc. nom. sing. & pl.)
ji v mirv from this man (masc. obl. sing.)
ji her mirv from every man
ji van mirovn from these men (obl. pl.)
Ez w mirv dibnim. I see that man.
Ez wan mirovn dibnim. I see those men.

ew od that room, those rooms (fem. nom. sing. & pl.)

ji w ody from that room (fem. obl. sing.)
ji her ody from every room
ji wan odeyn from those rooms (obl. pl.)
3. The Indenite State. The sign of the indenite singular (a, any,
some) is an unstressed enclitic -ek (-yek for words ending in vowels)
added to the end of the absolute singular noun. Both masculine and femi-
KURMANJI KURDISH
10
nine indenite nouns have an oblique case, the endings of which echo the
oblique demonstrative endings (- for masc. and - for fem.).
NOMINATIVE OBLIQUE
MASC. -(y)ek -(y)ek
FEM. -(y)ek -(y)ek
mirov > mirvek the man > a man
Mirvek hat. A man came.
Ez mirvek dibnim. I see a man.
kitb > kitbek the book > a book
Li ser mas kitbek heye. Theres a book on the table.
Ez kitbek dibnim. I see a book.
der > deryek the door > a door
Ez deryek vedikim. Ill open a door.
The relatively little-used indenite plural is formed by adding -(n)in to
the absolute singular for the nominative and -(n)inan for the oblique.
kur > krin some boys
der > dernin some doors
stgah > stghin some stations
4. The Primary Construct Case. The construct links (1) two nouns in a
limiting or possessive relationship and (2) an attributive adjective to the
noun it modies. The rst noun in a construct string, the one that is limited,
is in the construct case, the endings for which are as follows for all nouns
ending in consonants:
DEF. SING. INDEF. SING. PLURAL
MASC. - -ek -n
FEM. -a -eke -n
These endings are exemplied by the nouns mirov man (masc.) and jin
SUBSTANTIVES
11
woman (fem.):
MASC. mirov mirovek mirovn
FEM. jina jineke jinn
Nouns ending in e have the following endings and alternative forms exem-
plied by pere m piece and ode f room:
MASC.

perey
pereyek
pereyn
per pern
FEM.

odeya odeyeke
odeyn
oda odake
Nouns ending in (like xan m house and piran f majority) change
the to iy and then add the endings:
MASC. xaniy xaniyek xaniyn
FEM. piraniya piraniyeke piraniyn
There are very few nouns that end in u and , but for the few that exist
the following endings may take the place of the u or :
MASC. iw iwek iwn
FEM. iwa iweke iwn
A noun or pronoun in the second part of a construct, the limiter, is in the
oblique case, as in the following:

mirv w welt the man of that country

mirvek w welt a man of that country
mirovn w welt the men of that country

hejmra kovr the issue of the journal

hejmreke kovr an issue of the journal
hejmarn kovr the issues of the journal

odya (or oda) rn!tn the sitting room

odyeke (or odke) rn!tn a sitting room
odeyn rn!tn the sitting rooms
KURMANJI KURDISH
12

xany w mirv the house of that man

xanyeke w mirv a house of that man
xaniyn wan mirovn the houses of those men
Theoretically constructs of successive nouns can be extended without
limit; in practice they are limited to three or four successive nouns. In all
construct strings the construct case takes precedence over the oblique case,
i.e. only the last noun in a string is in the oblique case, and the others are in
the construct case. For example, in the phrase
di gundan de in the villages
the word gundan is oblique plural governed by the circumposition di de
in. In the construct phrase
gundn kurdan the villages of the Kurds
gundn is in the construct plural followed by kurdan in the oblique plural
as second member of the construct. When such a construct phrase is the
complement of a preposition, gundn remains in the construct case, i.e.
di {gundn kurdan} de in the villages of the Kurds
and the string can be extended as follows:
di {gundn kurdn Kurdistana
Tirkiyey} de
in the villages of the Kurds of
Turkeys Kurdistan
Other examples of construct strings are as follows:
kitbn kur w mirov that mans sons books
kitbn kea mirov the mans daughters books
behsa girngiya w roj discussion of the importance of that
day
4.1. The Adjectival Construct. Attributive adjectives follow the nouns
they modify. Nouns so modied by adjectives are in the construct case, but
adjectives are indeclinable and show no case.
SUBSTANTIVES
13

mirov mezin the big man

mirovek mezin a big man
mirovn mezin the big men

kitba n the new book

kitbeke n a new book
kitbn n the new books

xaniy bik the little house

xaniyek bik a little house
xaniyn bik the little houses
As in noun-noun constructs, the construct case ending takes precedence
over the oblique case. As an example, in the string
behsa girngiya w roj discussion of the importance of that
day
w roj, as the third noun and last element in the string, is in the oblique
case, but in the string
behsa girngiya w roja proz discussion of the importance of that
celebrated day
w roja is in the construct case because it is modied by a following adjec-
tive. Only the last noun in a construct string can be modied by an
adjective, i.e. in the phrase in the example above it is grammatically impos-
sible to modify either behsa or girngiya with an adjective inside the string
(see 5).
Syntactically related prepositional and circumpositional phrases (see 8
below) modify nouns in Kurmanji and are linked to them by the construct
exactly as though they were adjectives.
mirov di xan de the man in the house (vs. the man out-
side the house)
ev pirtka di dest we de this book in your hand
di hevpeyvneke bi w mirov re in a conversation with that man
rojnameyeke bi kurd a newspaper in Kurdish
!agirt li teni!ta min the student next to me
KURMANJI KURDISH
14
In a series coordinated by the conjunction , only the last noun shows the
construct ending.
gelek serok birvebirn partiyn
siyas
many heads and leaders of political
parties
!exsiyet rew!enbrn kurdan personalities and intellectuals of the
Kurds
5. The Secondary Construct: The Construct Extender. The primary
construct is used, as has been seen, to connect noun to noun (to noun, in-
denitely) or noun to a single attributive adjective. These two categories
cannot be mixed: the rst noun in a noun-noun construct cannot be modied
by an adjective, and a noun cannot be modied by more than one adjective
with the construct. In cases other than these two, the secondary construct
with a construct extender is used. The extenders are as follows:
MASC. SING.
y
FEM. SING.
ya
COMMON PLURAL
yn
The extenders are used (1) to add a modifying noun to a noun-adjective
construct, (2) to link an adjective modifying the rst noun in a noun-noun
construct, and (3) to add an additional adjective to a noun-adjective con-
struct.
As examples, (1) a phrase like hejmareke n a new issue is a normal
noun-adjective construct, but since this type of construct is closed, in order
to modify the construct further in any way, such as a new issue of the
journal, the construct extender is used: hejmareke n ya kovar, where
the feminine extender ya agrees with the feminine head noun in the con-
struct, hejmarek.
dest rast y Ceng Jengis right hand
Cumhriyeta Kurd ya Mehabad The Kurdish Republic of Mahabad
navn din yn v ekol other names of this school
(2) In a noun-noun construct string like nav w mirov that mans
name, the extender is used to modify the rst noun in the string: nav w
mirov y rastn that mans real name.
SUBSTANTIVES
15
zimanek min y taybet a special language of mine
droka Kurdistan ya nzk the recent history of Kurdistan
xebat fedekariyn xwe yn !exs his own personal struggles and sacri-
ces
(3) In a noun-adjective string like rojnameyeke kurd a Kurdish news-
paper the extender is used to modify the noun with another adjective, as in
rojnameyeke kurd ya rojane a daily Kurdish newspaper. Other exam-
ples are as follows:
helbestvan Ferens y ji sedsala
nozdehan
the French poet of the nineteenth cen-
tury
rojnameyeke rojane ya bi kurd a daily newspaper in Kurdish
darbeyeke mezin ya ekonomk a great economic blow
ke jinn Ewrup yn porzer av
!n
blonde and blue-eyed European girls
and women
In some dialects the extenders are , a, and n (without the initial y), and
they are used particularly when the preceding word ends in a vowel.
dil w pola his heart of steel
mala bir min mezin my big brothers house
kulma zbit a guva!t the ofcers clenched st
!eva me a daw our last night
zendn xwe n xurt his strong arms
zarokn gund n belengaz the poor children of the village
An optionaland fairly rarealternative masc. sing. construct extender
uses the same ending as the indenite, .
nivskarek din zrek another clever writer
!arek kurd bijarte a recognized Kurdish poet
bi w deng xwe bilind in that loud voice of his
6. Synopsis of Noun States and Cases.
KURMANJI KURDISH
16
SINGULAR PLURAL
MASCULINE ABSOLUTE/DEFINITE
NOM. mirov mirov
CONSTR. - mirov -n mirovn
OBL. mirov -an mirovan
DEMONS. OBL. - w mirov -an wan mirovan
MASCULINE INDEFINITE
NOM. -ek mirovek -in mirovin
CONST. -ek mirovek -ine mirovine
OBL. -ek mirovek -inan mirovinan
FEMININE ABSOLUTE/DEFINITE
NOM. jin jin
CONSTR. -a jina -n jinn
OBL. - jin -an jinan
DEMONS. OBL. - w jin -an wan jinan
FEMININE INDEFINITE
NOM. -ek jinek -in jinin
CONSTR. -eke jineke -ine jinine
OBL. -ek jinek -inan jininan
The syntactical hierarchy of noun forms is: (1) the coordinating conjunc-
tion , which supersedes all case endings; (2) the construct; (3) the oblique.
That is, the oblique case is superseded by the construct, so a noun that
should syntactically be in the oblique case but which is also the rst mem-
ber of a construct is in the construct case rather than the oblique. In turn,
both the construct and the oblique cases are superseded by the coordinating
conjunction, so only the last noun in a coordinated series in either case
shows its case ending.
ji heval hogirn (const.) w mirov from that mans friends and compan-
ions
ji heval hogiran (obl.) from friends and companions
SUBSTANTIVES
17
7. Personal Pronouns. The personal pronouns in the nominative and
oblique cases are as follows. There are no enclitic pronouns in Kurmanji.
SINGULAR PLURAL
NOM. OBL. NOM. OBL.
ez min I em me we
tu te you (sing.) hun
1
we you (pl.)
ew

w (m) he/it/that
ew wan they/those
w (f) she/it/that
ev

v (m) he/it/this
ev van they/these
v (f) she/it/this
There are no third-person pronouns other than the demonstratives. The ew
set is the third-person pronoun of default; the ev set is used to direct atten-
tion to a nearby third person. Note that both ew and ev distinguish gender
only in the oblique singular. Subject pronouns are necessarily expressed, as
in English, except in impersonal constructions where English uses it (as in
its raining) and occasionally in connected prose where the referent of a
third-person pronoun has already been introduced and is obvious from con-
text.
The nominative pronouns are used as subjects of equational sentences,
present-tense verbs, and past-tense intransitive verbs
Ez kurd im. Im a Kurd.
Ew w mirov dibne. He sees that man.
Em rni!tin. We sat down.
and (2) as patients of past-tense transitive verbs (see 18.2).
Min tu dt. I saw you.
W em dtin. He saw us.
The oblique pronouns are used as (1) possessors in a construct
kitba min, kitbn min my book, my books
kitbeke min a book of mine
1
In some dialects hun is hn.
KURMANJI KURDISH
18
kitbeke n ya min a new book of mine
xaniy me our house
(2) direct objects of all present-tense verbs (and all verbs formed from the
present stem of the verb)
Tu min dibn? Do you see me?
Ez te dibnim. I see you.
Ew me dibne. He sees us.
Em nikarin wan bibnin. We cannot see them.
(3) complements of prepositions and circumpositions
ji min from me
ji w from him
ji w from her
bi wan re with them
(4) agents of all past transitive verbs (see 18.2 below)
Te ez dtim. You saw me.
Min ew dtin. I saw them.
7.1 The Reexive Pronoun Xwe. The reexive pronoun xwe has, in and
of itself, no person or number but takes its person and number from the sub-
ject of the verb in the clause in which it occurs. It can thus mean, as a pos-
sessive, my own, your own, his/her own, our own, or their own as
well as the objective myself, yourself, him/herself, ourselves, your-
selves, or themselves. Xwe must be used as both possessive pronoun and
object pronoun to refer to the subject of the verb, i.e. the personal pronouns
cannot be so used. Constructions like kitba min my book and hevaln
min my friends are viable in any clause in which I is not the subject of
the verb, but not in sentences like I see my book and I went with my
friends, where kitba xwe and hevaln xwe must be used.
Dlikek teva du cewrn xwe li ser riya
min xuya dibn.
A bitch used to appear on my route with
her two pups.
SUBSTANTIVES
19
Li dora xwe dinrim. I look around myself.
Ferzende di ran xwe da birn b. Ferzende was wounded in his thigh.
With past transitive verbs (see 18.2), xwe takes its person and number
from the logical subject (= agent).
Ez vegeriyama "am, min hevaln
xwe n li wir bidtana.
I would have returned to Damascus; I
would have seen my friends there.
Te xwe ji br dikir te em bajar
xwe tan bra xwe.
You forgot yourself, and you remem-
bered the river of your town.
8. Prepositions, Postpositions, Circumpositions. Certain prepositions,
particularly bi, di, ji, and li, occur as circumpositions that envelop the
complement, that is, the preposition itself marks the beginning of the prepo-
sitional phrase, and the end of the complement is marked by one of the post-
positions, ve, de, or re (or the variants, va, da, and ra).
The postpositional element does not always, in and of itself, add anything
substantial to the meaning of the prepositional phrase, and most preposi-
tions occur without the postpositional element without any signicant dis-
tinction in meaning. Others need the postpositional element to dene the
signication of the preposition, as di de in vs. di re with and ji
ve from vs. ji re to, for, with. Generally the postpositions have the
following signications: de indicates stationary position in or at; re indi-
cates accompaniment; and ve indicates motion away from.
Common prepositions and circumpositions:
ba to, towards
ber in front of, toward
b (by, by) without
ber before
bi with, by means of (see below)
bi re with, along with
bi ten except for
bi xra due to, thanks to
dervey outside of
di de in
di re by, via, with
di ve through
di bareya de about, concerning
digel with
di nav de among, amidst,
inside of
di navbera de between
heta until, as far as
ji from, of (partitive)
ji re to, for, with
KURMANJI KURDISH
20
ji ve from; as of, since
ji bil other than, aside from
ji bo for, for the sake of
ji nava from amongst
ji xeyn other than, aside from
li ( de) in, at, to
li cem together with
li ber in front of, before
li dij against
li dora around
ligel together with
li gora according to
li pey after, behind
li p! in front of
li rex beside
li ser on, above, about
mna like
pi!t after
ser on, to
ta until, up to
tev along with
wek(e) like
As a rule, prepositions are followed by nouns and pronouns in the oblique
case. The exception is the preposition bi: when it is used to create an adverb
(like bi !ermdar modestly) or a compound adjective (like bi quwet
powerful), the complement is in the nominative case.
Pln bay hnik bi !ermdar derbas
hundir oda te dibn.
Waves of cool breeze were passing
modestly into your room.
bi rast tu mna gula ji lla tung
derkeve, tu ji mal derket
And truly you went out of the house like
a bullet shot from the barrel of a rie.
yek ji !ar nivskarn her bi quwet one of the most powerful poets and
writers
Since a circumposition envelopes the whole of its complement, it may ex-
tend through a relative clause (for which see 30), as in the following:
Gelo mirov kane ji {berhemn ku bi
zimann din tne nivsandin} re bib-
je berhemn kurd an j edebiyata
kurd?
I wonder if one can speak of works that
are written in other languages as Kurd-
ish works or Kurdish literature.
Ew bixwaze bi {yek ku nrna w
nzk nrna w ye} re bizewice.
He would like to get married to someone
whose outlook is close to his own.
8.1. Contracted Prepositions. Four prepositions have contracted forms
SUBSTANTIVES
21
with third-person singular complements:
bi + w/w > p ji + w/w > j
di + w/w > t li + w/w > l
If there is a postposition, it appears along with the contracted form of the
preposition (j re, t de, etc.).
Kes ku heval, hogir !agirt w b
p re dime!iya
The person who was his friend, com-
panion, and pupil and who walked with
him
Mrik odaya min nivn ku ez t de
razm, n!an min da.
The man showed me my room and the
bed in which I would be sleeping.
Mizgn digihje Emn Al Bedir-Xan,
ku j re lawikek bye.
The news reaches Emin Ali Bedir-Khan
that a son has been born to him.
Mela l nr got The mulla looked at him and said
Te l vegerand. You replied to him.
9. Cardinal Numbers. The cardinal numbers are as follows:
1 yek
2 du, didu
3 s, sis
4 ar
5 pnc
6 !e!
7 heft
8 he!t
9 neh
10 deh
11 ya(n)zdeh
12 dwanzdeh
13 szdeh
14 ardeh
15 panzdeh
16 !anzdeh
17 hivdeh
18 hijdeh
19 nozdeh
20 bst
21 bst yek
22 bst du
23 bst s, &c.
30 s (sih)
40 il
50 pnc
60 !st
70 heft
80 he!t
90 nod
100 sed
101 sed yek
102 sed du, &c.
200 dused
300 ssed
400 arsed
500 pncsed
600 !e!sed
700 heftsed
800 he!tsed
900 nehsed
1,000 (yek) hezar
2,000 du hezar
3,000 s hezar
4,000 ar hezar
5,000 pnj hezar
6,000 !e! hezar
7,000 heft hezar
KURMANJI KURDISH
22
8,000 he!t hezar 9,000 neh hezar 10,000 deh hezar &c.
Compound numbers are formed with the conjunction , as in
il yek forty-one
pnc heft fty-seven
The number yek and all subsequent compound numbers ending in yek are
ordinarily declined as feminine singular with construct in -a and oblique in
-.
di 91 de di nod yek de in 91
L ew yeka han w bhv nake. But that one (thing just mentioned) does
not make him despair.
Ev yeka han ji tradisyona Celadet
Bedir-Xan bi xra kovara w
Hawar dibe.
This one (thing just mentioned) is from
the tradition of Jeladet Bedir-Khan and
is thanks to his journal Hawar.
When yek is used as a pronoun referring to a person, however, it takes the
appropriate gender.
ew yek wan that one (masc.) of them
ew yeke wan that one (fem.) of them
The numbers du through neh, and all subsequent compounds ending in 2
through 9, as well as the thousands, are inected as plurals with a regular
oblique in -an.
di sala 1984an de di sala hezar nehsed
he!t aran de
in the year 1984
li 4a aprla 1946an de li ara aprla hezar
nehsed il !e!an de
on April 4, 1946
All numbers ending in zero (except the thousands) are declined as mascu-
line with construct ending in -n, but the oblique ends in -(y).
di saln 1300 de di saln hezar ssed de in the 1300s
SUBSTANTIVES
23
di navbera 196870y de di navbera hezar neh-
sad !est he!t hef-
ty de
between 1968 and 1970
Oidupusa Sofokles bi k-
man ber niha bi 2450
sal hatiye nivsandin.
Oidupusa Sofokles bi
kman ber niha bi du
hezar arsed pnc
sal hatiye nivsandin.
Sophocles Oedipus was
written at least 2450
years ago.
Numbers that modify nouns are indeclinable and are followed immedi-
ately by the noun counted, and the noun is pluralof course this will show
only in the oblique and construct cases.
The numbers 2 and 3 by themselves are didu and sis; when they
modify nouns and when they are part of a compound number they are du
and s, and nouns following them are construed as plural, as are the nouns
after all numbers.
Ap min du kes n nava !ikeft. My uncle and the two men went inside
the cave.
pi!t du rojn din after two more days
Her du avn w sor, wek du pizotn
gir bn.
Its two eyes were red, like two brands of
re.
S hefte ar roj mabn. Three weeks and four days remained.
pi!t !e! meh 14 (ardeh) rojan after six months and fourteen days
Temporal expressions of duration of time (for X amount of time) and
instance (X number of times) are in the oblique case.
S roj s !evan di w cih da ma. He stayed in that place for three days
and three nights.
Ez he!t caran hatim girtin. I was arrested eight times.
Pnc, he!t, deh caran ew lat bilind
dibn ber ku giranbna wan wan
biki!ne bin gol.
Five, eight, ten times those stones
skipped before their weight pulled them
to the bottom of the lake.

9.1. Ordinal Numbers. With the exception of 1st, ordinal numbers are
KURMANJI KURDISH
24
formed from the cardinal numbers plus the sufx -(y)an, as in the follow-
ing:
1st ewel()
2nd diduyan, duduyan
3rd sisiyan
4th aran
5th pncan
6th !e!an
7th heftan
8th he!tan
9th nehan
10th dehan
11th yanzdehan
12th dwanzdehan &c.
The ordinals are construed as normal adjectives.
Bi hatina cunta fa!st a diduyan re ez
j hatim avtin.
With the coming of the second Fascist
junta I was thrown out of there.
di hejmara Hawar ya 4an [aran] de in the fourth issue of Hawar
Roja sisiyan la! kur xwe da pi!ta
xwe bir mal.
On the third day he put his sons body
on his back and carried him home.
Xeyn ji deng segek tu dengn din ne
dihatin guhan, l dirj ne kir, dema
deng segek b y duduyan sisiyan
aran.
Aside from the sound of a dog no other
sounds could be heard, but it wasnt
long before there was the sound of a
second, third, and fourth dog.
There is an alternative set of ordinals formed in the Persian manner with
the sufxes -em and -emn, as follows:
1st yekem(n)
2nd duyem(n)
3rd syem(n)
4th arem(n)
5th pncem(n)
6th !e!em(n)
7th heftem(n)
8th he!tem(n)
9th nehem(n)
10th dehem(n)
11th yanzdehem(n)
12th dwanzdehem(n) &c.
These ordinals tend to be used in set phrases like !er chan y yekemn
the First World War and cara yekem the rst time.
9.2. Months of the Year and Days of the Week. There are several no-
menclature systems in use for the months. The names of the rst set are
borrowed from French, and they are as follows:
janvye/januar January fevrye February
SUBSTANTIVES
25
mars March
aprl April
m May
jen June
jya July
t August
september September
oktober October
november November
desember December
The names of the second set either correspond to or were borrowed directly
from the Arabic versions of the ancient Semitic month names that were ad-
justed to t the Julian calendar months of the Roman Empire. May and July
have fallen out of use in this set. The names are given with their Arabic
equivalents in parentheses:
ileya pa!n January ( %=/D 7&WXV )
sibat February (Y&Z(3)
adar March (:V!V)
nsan April (%&P./)
hezran June (%V"[\9)
ab August (]^)
eyll September (_=`aV)
iriya p!n October ( b[cd _$e )
iriya pa!n November (b[cd
7&WXV)
ileya p!n December ( %=/D _$e )
The third set consists of traditional Kurdish names for a few months:
re!eme February
avdar March
gulan May
trmeh July
gelawj August
lon September
Dates are written and read as follows:
31 adara 1947an s yek adara hezar
nehsed il heftan
March 31, 1947
di 26 nsana 1893an de di bst !e! nsana
hezar he!tsed nod
sisiyan de
on the 26th of April 1893
di 25.07.1974an de di bst pnc trmeha
hezar nehsed heft
aran de
on 25 July 1974
The days of the week (all feminine) are as follows. The b of !emb is nor-
mally deleted in the nominative case and restored in the oblique and con-
KURMANJI KURDISH
26
struct cases, as in !em (nom.) but roja !emb (obl.):
!em(b) Saturday
yek!em(b) Sunday
du!em(b) Monday
s!em(b) Tuesday
ar!em(b) Wednesday
pnc!em(b) Thursday
n Friday
9.3. Telling Time. In all expressions for telling time, the basis of the ex-
pression is saet (or the variant seet) hour.
Saet i ye? What time is it?
Saet deh e. Its ten oclock.
Saet nzk dudiy pi!t nvroje (nro)
b.
It was nearly two oclock in the after-
noon.
saet sis sibeh/!ev three oclock in the morning/at night
10. Comparative and Superlative Adjectives. The comparative degree
of the adjective is made by sufxing -tir. There are only a few irregularly
formed comparatives, viz. pir much > btir more, ba! good > tir
better, and mezin big > meztir (as well as the regularly formed mezin-
tir) bigger, older. Adjectives ending in t drop the t before the addition of
-tir (pwist > pwistir, not *pwisttir, and xurt > xurtir, not *xurttir). The
preposition of comparison is ji, as in the following examples.
Min ji her ti!t btir ji wan hez dikir. I liked them more than anything.
Hin ji wan, bi baleran, ya j bi
gemiyn mezin drtir b.
Some of them had gone further in planes
or large ships.
Ew pwist e ku nivskarn me li ser
jiyana gund axayan biaxivin, l
pwistir e ku ew ji br nekin ku kurd
li !ehran j dijn.
It is important that our writers speak of
the life of villagers and lords, but it is
more important that they not forget that
Kurds live in cities too.
Ez ten !e! salan ji te mezintir im. Im only six years older than you.
Erebiya min ji kurd turkiya min
tir b tir e j.
My Arabic was and still is better than
my Kurdish and Turkish.
Tu her roj xurtir dib. You get stronger every day.
SUBSTANTIVES
27
More than followed by a number is expressed by btir (or pirrtir) +
the number:
Hn btir pnc mitr di bin zemna
Pars de bn.
You were more than fty meters beneath
the ground of Paris.
Pirrtir dused pnc ku!t ji le!kern
tirkan heb.
There were more than two hundred fty
slain among the soldiers of the Turks.
The superlative is indicated by context, not by a special form. The rst
example in this section could just as well be translated as I liked them the
most of anything. A comparative adjective followed by a construct usually
gives the superlative sense, and a following construct is the equivalent of
the English in.
Xur!d dewlementir gund b. Khurshid was the richest (person) in the
village.
W li kur xwe dinr xwe bextyartir
din dizan.
He used to look at his son and consider
himself the luckiest (person) in the
world.
A true superlative adjective is made by adding -tirn to the adjective, and
such superlatives precede the nouns they modify:
Mezintirn nav ku bi ziman
edebiyata kurd ya klask re bye
yek, Ehmed Xan ye.
The greatest name that has occurred in
the classical Kurdish language and lit-
erature is Ahmad Khani.
A second type of superlative is made with her preceding the adjective.
Like -issimo in Italian, her gives a superlative sense of really, e.g. her
girng means most important in the sense of really important. Superla-
tives of compound adjectives like bi quwet powerful and past participles
used adjectivally like lipa!may backward, where the addition of -tir
would be awkward or impossible, are signaled by her.
Ew yek ji !ar nivskarn her bi
quwet mekteba Hawar b.
He was one of the most powerful poets
and writers of the Hawar school.
Nirvanek her dilr j newir b bi
roj di nav re derbas bibya.
Even a really intrepid hunter would not
have dared to pass through in the day-
time.
KURMANJI KURDISH
28
Cumhriyeta Mehabad di droka
Kurdistan ya nzk de yek ji
byern her girng e.
The Republic of Mahabad is one of the
most important events in the recent
history of Kurdistan.
Kurdistan herma Tirkiyey ya her
lipa!may ye; Mrdn bajar Tirki-
yey y her lipa!may ye; Nisbn
qeza Mrdn ya her bi derd e; Still
nehiya Nisbn ya her belengaz e;
Ziving gund Still y her lipa!may
ye. Li gor nifsa min ez li !ikefta
jimar dido ya v gund hatime dinya-
y.
Kurdistan is the most backward part of
Turkey; Mardin is the most backward
city in Turkey; Nusaybin is the most
wretched district of Mardin; Still is the
most destitute part of Nusaybin; Ziving
is the most backward village in Still.
According to my identity card, I was
born in cave number two of this village.
SUBSTANTIVES
29
THE VERB
11. Present Copulas. The present-tense copulas (am, is, are) are enclit-
ics, i.e. unstressed, but they are usually written as separate words.
POSTCONSONANTAL POSTVOCALIC
im in me ne
in y ne
e in ye ne
Examples of postconsonantal copulas:
ez kurd im I am Kurdish em kurd in we are Kurdish
tu kurd you are Kurdish hun kurd in you are Kurdish
ew kurd e s/he is Kurdish ew kurd in they are Kurdish
Examples of postvocalic copulas:
ez bi w re me Im with him em bi w re ne we are with him
tu bi w re y youre with him hun bi w re ne you are with him
ew bi w re ye s/hes with him ew bi w re ne they are with him
The negative ne (stressed) is positioned before the complement (or what-
ever is negated, but not before the copula). Examples of copulas with nega-
tives:
ez ne kurd im Im not Kurdish em ne kurd in we arent Kurdish
tu ne kurd you arent Kurdish hun ne kurd in you arent Kurdish
ew ne kurd e s/he isnt Kurdish ew ne kurd in they arent Kurdish
Other examples are as follows:
Tu xwndekr . You are a student.
Tu xwndekrek b! . You are a good student.
Tu n xwndekrek b! . You are not a good student.
B! e. It is good.
30
N b! e. It is not good.
Ev xanyek e. This is a house.
Ev xan ne. These are houses.
Ev n xanyek e. This is not a house.
Ez ne ji e!ra we me, ez ne iyay ne
j de!t me; ez bajar me. L beriya
herti!t, ez j merivek im.
I am not from your tribe; I am not a
mountaineer or from the plains either; I
am an urbanite, but before anything else
I am a person.
The combination of an oblique plural ending in -an and the rst-person
singular enclitic im usually becomes -a me instead of -an im.
Ez yek ji wan nivskara me. I am one of those writers.
Ez j yek ji wan kurda me ku I too am one of those Kurds who
Ez bi xwe yek ji wan kesa me ku I myself am one of those people who
12. To Have and the Existential Verb Hebn. The existential verb to
exist is hebn, the present and past conjugations of which are as follows:
PRESENT PAST
ez hme em hne ez hbm em hbn
tu hy hun hne tu hby hun hbn
ew hye ew hne ew hb ew hbn
The third-persons singular and plural are used for there is and there
are respectively.
Gotineke p!iyn me heye. There is a saying of our ancestors.
Ger xwendevann kurd tunebin
sedem w hene.
If there are no readers of Kurdish, there
are reasons for it.
Pir kes li dora min hebn ku ji !iran
hez dikir !ir dinivsandin.
There were many people around me who
enjoyed poetry and wrote poems.
Di avn w da ronahiyeke dijwar
heb.
There was a hard light in his eyes.
The negative of heye is tune there is not any, there is no, and the
THE VERB
31
negative of heb is tuneb there was not any, there was no.
Madem ku zimannivs tune, ev dewlet-
kirin i ye?
As long as there are no writers, whats
the use of creating this state?
Di v war da otorteyeke resm tune. In this regard there is no ofcial author-
ity.
Divab ku ew kzik w !ev bihata
ku!tin an na xew li min tuneb.
That bug would have to be killed that
night or else there would be no sleep
for me.
There is no verb in Kurdish equivalent to the English verb to have.
Kurdish expresses possession by the possessive construct followed by the
appropriate third person of the existential verbheye there is, hene there
are, heb there was, or hebn there were.
Pirsiyareke min heye. I have a question.
Pirsiyareke min heb. I had a question.
Pnc zarokn w hene. He has ve children.
Cihek bajar Mehabad y taybet di
dil me de heye.
The city of Mahabad has a special place
in our hearts.
13. The Innitive. Kurdish innitives end in -in, -n, -an, or -n, are
stressed on the nal syllable (dtn to see, me!iyn to walk, tirsn to
fear), and are construed as feminine nouns. The use of the innitive as a
noun occasionally coincides with English usage, but it is more often used
where the English gerund (-ing) is used.
Axaftin, xwendin nivsna bi ziman
zikmak, ji her mirov re pwstiyek
e.
To speak, to read, and to write in ones
native language is a requirement for
every person.
pi!t we!andina kovara xwe bi salek
pi!t avakirina Cumhriyeta Tirkiy
bi deh salan
a year after publishing his journal and
ten years after the founding of the Re-
public of Turkey
An unmodied direct object of an innitive precedes the innitive and
forms a generic compound with it. Thus, qehwe vexwarin to drink coffee,
KURMANJI KURDISH
32
rojname xwendin to read newspapers, kovar we!andin to publish jour-
nals, and hotl yn to frequent hotels are generic compounds. A modi-
ed direct object of an innitive is linked to the innitive by an objective
genitive construct. So, vexwarina qehweya xwe to drink ones coffee,
xwendina rojnameya xwe ya bi kurd to read ones newspaper in Kurd-
ish, we!andina kovara xwe to publish ones journal, and yna min ya
hotl my going to the hotel, where the objects and complements are de-
nite, indenite, or modied (i.e. not generic), become construct phrases.
Ez dixwazim her sibeh bi vexwarina
qehweya xwe re rojnameya xwe ya bi
kurd j bixwnim.
I want to read my newspaper in Kurdish
every morning while drinking my cof-
fee.
Bi yna min ya hotl dil xwe girtin. They were offended by my going to the
hotel.
The innitive is also used with the preposition ji bo to express purpose:
Ji bo dtina wan ez me Sriy. I went to Syria in order to see them.
Min bihst ku li welatn Rohelat il sal
xebat divt ji bo kirina !erbikek
ferfr.
I have heard that in the countries of the
Orient forty years of labor are needed in
order to produce a porcelain vase.
14. The Present Tense. The present tense corresponds to the English
present used for habitual action (I work) and to the present progressive
(Im working). It is formed from the present stem of the verb.
The present stems of a few very common verbs are totally irregular and
must be learned as a principal part of the verb (e.g. dtin to see > bn-,
xwestin to want > xwaz-). With few exceptions, verbs with innitives
ending in -an, -iyan, -n, and -n are regular and form the present stem by
dropping those endings. Verbs that end in -andin (for which type see 28
below) form their present stems by changing the -andin ending to -n- (e.g.
mirandin to cause to die > mirn-).
To form the present tense, the stressed progressive/habitual modal marker
d is prexed to the present stem, and the following sufxed personal end-
ings are added to the stem.
THE VERB
33
CONSONANT STEMS VOWEL STEMS
-im -in -m -n
- -in -y -n
-e -in -n
Examples of conjugation are as follows. In Kurmanji, pronominal sub-
jects are not optional and must be expressed.
N/-- GO (CONSONANT STEM) "USTIN/-"O- WASH (VOWEL STEM)
ez dim em din ez d!om em d!on
tu d hun din tu d!oy hun d!on
ew de ew din ew d!o ew d!on
In the negative, the modal marker di is replaced by stressed n-.
ez nim em nin ez n!om em n!on
tu n hun nin tu n!oy hun n!on
ew ne ew nin ew n!o ew n!on
If the present stem begins with a- or -, the prex di- may drop its vowel
and becomes d-, as in axaftin/axiv- speak and !andin/!n- to hurt, the
present tenses of which are either daxivim or diaxivim I speak and either
d!nim or di!nim I hurt.
There are two verbs with irregular conjugations in the present tense, ha-
tin to come and ann to bring. In both these verbs the d- modal marker
has assimilated to the present stem and appears as t-. Their present conju-
gations, afrmative and negative, are as follows:
HATIN ANN
ez tm em tn ez tnim em tnin
tu tey hun tn tu tn hun tnin
ew t ew tn ew tne ew tnin
ez naym em nayn ez naynim em naynin
tu nayey hun nayn tu nayn hun naynin
ew nay ew nayn ew nayne ew naynin
KURMANJI KURDISH
34
There are also two verbs, zann to know and karn to be able, that are
irregular in the negative. They form the negative with n instead of na.
ZANN KARN
ez nizanim em nizanin ez nikarim em nikarin
tu nizan hun nizanin tu nikar hun nikarin
ew nizane ew nizanin ew nikare ew nikarin
The present tense is used for (1) present habitual action (I go) and (2)
present progressive action (Im going), and context usually makes it clear
which tense should be used in English. Normal word order in Kurdish is
subject, object, verb.
1
Complements of verbs of motion (where one comes,
goes, brings, etc.) tend to follow the verb in the oblique case, as in the rst
example below.
Ez naim doktor. Ez derman vena-
xwim. Derziy j naxwazim.
Im not going to the doctor. Im not
taking medicine. I dont want stiches
either.
Xelkn Mehabad w roja han mna
karnevalek proz dikin, dehol zur-
nevann bajr ldixin, Mehabad j bi
destn hev digirin direqisin.
The people of Mahabad celebrate that
day like a carnival, they play the city
drums and clarions, and Mahabadis join
hands and dance.
Du jinn gund nzktir dibin, heta ber
der lojman tn, Mamoste Kevanot
av li wan dikeve bi matmayn
dibje
Two village women get closer. They
come up to the door of the lodging.
Master Kevanot looks at them and says
with astonishment
15. Compound Verbs. Compound verbs, which do not differ signicantly
from their counterparts in Persian and Sorani, consist of a nonverbal ele-
ment (preverb or complement) and a verb. In Kurmanji some compound
verbs are consistently written as one word, like hildan to lift, which con-
sists of the preverb hil and the verb dan to give (present stem d-), vekirin
1
Full normal word order is: (1) temporal expression, (2) subject, (3) direct object,
(4) miscellaneous prepositional phrases, (5) verb, (6) directional complement. Many
other orders are possible, but when any element is moved from its normal position it
is highlighted or emphasized in some way.
THE VERB
35
to open, which consists of the preverb ve and the verb kirin to do (pres-
ent stem k-), and rni!tin to sit down, which consists of the preverb r
and the verb ni!tin (present stem n-); others are written as two separate
words, like behs kirin to discuss and alkar kirin to help. The di- pre-
x is added to the verbal part of the compound, i.e. after the nonverbal part.
Stress in the afrmative is on the preverb.
ez vdikim em vdikin ez bhs dikim em bhs dikin
tu vdik hun vdikin tu bhs dik hun bhs dikin
ew vdike ew vdikin ew bhs dike ew bhs dikin
ez hldidim em hldidin ez rdinm em rdinn
tu hldid hun hldidin tu rdiny hun rdinn
ew hldide ew hldidin ew rdin ew rdinn
In the negative the stressed prex n- takes the place of di- in compound
verbs:
ez venkim em venkin ez behs nkim em behs nkin
tu venk hun venkin tu behs nk hun behs nkin
ew venke ew venkin ew behs nke ew behs nkin
ez hilndim em hilndin ez rnnm em rnnn
tu hilnd hun hilndin tu rnny hun rnnn
ew hilnde ew hilndin ew rnn ew rnnn
Depending upon the semantics of a given compound, many compound
verbs can be extended to include any and all matter that complements the
nonverbal part of the compound. For instance, compound verbs like alkar
kirin to help and behs kirin to discuss can be extended through a con-
struct (or multiple constructs) as in the following examples. In extended
constructs the construct takes care of modications and relationships that
are expressed by various means in English, usually with prepositions.
Ew j alkariya kovara Ensttuya kurd
ya Pars dike.
He also helps out on the journal of the
Paris Kurdish Institute.
KURMANJI KURDISH
36
Em behsa be! kurdn Kurdistana
Tirkiyey dikin.
We are discussing the role of the Kurds
in Turkeys Kurdistan.
Close compound verbs of the hildan to raise and vekirin to open type
do not admit extension through a construct. They take normal direct objects
before the verb.
Ji peyayn gund hinek ji dr ve silav
li w hildidin.
A few of the village men raise a greeting
to him from afar.
Soviyet pirtkn dersan yn bi kurd
ap dikin dibistann kurd vedikin.
The Soviets print schoolbooks in Kurd-
ish and open Kurdish schools.
16. The Formation of the Present Subjunctive. Like the present indica-
tive, the present subjunctive is formed from the present stem of the verb and
the personal sufxes. The modal marker for the subjunctive is b-. Unlike
the d prex, b does not usually drop its vowel in favor of an initial a in the
stem, but in some dialects it may do so (i.e. baxivim for biaxivim).
ez bim em bin ez baxivim em baxivin
tu b hun bin tu baxiv hun baxivin
ew be ew bin ew baxive ew baxivin
In compound verbs, the b- prex is optional, and it is usually omitted
with close compounds (generally speaking, those that are written together as
one word and, by and large, verbs compounded with kirin unless there is an
extended complement). When the b- prex is omitted, the absence of a
modal prex identies the verb as subjunctive, as in ve-xwarin (ve-xw-) to
drink and hil-dan (hil-d-) to lift:
ez vxwim em vxwin ez hldim em hldin
tu vxw hun vxwin tu hld hun hldin
ew vxwe ew vxwin ew hlde ew hldin
The negative prex for the subjunctive is n-, which replaces b- where it
occurs. Where there is no bi- prex, the negative is attached to the verbal
part of compounds.
THE VERB
37
ez nim em nin ez hilndim em hilndin
tu n hun nin tu hilnd hun hilndin
ew ne ew nin ew hilnde ew hilndin
There are two present subjunctives of the verb bn to be, become, with
and without the subjunctive marker bi-. The conjugation without the marker
is used when the verb means be; the conjugation with the marker is used
when the verb means become and when it is part of a compound verb.
BE BECOME
ez bim em bin ez bbim em bbin
tu b hun bin tu bb hun bbin
ew be ew bin ew bbe ew bbin
In the negative the distinction between be and become is lost, and there
is only one negative present subjunctive.
ez nbim em nbin
tu nb hun nbin
ew nbe ew nbin
There are two present subjunctives of hatin to come. One is regularly
conjugated based on the stem wer- without the bi- prex; the other is regu-
larly conjugated based on the stem b-, a contraction of bi- and y-, the
present stem of hatin.
WER- STEM Y- STEM
ez werim em werin ez bm em bn
tu wer hun werin tu by hun bn
ew were ew werin ew b ew bn
The negative present subjunctive of these two variants is as follows:
ez nwerim em nwerin ez nym em nyn
tu nwer hun nwerin tu nyy hun nyn
ew nwere ew nwerin ew ny ew nyn
There are also two present subjunctives of n to go. One is regularly
KURMANJI KURDISH
38
congujated based on the stem - with the b- subjunctive marker; the other
is regularly conjugated based on the stem her- without the subjunctive
marker.
- STEM HER- STEM
ez biim em biin ez herim em herin
tu bi hun biin tu her hun herin
ew bie ew biin ew here ew herin
Negatives are predictably formed:
ez nim em nin ez nherim em nherin
tu n hun nin tu nher hun nherin
ew ne ew nin ew nhere ew nherin
16.1 Uses of the present subjunctive. The present subjunctive is used in
the following instances:
(1) independentlyi.e. not dependent upon a preceding constructionas
a deliberative (English should).
Ez ro bm? Should I come today?
car em i bikin? Now what should we do?
(2) in the rst persons singular and plural as a cohortative (let me, lets)
and in the 3rd persons as a hortatory (let him, may he ). The hortatory
is often preceded by bila let.
Pe! ez bibjim ku First let me say that
Ew der veke. Let him open the door.
Em herin! Lets go!
Bi siyaset bila ew mijl bibin. Let them get involved in politics.
(3) as complement to all verbs and constructions of desire and wanting
(see 16.2), ability (see 16.3), necessity, deciding, ordering, etc.
Lazim e tu Kurmanc biaxiv. Its necessary that you speak Kurmanji.
THE VERB
39
Di v babet de ez naxwazim ti!tek
bibjim.
I dont want to say anything in this
regard.
Tu dikar hinek behsa xwe jiyana
xwe bik?
Can you speak a bit about yourself and
your life?
Em kurd in kurd gereke ber hem
zimanan, bi ziman xwe biaxivin,
bixwnin binivsin.
We are Kurds, and Kurds ought to
speak, read, and write in their own
language before all other languages.
Ber her ti!t gereke ez n!an bidim ku
ji mefhma kovara slam ez i ti!t
fehim dikim.
Before anything else, it is necessary for
me to indicate what I understand by the
concept of an Islamic journal.
Gereke kovar xwe zencr nekin. It is necessary that journals not fetter
themselves.
W pirr caran biryar dab ku d li
xurn cixar neki!ne.
Many times he had decided not to smoke
cigarettes any more on an empty stom-
ach.
Doktor div ryek n!an me bide
derman binivsine.
The doctor must show us a way and
write a [prescription for a] remedy.
(4) after a number of conjunctions like ber ku before (which is usually
followed by the subjunctive), ax ku when (which is followed by the
subjunctive when it refers to the future), and mna ku as though. See 30.
Ber ku ez derkevim dervey welt, min
soran nebihstib.
Before I went outside the country, I had
not heard Sorani.
ax ku rseta min bibe, ez bi !ev
rojan bo ziman edebiyata kurd
bi!ixulim.
When I get the opportunity, I will work
day and night for Kurdish language and
literature.
Mna ku di ber de naxo!iyek di
navna wan de hebe
As though there was some unpleasant-
ness between them before
(5) in the protasis (the if clause) of a possible conditional with refer-
ence to the present or the future:
Ger ev rast be, If this is true,
Ger ew bibin yek, ew dikarin her ti!t
bikin.
If they unite, they can do anything.
KURMANJI KURDISH
40
(6) in all purpose clauses, usually introduced by ji bo ku in order that:
Ez diim xwendegeh ji bo ku ez
bixwnim.
I go to school in order to study.
Ez dixwnim ji bo ku bibim mamoste. Im studying in order to become a
teacher.
Ji bo ku tu ji nexwe!iy bilit, div
doktor li te binre bi nexwe!iya te
bizanbe.
In order for you to get rid of your illness,
it is necessary for the doctor to have a
look at you and diagnose your illness.
(7) in clauses complementary to adjectives, where English usually has a
complementary innitive:
1
Gel me, gotin kelmeyn ku dizane
j ne amede ye ku ji sembol herfan
bixwne.
Our society is not ready to read even
words it knows from symbols and
letters.
(8) In relative clauses introduced by indenite relative pronouns like her-
kes ku anybody who &c.:
Herkes ku bi kurd binivse, di dest-
pk de heta demeke dirj, perg
zehmetiyn mezin were.
Anybody who writes in Kurdish will en-
counter major difculties at the begin-
ning and for a long time.
(9) In relative and result clauses after negative expressions:
Ti!tek ne dihat xuya kirin ku mirov
bibje ev bikaribe bibe sedema ewte
ewta kikn gund.
Nothing could be made out that one
might say it could be the reason for the
barking of the dogs of the village.
Saln min ne ewqas zde ne ku ez
bibjim, ez pir jiyame min gelek
dtiye.
My years are not so many that I could
say I have lived a lot and seen much.
1
But not in clauses dependent upon adjectives that describe situations or actions
that actually pertain or have taken place, which are in the indicative mood, as:
Ez xwe bextiyar dibnim ku mamoste-
tiya gundeki weha bye para min.
I count myself lucky that a teaching job
in such a village has been my lot.
THE VERB
41
(10) In relative clauses with indenite antecedents, often preceded by
wek or mna like. See 22 (3).
Mna gula ji lla tung derkeve, tu ji
mal derket.
You lit out of the house like a bullet shot
from the barrel of a rie.
Dtina w b mna kra ku tu di birn
de bigern.
Seeing him was like a knife you twist in
a wound.
Two verbs, karn to be able and zann to know, do not form their
present subjunctives as other verbs do but use the form of the past subjunc-
tive (see 22 below) instead.
16.2. The Future Tense. The future tense is formed by adding - or d to
the personal pronouns followed by the present subjunctive conjugation. Tu
+ is often contracted to t (t and tiw also exist), and ew + may be
contracted to w, although the contraction is not mandatory. The conjuga-
tion of the future tense of n (afrmative and negative) is:
ez (ez d) biim em (em d) biin ez (ez d) neim em (em d) nein
t (tu d) bi hun (hun d) biin t (tu d) ne hun (hun d) nein
ew (ew d) bie ew (ew d) biin ew (ew d) nee ew (ew d) nein
When the subject of a future-tense verb is a noun, w, , or d comes af-
ter the noun. All the future markers are reexes of the present stem (A$ w)
of the verb $ P f LLL LLL g wstin to want, which still exists in Sorani Kurdish and
which has produced this synthetic tense much like the English future com-
pounded with will.
Dema em d bighjin Ewropa,
1
ken
porzer li Ferensa li Swd w li ser
por me dn bibin.
When we get to Europe, the blonde girls
in France and Sweden will go crazy for
our hair.
Ew dibje ku ew bi siyaset ve mijl
nebe.
He says he wont get involved in politics.
1
Kurdish, like French (quand nous arriverons en Europe), uses the future after
when when it has a future implication.
KURMANJI KURDISH
42
Ya meriv israr bike bi kurd bini-
vse, yan j meriv zimanek din ku ji
kurd gelek p!kettir e, terch bike.
Either a person will insist and write in
Kurdish, or a person will prefer another
language that is much more advanced
than Kurdish.
Ya reb, ez i bikim? min di dil
xwe de got.
O Lord, what will I do? I said to my-
self.
16.2. Xwestin, To Want. The Kurmanji verb for to want is xwestin
(present stem xwaz-). Verbal complements are in the present subjective. A
full inection of the present tense of to want to go is as follows:
ez dixwazim biim em dixwazin biin
tu dixwaz bi hun dixwazin biin
ew dixwaze bie ew dixwazin biin
When the subject of xwestin and the subject of the following subjunctive
complement are the same, the subjunctive follows in the same person, as in
the following examples.
Ez naxwazim v behs dirj bikim. I dont want to prolong this discussion.
Ew dixwaze ji avakirina Cumhriyet
re bibe pi!tgir alkar.
He wants to become a supporter and
helper in the founding of the republic.
When the subjects are different, however, the conjunction ku usually inter-
venes, and the subject of the subjunctive verb must be expressed.
Bav w dixwaze ku ew bixwne. His father wants him to study.
Bav min dixwaze ku ez bixwnim. My father wants me to study.
See note on the past tense of xwestin at 18.3 below.
16.3. Karn, To Be Able. The verb to be able is karn (present stem
kar-). Karn is regularly conjugated in the present, often without the di-
prex, and it is followed by a subjunctive complement. The negative pres-
ent is formed with ni- instead of na-. Below is given the full present conju-
gation, afrmative and negative, of I can go/I cant go:
THE VERB
43
ez dikarim biim em dikarin biin ez nikarim biim em nikarin biin
tu dikar bi hun dikarin biin tu nikar bi hun nikarin biin
ew dikare bie ew dikarin biin ew nikare bie ew nikarin biin
Heval hja, tu kar xwe bi me bid
nasandin?
Dear friend, can you introduce yourself
to us?
Tu dikar, ji kerema xwe re, hinek
behsa xwe jiyana xwe bik?
Can you please talk a bit about yourself
and your life?
Meriv nikare di hengamek de li end
cihan be.
A person cannot be in several places at
once.
Karn does not form its present subjunctive in the normal manner. For it,
see 22 below. For the past tense of karn see 21.1 and note 3 on p. 54.
A dialectal variant of this verb, kann, is used by some writers.
17. The Imperative. The singular imperative of verb stems ending in
vowels is formed from b- + the present stem. To present stems that end in
consonants is also sufxed an unstressed -e. The plural imperative is identi-
cal to the 2nd-person plural subjunctive. As is the case in the subjunctive of
close compound verbs, the b- prex is usually omitted; in open compounds
it is generally found but may be omitted.
INFINITIVE PRESENT STEM SING. IMPT. PL. IMPT.
bn be b- bbe bbin
-bn become -b- -be -bin
n - be bin
girtin gir- bgire bgirin
hildan hil-d- hlde hldin
kirin k- bke bkin
rni!tin r-n- rn rnn
!ustin !o- b!o b!on
vekirin ve-k- vke vkin
Hatin and n form imperatives on their second present stems, wer- and
KURMANJI KURDISH
44
her- respectively.
hatin wer- were werin
n her- here herin
The negative imperative prex is n-.
bn b- nbe nbin
n - ne nin
girtin gir- ngire ngirin
hildan hil-d- hilnde hilndin
kirin k- nke nkin
rni!tin r-n- rnn rnnn
!ustin !o- n!o n!on
vekirin ve-k- venke venkin
17.1. The Vocative. In the vocative the stress shifts to the rst syllable of
the noun and the following endings are added:
MASC. SING. FEM. SING. PLURAL
-o - -n/-no
Hi! be, kro! Be quiet, boy!
Were, k! Come here, girl!
Krkern, yekgirin! Workers, unite!
Z bin, hevalno! Be quick, friends!
The difference between the -n ending and the -no ending for the plural is
dialectal.
18. The Simple Past (Intransitive). The simple past (preterite) of intran-
sitive verbs is formed by adding unstressed personal sufxes to the past
stem of the verb. The past stem is derived by deleting the -(i)n ending of the
innitive; this will leave a past stem in a consonant, , , or a.
AFTER CONSONANTS AFTER VOWELS
THE VERB
45
-im -in -m -n
- -in -y -n
-in -n
Examples of the simple past inection are from hatin to come, bn to
be, tirsn to fear, and man to remain.
HATIN BN
ez hatim em hatin ez bm em bn
tu hat hun hatin tu by hun bn
ew hat ew hatin ew b ew bn
TIRSN MAN
ez tirsm em tirsn ez mam em man
tu tirsiy hun tirsn tu may hun man
ew tirs ew tirsn ew ma ew man
The negative is formed by prexing n-:
ez nhatim em nhatin ez nbm em nbn
tu nhat hun nhatin tu nby hun nbn
ew nhat ew nhatin ew nb ew nbn
ez ntirsm em ntirsn ez nmam em nman
tu ntirsiy hun ntirsn tu nmay hun nman
ew ntirs ew ntirsn ew nma ew nman
The Kurdish simple past tense usually corresponds closely to the English
past tense.
Tu bi pelikan y jor. You went down the stairs.
Demek j midr dibistan bm. For a time I was a school principal.
Hem man bdeng. They all remained silent.
However, since the Kurdish simple past tense indicates anything that took
place or has taken place in the past, it sometimes corresponds to the English
present perfect tense. In journalistic and advertising usage, the simple past
tense is used in headlines and story titles, where English normally uses the
KURMANJI KURDISH
46
present, as in the following:
Kaset cd derket li hem mzk
marketan.
The cassette and CD have come to (are
available in) all music stores.
Konferansa Tevgera Jinn Azad bi
daw b.
The conference of the Liberated
Womens Movement has ended.
Li ba!r Kurdistan di 10 saln daw
de 2733 kes mirin, 4913 kes j
birndar bn.
2,733 people have died and 4,913 people
have been wounded over the last ten
years in the south of Kurdistan.
A distinction between the two meanings of the verb bn, to be and to
become, is shown in the past tense by the placement of the verb. When it
means to be it follows the predicate, but when it means to become the
verb comes between the subject and the predicate, as in the following:
Ew zabitek jr jhat b. He was a talented and worthy ofcer.
Ew b zabitek jr jhat. He became a talented and worthy ofcer.
18.1. The Past Habitual/Progressive (Intransitive). The past habitual (I
used to go) and progressive (I was going) is formed by adding the habit-
ual/progressive prex d- to the simple past.
ez dhatim em dhatin ez dm em dn
tu dhat hun dhatin tu dy hun dn
ew dhat ew dhatin ew d ew dn
Gava dim dibistan vedigeriyam,
dlikek teva du cewrn xwe li ser riya
min xuya dibn bi min da direyan.
When I was going to school and coming
back, a dog and her two pups used to
appear in front of me and bark at me.
Le!kern tirk wek pelkn daran di ser
pi!ta hespan de dihatin xar.
Turkish soldiers were coming down
from the backs of horses like leaves of
trees.
For past habituals in di-, the negative is regularly formed by prexing n-
to the afrmative (and not, as in the present tense, by combining the nega-
tive prex with di-):
THE VERB
47
ez nedihatim em nedihatin ez nedim em nedin
tu nedihat hun nedihatin tu nediy hun nedin
ew nedihat ew nedihatin ew nedi ew nedin
Xwe! t bra min xew nediket avn
min, heya diya min rokek ji min re
negota.
I remember well that sleep used not to
come to my eyes until my mother had
told me a story.
Rojek derbas nedib, b ku ew
mirin li avn hev ne nihrin.
Not a day used to go by that he and death
did not look each other in the eye.
18.2. The Simple Past (Transitive): The Ergative. The simple past tense
of transitive verbs exhibits a phenomenon called ergativity, whereby (1) the
agent is marked, (2) the patient is unmarked, and (3) the verb agrees with
the patient.
The tense is formed from the past stem of the verb, and to it are added the
personal endings of the intransitive past, but these endings agree in person
and number with the patient (what we call the direct object). The agent (our
subject) is in the oblique case, and the patient is in the nominativei.e. just
the reverse of the present tense.
AGENT
OBL. CASE
PATIENT
NOM. CASE
VERB
AGREES WITH PATIENT
min ew dt
I him saw-him
w ez dtim
he me saw-me
w jin tu dt
that woman you saw-you
te ew dtin
you them saw-them
The rst conjugation below reects changing agents, and even if the 3rd-
person singular patient ew were not expressed, it would still be inextricably
KURMANJI KURDISH
48
built into dt. The second conjugation reects changing patients.
DIFFERENT AGENTS; STABLE PATIENT
min ew dt I saw him me ew dt we saw him
te ew dt you saw him we ew dt you saw him
w ew dt he saw him wan ew dt they saw him
STABLE AGENT; DIFFERENT PATIENTS
w ez dtim he saw me w em dtin he saw us
w tu dt he saw you w hun dtin he saw you
w ew dt he saw him w ew dtin he saw them
Negatives are formed by prexing n- to the afrmative.
w ez nedtim he didnt see me w em nedtin he didnt see us
w tu nedt he didnt see you w hun nedtin he didnt see you
w ew nedt he didnt see him w ew nedtin he didnt see them
The past habitual/progressive is regularly formed by adding the d- prex
to the verb and ndi- for the negative.
min ew didt I used to see him w ez nedidtim he didnt use to see
me
Pronouns in the oblique case are the clearest indicators of agency. Noun
agents are also in the oblique case; however, masculine singular nouns are
not marked for the oblique.
Alfred Nobel pi!t mirina xwe, serwe-
teke mezin li d xwe hi!t.
Alfred Nobel left behind a large fortune
after his death.
Mrik bi kenek ne ji dil got The fellow said with a smile not from
the heart
Feminines, of course, are marked in the oblique, as are masculines modied
by a demonstrative and all plurals.
Jinikek aya me an. A woman brought our tea.
W mirov ay an. That man brought tea.
Gundiyan ti!tek negot. The villagers didnt say anything.
THE VERB
49
If any one in a series of co-ordinated verbs in the past tense is transitive,
the ergative construction takes precedence and the agent is marked.
Rew!en Xanim demek bdeng ma,
kr kr kir cigarek vxist.
Mme Rewshen remained silent for a
moment, lost in her thoughts, and lit a
cigarette.
In the example above, neither ma nor kir is transitive, but since the nal
verb in the series, vxist, is transitive and therefore ergative, the agent,
Rew!en Xanim, is in the oblique case.
The ergative verb agrees in person and number with its patient (logical
object), but since the patient is in the nominative case and unmodied plural
nouns do not have an external plurality, the number is indicated only by the
verb, as in the following examples. Compare:
W kaxiz ji dest w girt. She took the page from his hand.
W kaxiz ji dest w girtin. She took the pages from his hand.
In the second example only the plural verb girtin indicates the plurality of
the patient kaxiz.
Me ew helbest xwend. We read that poem.
Me ew helbest xwendin. We read those poems.
Here only the plural verb xwendin indicates the plurality of the patient ew
helbest.
Just as in a series of co-ordinated nouns only the last noun shows case, in
a series of co-ordinated past transitive verbs with a plural patient, only the
last in the series shows the plural. In the following example, the patient,
destn xwe their hands, is plural, but only the second of the two verbs,
ann, shows the plurality.
Havalan destn xwe bi hustiwn hev
re bir ann.
The friends reached out and put their
hands on each others necks.
18.3. Number Agreement in Extended Ergative Verbs. In the past
tenses of compound verbs whose complements can be extended through the
construct (like behs kirin to discuss, which can be extended as behsa
KURMANJI KURDISH
50
kirin to discuss something, and bal ki!andin to attract attention, which
can be extended as bala ki!andin to attract the attention of someone),
the verb agrees in number (singular or plural) with with the last element
(not necessarily the last word) in the extension, i.e. if the last element in the
extension is plural, it attracts a plural verb, as in the following:
W ji min re behsa serphatiyn xwe
kirin.
He discussed his adventures with me.
Here the extended patient is behsa serphatiyn xwe discussion of his
adventures, and the past verb kirin agrees in the plural with the last ele-
ment in the sequence, serphatiyn xwe his adventures.
Wneyn min bala rojname
hunermendan ki!andin.
My pictures attracted the attention of
newspapers and artists.
In this example the extended patient is bala rojname hunermendan the
attention of newspapers and artists, and the plural verb ki!andin agrees
with the last element in the sequence, the plural hunermendan artists.
Kemalstn tirk fermana bi darda-
kirina Emn El Bedirxan hers
kurn w j derxistin.
The Turkish Kemalists issued an order to
hang Emin Ali Bedirkhan and all three
of his sons.
In this example the extended patient is fermana bi dardakirina Emn El
Bedirxan hers kurn w an order to hang Emin Ali Bedirkhan and all
three of his sons, and the plural verb derxistin agrees with the last element
in the extended patient, hers kurn w all three of his sons.
18.4. The Past Tense of Xwestin. The past tense of a transitive verb like
xwestin is ergative, but the following subjunctive complement is not.
Therefore, even when the subject of the two verbs is the same, the two pro-
nounsone oblique for the ergative and the other nominative for the sub-
junctivemust be expressed, and optionally ku may intervene between the
two verbs. An example is the conjugation of the phrase I wanted to say:
min xwest (ku) ez bibjim me xwest (ku) em bibjin
te xwest (ku) tu bibj we xwest (ku) hun bibjin
w xwest (ku) ew bibje wan xwest (ku) ew bibjin
THE VERB
51
Min xwest ku ez ji gund derkevim ji
xwe re ber ber em bime!im.
I wanted to get out of the village and
walk by myself along the river.
Ew ti!t ku di ser dil min de b
min dixwest ez bidim, pk nehat.
The thing that was in my heart and mind,
and which I wanted to give, didnt
come to be.
18.5. Loss of Ergativity. For stylistic reasons ergativity may be lost in
past transitive verbs. Normally this happens only in expressions like I saw
that and I said that when the verb is followed by a subordinate
clause as its complement:
Min gotim ku I said that (not min got)
Min dtim ku I saw that (not min dt)
Otherwise all tenses and moods constructed on the past stem of transitive
verbs are normally ergative. In some eastern dialects, however, ergativity is
sporadically lost. The criteria for this loss have not been determined.
Di hundur kl da sosreteke re!
giran dtin.
Inside the hut/hole ??? they saw
something unusual, black and heavy.
19. The Past Participle. The past participle is formed by adding - to the
past stem of verbs whose stems end in consonants. With past stems that end
in -a and - the participle is formed by adding -y to the past stem. With
past stems that end in -, the past participle is identical to the past stem.
CONSONANT STEMS VOWEL STEMS
hatin > hat > hat come man > ma > may remained
!ustin > !ust > !ust washed n > > y gone
kirin > kir > kir done kirn > kir > kir bought
In meaning the past participle corresponds fairly closely to the English past
participle: hat come, vekir opened, !ust washed as in
ciln !ust washed clothes
welatek p!ket an advanced country
KURMANJI KURDISH
52
welatek lipa!may a backward country
kitbeke apkir a published book
Negative participles are formed by prexing ne-, as in
kitbn neapkir unpublished books
ciln ne!ust unwashed clothes
benn nexuyay unseen bonds
ti!tn negot unsaid things
20. The Present Perfect Tense (Intransitive). The present perfect tense
of intransitive verbs is formed from the past stem with the following end-
ings:
STEMS ENDING IN CONSONANTS STEMS ENDING IN VOWELS
-ime -ine -me -ne
-iye -ine -ye -ne
-iye -ine -ye -ne
Note that the second and third persons singular are identical. Examples
from hatin to come and n to go are:
ez hatime em hatine ez me em ne
tu hatiye hun hatine tu ye hun ne
ew hatiye ew hatine ew ye ew ne
The negative is formed by prexing n-
ez nehatime em nehatine ez neme em nene
tu nehatiye hun nehatine tu neye hun nene
ew nehatiye ew nehatine ew neye ew nene
20.1. The Present Perfect Tense (Transitive/Ergative). The present per-
fect tense of transitive verbs is made from the agent pronouns plus the
endings given above, but the construction is ergative, as in the simple past.
THE VERB
53
Examples reect changing agents (I, you, &c. have seen him/her/it) and
changing patients (he has seen me, you, &c.). The negative is formed by
prexing n- to the verb.
DIFFERENT AGENTS;
3rd-PERSON SINGULAR PATIENT
3rd-PERSON SINGULAR AGENT;
DIFFERENT PATIENTS
min ew dtiye me ew dtiye w ez dtime w em dtine
te ew dtiye we ew dtiye w tu dtiye w hun dtine
w ew dtiye wan ew dtiye w ew dtiye w ew dtine
min ew nedtiye me ew nedtiye w ez nedtime w em nedtine
te ew nedtiye we ew nedtiye w tu nedtiye w hun nedtine
w ew nedtiye wan ew nedtiye w ew nedtiye w ew nedtine
Generally, the present perfect tense of Kurdish corresponds fairly closely to
the English present perfect (I have come).
Min heta niha ar kitb ap kirine. Until now I have published four books.
Gelo ew j wek min winda bye. I wonder if he too, like me, has become
lost.
But the Kurdish present perfect is in all respects the exact equivalent of the
Persian past narrative (hatime = ^ K LL E4 hV , maye = K LL & / LL E4 V ) LL i ). In Kurdish, as in
Persian, the present perfect tense is used for anything that happened in the
past, the effects or results of which are felt to be relevant to the present or to
the topic at hand. Compare, for instance, the following two examples with
their literal translations:
W tu caran ti!tek wilo negot. He never said any such thing.
W tu caran ti!tek wilo negotiye. He has never said any such thing.
The rst example in Kurdish is a simple statement of fact, as in English.
The second example can only be said in English if the person about whom it
is said is still alive; if he is dead, we have to say, He never said any such
thing. In Kurdish, however, the present state of the person is irrelevant;
what pertains is whether his not having said any such thing is or is not felt
to be relevant to the presenti.e., is it still true and relevant to the topic at
KURMANJI KURDISH
54
hand that he never said such a thing? If so, present perfect; if not, simple
past.
Other examples of usage are as follows:
Jiyana min gelek bi !equdeq bihuri-
ya. Ten d bi kurt bibjim: Ez di
Sibata 1953an de, li Hedhedk hati-
me din. P!, min xwendina ol li
cem bav xwe xwendiye. car pi!tre ez
derketime feqtiy li hin medrese-
yn Kurdistan geriyame.
My life has been spent mostly in misery
and hardship. I will only say in brief: I
was born in February 1953 in Hedhe-
dik. First I had religious instruction
with my father. Then I became a reli-
gious student and made the rounds of
some schools in Kurdistan.
In this example, the writers rst verb, bihuriya, is in the simple past tense
as a statement of fact, while English demands the present perfect. There-
after, that the writer was born in 1953, studied with his father, became a
religious student, etc. are all relevant to his having had a miserable life,
which is the topic at hand. Therefore he uses the present perfect tense.
Diya min li wir bye meriyn w roj
li her du hln xeta hesin bi ch dibin.
My mother was from there, and today
her people live on both sides of the
Iron Line.
1
In this example the writer says literally, my mother has been from there
because the fact that his mother was from there explains why he has rela-
tives on both sides of the border.
21. The Past Perfect Tense (Intransitive). For intransitive verbs with
past stems ending in a consonant, the past perfect tense, which is function-
ally equivalent to the English past perfect (I had come, you had gone), is
formed from the past stem + i + the past tense of bn to be. Verbs with
past stems ending in a vowel form the past perfect tense from the simple
stem + the past tense of bn. Some writers shorten a nal in the stem to i
(i.e. ez tersibm I had feared for ez tersbm). Examples of conjugation
are from hatin and n.
ez hatibm em hatibn ez bm em bn
1
The Iron Line, coined on the model of the Iron Curtain, is Turkeys border
with Syria and Iraq, which divides Kurdistan.
THE VERB
55
tu hatiby hun hatibn tu by hun bn
ew hatib ew hatibn ew b ew bn
The negative is formed by prexing n- to the verb:
ez nehatibm em nehatibn ez nebm em nebn
tu nehatiby hun nehatibn tu neby hun nebn
ew nehatib ew nehatibn ew neb ew nebn
Tu caran neketib bra min ku ez
rojek ji hv j nefret bikim.
Never had it occurred to my mind that
one day I would hate the moon.
Pirraniya mirovn bajr bn havna
xwe li ber lvn der dengizn
ba!r derbas kin.
Most of the people of the city had gone
to spend their summers on the shores of
the seas in the south.
Heta demek pir dirj bi heval dostn
xwe re j nepeyivb.
He hadnt spoken to his friends and bud-
dies for a very long time.
21.1. The Past Perfect Tense (Transitive/Ergative). The past perfect
tense of transitive verbs is formed, like that of intransitive verbs, from the
past stem + -i- + the past tense of bn on the ergative model. Past stems that
end in vowels add b directly without the -i-.
min dtib I had seen (it) me dtib we had seen (it)
te dtib you had seen (it) hun dtib you had seen (it)
w dtib he had seen (it) wan dtib they had seen (it)
w ez dtibm he had seen me w em dtibn he had seen us
w tu dtiby he had seen you w hun dtibn he had seen you
w ew dtib he had seen him w ew dtibn he had seen them
ngilzan ziman hindiyan qedexe
nekiribn.
1
The English had not banned the Indians
language.
W pirr caran biryar dab ku Many times he had decided that
1
For the reason for the plural verb, see 18.3.
KURMANJI KURDISH
56
W roj, germa havn tu gj kiriby. On that day the heat of summer had
made you dizzy.
Bi kira ku belk mrik li hember
polsan rabe ti!tek bi kar bne,
polsek demanca xwe j ki!andib.
Thinking that the man might resist the
police and use something [as a weap-
on], a policeman had drawn his pistol.
As in Persian, the past perfect tense in Kurmanji is not necessarily tied to
a temporal reference as it is in English. It is often used independently for a
past tense with a somewhat more remote signication where English would
have a simple past, particularly in narratives.
Gava min di hevpeyvneke bi Osman
Sebr re, pirsa ku w keng dest bi
nivsandin kiriye kirib, w gotib
ku
When, during a conversation with Os-
man Sebr, I asked (not had asked)
when he had started writing, he said
(not had said) that
1
Tu heta niha li ku b? Ez bsk
bm mala Ehmed. Ji wir j em n
komel.
Where have you been till now? I went
to Ahmads house for a bit. From there
we went to the society.
2
21.2. The Past Perfect Tense of Karn and Zann. The past perfect form
of the verbs karn to be able and zann to know is used as the normal
past tense. Thus ez/min dikaribm means I was able, I could, and min
dizanib means I knew. As in the present tense, the negatives of these
verbs are formed with ni-, as in ez/min nikaribm I wasnt able, I
couldnt and min nizanib I didnt know. Negatives with di- (past per-
fect progressive) are nedi-. Complements of the past perfect of karn are
either in the present subjunctive or in the past conditional (see 25.1 be-
low). For sequence of tenses in clauses following the past perfect of zann,
1
In this example, both Persian and Turkish might very well have the past perfect
tense in both positions ( ' $ ( )* $ $ +, - $ ./0 , sormu!tum and "12 $ $ $ 3 - $ /0 , demi!ti) to imply that
signicant time has passed since the exchange occurred. Since the example is with-
out a secondary time reference, English would not use the past perfect.
2
Here the rst verb is in the past perfect because the speaker wants to convey that
he had gone to Ahmads house before he and the others went somewhere else.
THE VERB
57
see 33.
avn Naz nedikaribn d hstiran
pa! ve vegernin.
Nazs eyes couldnt keep back the tears
any longer.
W ba! dizanib ku w r !a! ne kiriye. He well knew that he hadnt made a
mistake.
A rast me nizanib em bi ku da diin. We really didnt know where we were
going.
Although, strictly speaking, karn is intransitive, in the past tenses the
choice of nominative or oblique subject pronoun is generally dictated by the
complementary verb. When the complementary verb is intransitive, the
nominative pronoun is used and karn is conjugated as an intransitive, as in
the following:
Ez d nikarbm li ser lingan rawesti-
yama.
I was still not able to get up on my legs.
Ez nikarbm j re bibma alkar. I wasnt able to be helpful to him.
When the complementary verb is transitive, the oblique pronoun is used and
karn is conjugated as an ergative, as in the following:
Te nikarib awirn xwe ji dest akt
vala dr bik.
You couldnt take your eyes off the
empty sleeve of the jacket.
Qeder mehek min nikarb dora xwe
bidta.
For a month I wasnt able to see my sur-
roundings..
22. The Past Subjunctive. The past subjunctive is formed like the past
perfect, but instead of the past tense of bn, the present subjunctive of bn
is added, and to the whole is added the b- subjunctive prex (which may be
omitted for stylisic reasons) or n- for the negative. As with all past tenses,
the past subjunctive is nonergative with intransitives and ergative with tran-
sitives.
INTRANSITIVE TRANSITIVE/ERGATIVE
ez bihatibim em bihatibin min bidtibe me bidtibe
tu bihatib hun bihatibin te bidtibe we bidtibe
KURMANJI KURDISH
58
ew bihatibe ew bihatibin w bidtibe wan bidtibe
ez nehatibim em nehatibin min nedtibe me nedtibe
tu nehatib hun nehatibin te nedtibe we nedtibe
ew nehatibe ew nehatibin w nedtibe wan nedtibe
The past subjunctive is used (1) after all constructions that take subjunc-
tive complements (see 16.1) when the complement is in the past.
Gereke baran barbe. It must have rained.
1
Ger car caran di hin cihan de irskin
pketibin j, dewlet bi xurt ye ser
wan, bi girtin, ldan !kenc deng
wan birne.
If occasionally in some places some
sparks have caught re, the state has
attacked them forcefully and silenced
them through arrest, beating, and tor-
ture.
(2) In past relative clauses with indenite antecedents and in past clauses
introduced by indenite relatives like whoever, whatever, no matter
who, no matter what, however much, &c.
Kurdn ku navn Salih Celadet
Bedir-Xan nebihstibin pir km in.
Kurds who havent heard the names of
Salih and Jeladet Ali Bedir-Khan are
very few.
Heriqas me berhemn van nivskaran
ba! nexwendibin j
However much we havent read the
works of these writers well
Te !ev i kiribe div tu ji min re
bibj.
Whatever youve done tonight, you have
to tell me.
K bi i away nerazbna xwe ya li
dij dewlet anbe ziman, k bi i
away li dij dewlet derketibe, k bi i
away ji bo bidestxistina mafn gel
kurd tko!n dabe, dewlet heta niha
bi eyn metodn nemirovane ye ser
wan.
Whoever has expressed by any means
whatsoever his discontentment with the
state, whoever has combatted the state
by any means whatsoever, whoever has
made an effort by any means whatso-
ever to attain the goals of Kurds, until
now the state has attacked them with
the same base methods.
(3) after weke ku as though in the past for hypothetical situations and in
1
Compare this with the present subjunctive: gereke baran bibare it must rain.
THE VERB
59
relative clauses with an antecedent preceded by wek or mna like.
wek peza ku o li ser ketibe like a sheep on whose head a stick has
landed
(4) The past subjunctive form of two verbs, karn to be able and zann
to know, is normally used as the present subjunctive.
nsan naxwazin ku kesn din bizanibin
ew ti!tn weha dixwne.
People dont want others to know that
they read such things.
Em dixwazin bizanibin. We want to know.
Ev girng e ku mirov bizanibe Its important that one know that
Ez ne bawer im ku tu kes bikaribe
bibje ku rew!a ziman edebiyata
kurd ba! e.
I dont believe that anybody could say
that the style of Kurdish language and
literature is good.
Km berhemn gel miletn din yn
evqas kevin hene ku mirov b al-
kariya ferhengan bikaribe j tbigih.
There are few works belonging to other
such ancient groups and nations that
one could understand without the help
of a dictionary.
Ji bo ku bikaribim razm, min di ser
xwe de plana ku ez awa bi i awa-
y bikaribim w benderuh bikujim,
dikir.
In order that I be able to sleep, I was for-
mulating a plan in my head how and by
what means I would be able to kill that
creature.
23. The Future Perfect Tense. The future perfect is formed, like the fu-
ture, by adding to pronominal subjects or w to nominal subjects, and the
verb is in the past subjunctive. Effectively only two verbs, zann and karn,
occur in this tense, and they are used for a past modal of know and can,
like the English modal would know and would be able (and not like the
English future perfect I will have known), as in the following conjuga-
tions:
zann karn
ez bizanbim em bizanbin ez bikarbim em bikarbin
t bizanb hun bizanbin t bikarb hun bikarbin
KURMANJI KURDISH
60
ew bizanbe ew bizanbin ew bikarbe ew bikarbin
d her kes w bizanbe ku kar me
iqas bi zehmet e.
Now everybody would realize how dif-
cult our work was.
Ti!tek ne dihat xuya kirin ku mirov
bibje ev bikaribe bibe sedema ewte
ewta kikn gund.
Nothing could be made out that one
might say it could be the reason for the
barking of the village dogs.
24. The Modal of Karn. The verb karn to be able in the past subjunc-
tive and future perfect corresponds to the English modal could or would
be able. When the modal indicates present or future time it is followed by
the present subjunctive, as in the following examples:
Gava mirov pirsek wilo ji te bike, tu
nav kjan romana xwe bid? Mi-
xabin, ez nikaribim bersiva v
bidim.
When someone asks you such a ques-
tion, which novel of yours would you
name? Unfortunately I wouldnt be
able to give him an answer.
Ji bo ku ew bikaribe alfabeya xwe di
nava kurdan de belav bike, ew bir-
yara derxistina kovarek dide.
So that he could spread his alphabet
among the Kurds he decided (hist.
pres.) to bring out a journal.
Asr, ereb, ermen, faris crann me
ne yn her kevin in, l mixabin di
bareya edebiyata wan de ti!tek
nizanim ku bikaribim ya me yn
wan bidim ber hev.
Assyrians, Arabs, Armenians, and
Persians are our neighbors, and very
anciently so, but unfortunately I dont
know anything about their literatures
that I could compare ours with theirs.
25. The Irrealis Mood. Kurmanji Kurdish is particularly rich in irrealis
or contrafactualmodals. There are two modal tenses devoted to the irre-
alis, a past conditional and a past perfect conditional, of which there are two
varieties.
25.1. The Past Conditional. The past conditional is made by prexing b-
and adding the following endings to the past stem. In close compound verbs
the b- prex may be omitted.
THE VERB
61
CONSONANT-FINAL STEM VOWEL-FINAL STEM
b- stem -ama b- stem -ana
b- stem -ma b- stem -na
b- stem -ay b- stem -ana
b- stem -ya b- stem -na
b- stem -a b- stem -ana
b- stem -ya b- stem -na
The past conditional of intransitives is intransitive and non-ergative; the
past conditional of transitives is ergative.
INTRANSITIVE ERGATIVE
ez bihatama em bihatana w bidtama w bidtana
tu bihatay hun bihatana w bidtay w bidtana
ew bihata ew bihatana w bidta w bidtana
ez nehatama em nehatana w nedtama w nedtana
The past conditional of bn does not normally have the bi- prex when it
means be. Its conjugation is as follows:
ez bma em bna
tu bya hun bna
ew bya ew bna
In compound verbs and when it means become, the past conditional of
bn does have the bi- prex.
Nirvanek her dilr j newir b bi
roj di nav re derbas bibya.
Even a really intrepid hunter would not
have dared to pass through in the day-
time.
W ferqiyeta herdu zaravayn kurd
yn mezin hd hd hindiktir bibya.
The difference between the two large
Kurdish dialects would gradually have
decreased.
The past conditional is used (1) as the complement to the past perfect
tense of karn, which is, as has been stated, the normal equivalent to the
English past tense of be able. While the present tense of karn is followed
by the present subjunctive, in some dialects the past perfect is followed by
the past conditional. See the following examples.
KURMANJI KURDISH
62
Wek ber d nikarib bar giran hil-
girta.
He wasnt able to carry heavy loads any
more like before.
Heta destpka saln 1930 j, Celadet
Ali Bedir-Xan nikarib nameyek bi
kurd binivsanda.
Until the beginning of the 1930s Jeladet
Ali Bedir-Khan couldnt write a letter
in Kurdish.
Her milet di hundur snorn mpere-
toriy de dikarib hunera xwe bi p!
bixista, edebiyata xwe biaranda, bi
ziman xwe perwerdeya xwe bikira.
Every nationality within the borders of
the empire could advance its own art,
create its own literature, and carry out
its education in its own language.
(2) It is similarly used as the complement to the past tense of diviya or
diva b, the past and past perfect tenses of div must, have to, and in
some dialects as the complement to the past tense of xwestin to want.
Mr Zoro nedixwast nav sultan
bibihsta.
Mir Zoro did not want to hear the sul-
tans name.
Di v ders de her !agirtek diva b li
ser serphatiyek xwe bipeyiviya yan j
rokek ji rokn ku bihstib bigota.
In that class every student had to speak
about an adventure or to tell a story he
had heard.
Li gor peymana ngilz Sovyetiyan
li gor biryara Yektiya Neteweyan,
diviyab Sovyet di demeke kurt de ji
ran derketa.
In accordance with the Anglo-Soviet
pact and in accordance with the deci-
sion of the League of Nations, the
Soviets were supposed to withdraw
from Iran in a short time.
(3) It is used for the verb bn to be in both parts of a past contrafactual
conditional (see 25.2).
25.2 The Past Perfect Conditionals. There are two past perfect condi-
tionals in use, but they seem to be mutually exclusive, i.e. depending on
dialect a given speaker will use either one or the other. (1) The rst past
conditional is formed by prexing the subjunctive prex b- for the afrma-
tive or n- for the negative and sufxing -(y)a to the past perfect:
INTRANSITIVE ERGATIVE
ez bhatibma em bhtibna min bdtibya me bdtibya
THE VERB
63
tu bhatibya hun bhatibna te bdtibya we bdtibya
ew bhatibya ew bhatibna w bdtibya wan bdtibya
ez nhatibma em nhatibna min ndtibya me ndtibya
tu nhatibya hun nhatibna te ndtibya we ndtibya
ew nhatibya ew nhatibna w ndtibya wan ndtibya
(2) The second past conditional is formed by prexing the subjunctive b-
or n- and substituting ba- in place of b in the past perfect.
INTRANSITIVE ERGATIVE
ez bhatibam em bhatiban min bdtiba me bdtiba
tu bhatibay hun bhatiban te bdtiba we bdtiba
ew bhatiba ew bhatiban w bdtiba wan bdtiba
ez nhatibam em nhatiban min ndtiba me ndtiba
tu nhatibay hun nhatiban te ndtiba we ndtiba
ew nhatiba ew nhatiban w ndtiba wan ndtiba
The past conditional mood is used in the following instances:
(1) In past contrafactual conditional sentences, the verb of the protasis
(the if clause) is in the past perfect conditional mood (with or without
bi-), and the verb of the apodosis (the result clause) is in either the past per-
fect conditional or the future perfect conditional. When either part of a past
contrafactual conditional contains the verb bn, it is in the past conditional,
not the past perfect conditional. When the apodosis contains the verb karn,
it is usually in the future perfect conditional.
Ma eger Aristo ne yunan, l n bya,
w bikaribya felsefa xwe pk bne?
If Aristotle had been not Greek but
Chinese, would he have been able to
put his philosophy together?
Mewlana eger ne pars, l meselen bi
tirk nivsandibya, ma w bikarbya
Mesnew biarne?
If Mevlana had written not in Persian
but, for instance, in Turkish, he
wouldnt have been able to create the
Masnavi, would he?
Ger ez nebma Drik, min Gir
Trcel nedtiba.
If I hadnt gone to Drik, I wouldnt
have seen Turjel Hill.
KURMANJI KURDISH
64
Ez bawer im ger ez ne kurd bma j,
min dsa li ser kurdan binivsanda.
I believe that, even if I werent a Kurd, I
would have written about Kurds any-
way.
Ger wilo dom bikira ew !erpeze dn
bibya.
If it had continued like that, he would
have gone crazy.
Ger w dest xwe ji siyaset biki!anda,
w hewcedariya ku ew nameyeke
dirj ji Mustefa Kemal Atatrk re
bi!ne, nedta.
If he had given up politics, he would not
have considered it necessary to send a
long letter to Mustafa Kemal Atatrk.
The phrase ne ji bya were it not for is a past conditional con-
struction.
Ne ji Celadet Beg bya, me nizanb
ku ziman kurd ziman nivsandin
ye an na.
Were it not for Jeladet Beg, we wouldnt
have known whether Kurdish was a lan-
guage for writing or not.
(2) as a past or modal complement of past constructions that demand a
subjunctive, like lazim in the rst example and complement to an indenite
antecedent in the second:
1
Lbel lazim b ku me ji derek ve
dest bi v kar bikira me kir.
On the other hand, it was necessary that
we begin this labor somewhere, and so
we did.
Rskeke mezin heb ku wan ez tewqif
bikirama.
There was a great risk that they would
arrest me.
Diviyab Sovyet di demeke kurt de ji
ran derketa.
The Soviet [Union] was supposed to
have withdrawn from Iran in a short
time.
Xelk w ax newrbn xwe nzk
kesn sosyalst bikirana.
People at that time didnt dare to get
close to socialist persons.
1
Some writers follow the Persian model and use the present subjunctive after
these expressions, but the past conditional is much more commonly used.
THE VERB
65
Te dixwest jinek porzer la! sp
dagirt bi te re baya.
You wanted there to be a blond-haired,
white-skinned, well-built woman with
you.
Some writers use it after ber ku before with reference to past time:
1
Aw nivsarn ku ji Hawar re dihatin
!andin, ber ku bihatana we!andin
kes ew di ber av re derbas dikirin?
Did anyone review the writings that
were sent to Hawar before they were
published?
(3) Following a past perfect or modal of karn to be able for an unful-
lled, unfulllable, or unrealized situation, i.e. what one couldnt do,
couldnt have done, could have done but didnt, or should or shouldnt have
done.
Di mehn destpk de ez nikaribm j
re bibma alkar.
In the initial months I wasnt able to be
helpful to him.
Ew dikarib bibya yek ji !arn dema
xwe y her navdar.
He could have become one of the most
famous poets of his age.
Meriv dikarib ew bi her ti!t bi nav
bikirina, l ne
One could call them anything but not
mkann min ku ez bikaribma vegeri-
yama Batman, Srt an j Diyarbe-
kir bimama, bijiyama, tune b.
There were no possibilities for me that I
could return to Batman, Siirt, or even
Diyarbekir and remain and live there.
Kesn ku bikaribana binivsiyana j
gelek km bn.
Persons who could write were very few.
With the addition of /w/d to the past conditional, a future conditional
modal (would, should) is produced.
Ber min, kesin din ev !ixul bi ser
xistibn. ima min nekira?
Others before me had put this business
in their heads. Why shouldnt I do it?
L w biryara xwe dab, w bi-
xwenda.
But he had made his decision: he would
study.
1
Other writers prefer the present subjunctive exclusively after ber ku.
KURMANJI KURDISH
66
Ez p bawer bm ku meriv bikari-
bya, bi ziman kurd, romanek ava
bikira.
I believed that one should be able to pro-
duce a novel in Kurdish.
Ji rni!tevann w, mirov d bigotaya
Kurdistan e.
To judge by the inhabitants of it, one
would say it was Kurdistan.
Ew gelek neba! bibya. It would have been very bad.
(4) After xwez would that, I wish or the verb xwiziyan to wish for
unfulllable wishes in the past, often without the bi- prex.
Ax, xwez w zanbya ez iqas bi v
peyv di!iyam.
Oh, would that he had known how
pained I was by those words.
Xwiziya w satila Naz j bi xwe re an
ba bo tij av bike.
He wished he had brought Nazis bucket
too to ll it with water.
26. The Passive Voice. The passive voice is constructed from the verb
hatin (conjugated in all persons, moods, and tenses) plus the innitive. Ex-
amples of the passive are the following conjugations of hatin dtin to be
seen. For any other passive verb, simply substitute the innitive for dtin.
PRESENT INDICATIVE PRESENT SUBJUNCTIVE
I am seen, &c. that I be seen, &c.
ez tm dtin em tn dtin ez bm dtin em bn dtin
tu ty dtin hun tn dtin tu by dtin hun bn dtin
ew t dtin ew tn dtin ew b dtin ew bn dtin
FUTURE SIMPLE PAST
I will be seen, &c. I was seen, &c.
ez bm dtin em bn dtin ez hatim dtin em hatin dtin
t by dtin hun bn dtin tu hat dtin hun hatin dtin
ew b dtin ew bn dtin ew hat dtin ew hatin dtin
PRESENT PERFECT PAST PERFECT
I have been seen, &c. I had been seen, &c.
ez hatime dtin em hatine dtin ez hatibm dtin em hatibn dtin
THE VERB
67
tu hatiye dtin hun hatine dtin tu hatiby dtin hun hatibn dtin
ew hatiye dtin ew hatine dtin ew hatib dtin ew hatibn dtin
PAST SUBJUNCTIVE PAST CONDITIONAL
that I have been seen, &c. had I been seen, &c.
ez hatibim dtin em hatibin dtin ez bihatama dtin em bihatana dtin
tu hatib dtin hun hatibin dtin tu bihatay dtin hun bihatana dtin
ew hatibe dtin ew hatibin dtin ew bihata dtin ew bihatana dtin
PAST PERFECT CONDITIONAL I PAST PERFECT CONDITIONAL II
I would have been seen, &c.
I would have been seen, &c.
ez bhatibma dtin em bhtibna dtin ez bhatibam dtin em bhatiban dtin
tu bhatibya dtin hun bhatibna dtin tu bhatibay dtin hun bhatiban dtin
ew bhatibya dtin ew bhatibna dtin ew bhatiba dtin ew bhatiban dtin
In the present and present subjunctive of hatin, the third-person singular
forms are sometimes tte and bte (cf. Sorani j k 1 L L L B bet) instead of t and b,
as in the rst two examples below. The agent of a passive verb is expressed
by the circumposition ji aliy ve.
Em hvdar in ew j di nzk de bte
ap kirin.
We are hopeful it will soon be published.
Her ziman edebiyat bi hin nav
kesan ve tte nasn.
Every language and literature is known
by a few names and persons.
Ji xwe ez ji welat xwe hatibm dr-
xistin.
I had been exiled from my country by
my own self.
Bi salan bi v nav ve hatiye naskirin. He has been known for years by this
name.
Ew di nava kurdn her ar pereyn
welt de t naskirin hezkirin.
It is known and loved among Kurds of
all four parts of the country.
l carek hatib vxistin divab ku
were ki!andin.
but once it had been lit it would have to
be smoked.
Gavn w bi lez p! ve dihatin avtin. His steps were being taken quickly.
KURMANJI KURDISH
68
S r hebn; an ez d bihatama girtin,
di girtgeh de biriziyama, an ez ji
aliy MT ve bihatma ku!tin, an j
min welat xwe terk bikira.
There were three alternatives: I would be
caught there and thrown into prison, or
I would be killed by the MIT,
1
or I
would leave my country.
Strann ku heta niha nehatine gotin,
ziman ku nehatiye vejandin,
edebiyata ku nehatiye nivsandin,
klaskn ku nehatine apkirin
belavkirin, kultura ku nehatiye
nasandin gelek ti!tn din
Songs that havent been sung yet, a
language that hasnt been revived,
literature that hasnt been written,
classics that havent been printed or
published, a culture that hasnt been
recognized, and a lot of other things
27. Postposed Verbal Complements. Directional complements often fol-
low the verb directly and are in the oblique case without a preposition.
Min p!niyaza xwe !and Swsrey. I sent my proposal to Switzerland.
ew end libn ku digih!tin wan
welatan j
even those few copies that reached those
countries
Ew ji welat xwe dengbj stranbjn
tne Stenbol.
He brings singers from his country to
Istanbul.
The postposed complement is sporadically indicated by the addition of e
to the verb, but this is not so regular a feature of Kurmanji as it is in Sorani
(see Sorani 44). The addition of the directional -e to most forms of the past
tense makes most resulting verbs indistinguishable from the present perfect
tense, although the third-person singulars are different (pres. perf. hatiye
has come vs. directional hate came to). Context usually makes the tense
clear.
Ez me Sriy. I went to Syria.
Me ji gund barkire Nisbn. We moved from the village to Nusaybin.
Deng xi!xi!ek hate min. A scratching sound came to me (=
reached my ears).
A postposed third-person pronominal complement is indicated by the ad-
1
MIT, Mill #stihbarat Te!kilat, National Intelligence Organization, the Turkish
secret police.
THE VERB
69
dition of -(y) to the verb.
Min got. I said to him/her.
Bav w dest avt, l ne gihay. His father stretched out his hand to him,
but it didnt reach him.
28. Factitive Verbs. The factitive innitive, by which an intransitive verb
is rendered transitive, is formed from the present stem of the base verb +
-andin. The present stem of all such verbs is in -n-.
INFINITIVE PRES.STEM FACTITIVE
mirin to die > mir- > mirandin mirn- to make die, kill
!ewitan to burn > !ewit- > !ewitandin !ewitn- to make burn,
set re to
tirsn to be afraid > tirs- > tirsandin tirsn- to scare

Mala w !ewita. His house burned down.

Wan mala w !ewitand. They burned his house down.

Ez pirr ditirsim. Im very afraid.

i wan ditirsne? What is scaring them?
Exceptional are the verbs nivsn and nivsandin, both of which mean to
write without any apparent difference in meaning.
28.1. The Periphrastic Factitive Construction. To have something
done or to make something be done is commonly achieved by the verb
dan to give plus the innitive, as naskirin to know (a person) > dan
naskirin to introduce, zann to know (a fact) > dan zann to cause to
know, and xuya kirin to be clear > dan xuya kirin to make clear.
Ew xwe dide naskirin. He introduces himself.
W derd kuln gundiyan bi eskeran
didane zann.
He used to communicate the villagers
troubles and sorrows to the soldiers.
Gelo tu bikarib xwe bid naskirin? I wonder if you could introduce yourself.
KURMANJI KURDISH
70
Ew di wir de dide xuya kirin, ku kurd
ne tirk in.
There he makes it clear that Kurds are
not Turks.
THE VERB
71
OTHER SYNTACTICAL FEATURES
29. Subordinate Clauses and Subordinating Conjunctions. Subordinat-
ing conjunctions in Kurdish consist generally of prepositions + ku. A short
list of common subordinating conjunctions follows:
ber (or beriya) ku (+ pres. subj.)
before
b() ku (+ pres. subj.) without
ax ku when
da ku (+ pres. subj.) in order that
digel ku although
dema (ku) when
gava (ku) when
gelo whether
gor ku as
hema ku as soon as (+ past or
pres. subj.)
herwek ku just as
heta (ku) (+ pres. subj.) in order
that; (+ past) until
ji ber ku because, on account of
the fact that
ji bo ku (+ pres. subj.) in order
that
jibona (ku) (+ pres. subj.) in
order that
ku (+ pres. subj.) in order that
madem ku as long as
mna ku as though
pa! ku after
pi!t ku after
ta ku as long as
weke (ku) as
wexta (ku) when
Conjunctions that mean after (pa! ku, pi!t ku) are followed by an in-
dicative verb, present or past according to sense.
Pa! ku min pstiya wan dt, ez ji wan
bi dr ketim.
After I saw how bad they were, I avoided
them.
Pi!t ku v merov end gotinn xwe
peyiv, !agirt rni!tin.
After this man spoke his few words, the
pupils sat down.
Conjunctions that mean before are normally followed by a present sub-
junctive verb. The correct tense for English translation is gained from con-
text.
Ber ku ewrek re! y !n bi ser v
bajar de bigire, ji pi!t iyan rojeke
bhawe xwe! bilind dibe.
Before a black cloud of mourning covers
this city, an extraordinarily nice day
breaks from behind the mountains.
72
Beriya ku em dest bi dersn xwe bikin,
dixwazim ji we re l ti!tek bikim.
Before we start our lessons, I want to
discuss something with you.
Ber ku ez bersiva v pirsa te bidim, ez
ti!tek bik li ser gotina we bjim.
Before I answer this question of yours,
let me say a little something about what
you all have said.
Ber ku ez derkevim dervey welt, min
soran nebihstib.
Before I wound up outside the homeland,
I hadnt heard Sorani.
Ber ku le!ker li ber xwe binrin, Fer-
zende ajote ser wan
Before the soldiers looked in front of
themselves, Ferzende attacked them.
Conjunctions that mean whendema (ku), gava (ku), ax (ku), wexta
(ku)are normally followed by an indicative verb (past, present, or future
according to sense).
Gava ku mirov ji derve li avahiya
hotl dinihr, hotel gelek xwe!
luks xuya dikir.
When one was looking at the hotel build-
ing from the outside, it looked very
nice and deluxe.
Pirr nivskar, dema dixwazin li ser
kurdan binivsin, jiyana kurd di
pencerek teng de dibnin.
Many writers, when they want to write
about Kurds, see Kurdish life through a
narrow window.
Dema em d bighjin Ewropa ken
porzer li Ferensa li Swd w li ser
por me dn bibin.
When we get to Europe, blonde girls in
France and Sweden will go crazy over
our hair.
Dibe ku anuha pir ney!e, l wexta ku
!iya, tu bibje, em derman bidine te.
It shouldnt hurt much anymore, but
when it hurts, you tell us so that we
may give you some medicine.
All conjunctions that mean in order that are followed by a present sub-
junctive verb (except karn and zann, which use the past subjunctive form
for the present subjunctive).
Ji bo ku b tirs kar bikaribim
razm, min di ser xwe de plana ku
ez awan bikaribim w benderuh
bikujim, dikir.
In order that I might be able to sleep
without fear or worry, I was formulat-
ing a plan in my head how I could kill
that creature.
OTHER SYNTACTICAL FEATURES
73
Div tu her bajr, ji bo ku tu tkev
mekteb.
You have to go to town in order that you
attend to school.
Serdar hsan Nr, Ferzende digel !st
siwar !ande nav e!rn serhedan da
ku sedek hesp peyda bike.
Commander Ihsan Nuri, sent Ferzende
with sixty cavalrymen among the tribes
of the borders in order to nd a hundred
horses.
Em radipelikn penceran da ku em
rokan bibihzin.
We used to creep up to the windows in
order to hear the stories.
Conjunctions like weke ku as, which do not necessarily take a following
subjunctive, may do so when doubt is implied.
Weke ku hun zanin As you may know
Compare the above example with the following, where no doubt is implied:
Weke ku hun dizanin As you know
The conjunction her ku has a variety of meanings for translation, but the
basic meanings are the morethe more when there is a comparative
involved (or implied) and every time for temporals.
Her ku roj bilind dibe, Mehabad
dikevin tevger.
The higher the sun rises, the more the
Mahabadis fall into activity.
Her ku ber bi dibistan t nzktir
dibe, btir j diyar dibe ku kalek
salmezin e.
As he approaches the school, the closer
he comes, the more it becomes apparent
that he is an old man of great age.
Her ku hejmareke n ya kovar
derdiket, ew mna zarokek dil!a
dib.
Every time a new issue of the journal
would come out, he used to be as happy
as a child.
Her ku with a 3rd-person singular form of n in an appropriate tense is
used for the constant increase of something (to keep getting).
Deng ji ezmn herku di btir dib. The noise from the sky kept getting
louder.
Her ku die dunya pik dibe. The world keeps getting smaller.
KURMANJI KURDISH
74
Tirs herku btir b tamarn
"erko sist kirin.
The fear kept getting more and weaken-
ing Sherkos nerves.
30. Relative Clauses. Relative clauses in Kurdish are introduced by the
relative pronoun ku (or the variant ko) who, which, that. Unmodied
antecedents of the relative are in the construct case (ti!t ku the thing that,
sala ku the year which, welatek ku a country that, ti!tek ku a thing
which, ti!tn ku things that, rokn ku stories which). Modied ante-
cedents have the construct extender (ziman me y ku our language,
which, dayka xwe ya ku his mother, who, ti!tn din yn ku other things
which). When relative clauses are embedded within the main clause, there
is no distinction between restrictive and nonrestrictive relative clauses.
Min meqaleyn ku bi ziman kurd
hatibne nivsandin dtin.
I saw articles that had been written in
the Kurdish language.
Ji deng zarokn ku li der dor dilstin
p!tir deng tuneb.
There was no sound from the children
who had been playing in the vicinity
before.
Digel ku gelek saln dirj di ser re
derbas bne, ew alfabe rzimana
ku ji aliy Celadet Bedir-Xan ve hatiye
dann di kovarn w de hatiye bikar-
ann, ro j bersiva hewcedariya
ziman kurd dide.
Although many long years have passed,
the alphabet and grammar that were
established by Jeladet Bedir-Khan and
were used in his journals satisfy the
needs of the Kurdish language even
today.
Ew w ziman ku li ber mirin ye jn-
dar dike.
He is revivifying this language, which is
on the verge of dying.
When relative clauses follow the main clause they are introduced by y
ku, ya ku, and yn ku and are nonrestrictive.
Deng segn gund "erko dsa hi!yar
kir, y ku ji kfxwe!iy hema hindik
mab bire.
The sound of the village dogs once again
awoke Sherko, who was almost ying
from happiness.
Li ser milek w j trek mezin heb, y
ku di hindir xwe de !ekir ti!tn din
yn ku ji qaaxiyan hatibn kirn,
dihewandin.
Over one of his shoulders there was a
large sack, which contained sugar and
other things that had been bought from
smugglers.
OTHER SYNTACTICAL FEATURES
75
With the exception of temporal expressions (the year in which, the
days during which, etc), in relative clauses in which the antecedent is other
than the subject or object of the verb in the relative clause (i.e. types like
the thing of which I was afraid, the man with whom I went), the syntax of
the relative is indicated by a referent pronoun (literally the thing which I
was afraid of it, the man who I went with him).
Ti!t ku Celadet Bedir-Xan j ditir-
siya, bi ser kurdn Tirkiyey ve
hatiye.
The thing of which Jeladet Bedir-Khan
was afraid has happened to the Kurds of
Turkey.
Gelo tu ima na w welat ku tu li wir
ji dayik by evqas j hez dik?
I wonder why you dont go to that coun-
try, where you were born and which
you like so much.
Mrik odeya min nivn ku ez t de
razm, n!an min da.
The fellow showed me my room and the
bed in which I would sleep.
Temporal expressions do not normally have a referent pronoun, and the
relative ku after temporal expressions is usually best translated as when.
Pi!t sala 1972 ku derketim Ewrp After the year 1972, when I went off to
Europe
Pi!t 12 lna 1980, ku cunta sisiyan
a fa!st li Tirkiy hate ser hikim
After September 12, 1980, when the
third fascist junta came to power in
Turkey
Relatives without noun antecedents use y ku he who, ya ku she who,
and yn ku those who or kes ku one who, kesa ku one (f) who, and
kesn ku persons who.
Ya ku ji min re der vekir berdestka w
b.
The one (fem.) who opened the door for
me was her servant.
ro di nava kurdn me yn Sriy de
yn ku kurd bi alfabeya ereb diniv-
snin, i bigire tune ye.
Today among our Kurds in Syria, those
who write Kurdish in the Arabic alpha-
bet are practically nil.
Ew kesn ku dixwazin huner edebi-
yat bikevin bin bandora poltkaya
roj
Those persons who want art and litera-
ture to come under the inuence of the
politics of the day
KURMANJI KURDISH
76
As in English, there is an occasional elipsis of the relative ku when the
relative is the object of the verb in the relative clause.
Min fahm kir ku ti!tn min nivisbn,
ne !ir bn.
I understood that the things I had written
were not poetry.
Te xwest bib ba!oke, ew teyr te pirr j
hez dikir.
You wanted to become a falcon, that
bird you liked so much.
31. The Emphatic J. The Kurmanji enclitic j, equivalent to the Sorani
enclitic f LLL l -sh, the Persian m, and the Turkish de/da, emphasizes the word
that precedes it. Its meanings range from even to also, but it is often un-
translatable since the function it serves is taken care of in English by voice
inection and intonation (italicization or underscore in writing). It is often
helpful to think of j as a spoken underscore.
Bguman ew ne Xweda ye. Kmas
!a!iyn w j hene.
Of course, he isnt God. He too has
weaknesses and faults.
Min mamostetiya ziman ereb dikir
ez demek j midr dibistan bm.
I used to teach the Arabic language, and
also for a time I was a school principal.
Di gelek waran de ew h j mamos-
tayiya me dike.
In many respects he is still teaching us.
32. Expressions of Temporal Duration. There are two constructions for
temporal duration, the rst of which is the more commonly used.
(1) The formula for present expressions of temporal duration (Ive been
here for two hours) is as follows: (bi) length of time + e (or in) + (optional
ku) + present-tense afrmative verb or present-perfect negative verb.
Du saet e ku ez li vir im. Ive been here for two hours.
zimanek mna kurd ku bi sedsalan
e nebye ziman nivsandin
a language like Kurdish, which has
not been a language of writing for cen-
turies
Ji keng ve ye ku tu bi kurd dinivs? Since when have you been writing in
Kurdish?
OTHER SYNTACTICAL FEATURES
77
Hefteyek e ku min ew nedtime. I havent seen him for a week.
Bst yek sal e ku ez neme welt. I havent gone to the homeland for
twenty-one years.
Ev heft sal in ku gel kurd ji derd v
nexwe!iya han dinale.
The Kurdish nation has been complain-
ing of the pain of that very sickness for
these seventy years.
In past expressions of temporal duration (I had been here for two hours
when), the formula is: length of time + b + (ku) + past-tense afrma-
tive verb or past-perfect negative verb.
Du saet b ku ez li vir bm. I had been here for two hours.
Bst yek sal b ku ez nebm welt. I hadnt been to the homeland for
twenty-one years.
(2) The second construction literally means this is my (X amount of
time) that I am (doing something), as in the following:
Ev panzdeh saln min in ez tgi-
h!time, ku welatek b ziman ne tu
welat e.
For fteen years now Ive understood
that a country without a language is no
country (lit. these are my fteen years
I have understood that).
Ev 55 saln min in ku ez di nava v
xebat de me.
Ive been in the midst of this struggle for
55 years now (lit. these are my 55
years that).
Deh saln te li !ehri Pars derbas
bbn.
You had been in the city of Paris for ten
years (lit. your ten years had passed).
33. Sequence of Tenses After Past Verbs of Perception. While present-
tense verbs of perception (seeing, hearing, thinking, realizing, feeling,
guessing, &c.) do not pose any particular problem for English-speakers,
past-tense verbs of perception are followed, as in Persian, by the tense of
the verb that would have been used by the speaker at the time of the percep-
tion. In English all such verbs are thrown back by one tense.
KURMANJI KURDISH
78
W hs kir ku ten ye. He felt he was alone. (i.e., at the time, he would
have verbalized his feel-
ings as I am alone)
Ez tgih!tim ku zimane-
k min y taybet heye.
I came to the realization
that I had a special lan-
guage.
(i.e. what I said to myself
at the moment of realiza-
tion was, I have a spe-
cial language)
Min dtim ku mamoste
ne t ye.
I saw that the teacher was
not there.
(i.e. what I would have
said to myself at that
moment was, The
teacher is not here)
Em dikirn ku ev roj
ney.
We used to think that this
day wouldnt come.
(i.e. what we used to think
was, That day will not
come)
Mna ku dizanib w
pols dest w keleme
bikin, herdu destn xwe
dirj pols kirin.
As though he knew the
police were going to
handcuff him, he ex-
tended both his hands
toward the policemen.
(i.e., at the time, he would
have said to himself, the
policemen are going to
handcuff me)
Min zanb w saet ava
germ peyda nabe.
I realized that at that hour
there was no hot water to
be found.
(i.e., at the time, I would
have said to myself,
there is no hot water)
34. Questions with Ma. The particle ma, which is the equivalent of the
Persian nK L L " , introduces an afrmative question to which a negative answer is
expected (English, you dont know, do you?).
Ma rast e? Thats not right, is it?
Ma ez karibim careke din ry diny
bibnim?
I wont ever be able to see the face of the
earth again, will I?
Ma ji bo me tu dern b tehlke, b
tirs hene?
For us there arent any places without
danger, without fear, are there?
It also introduces a negative question to which an afmative answer is ex-
pected (English, it rained last night, didnt it?).
Ma em j eyn ti!t nakin? We do the same thing, dont we?
OTHER SYNTACTICAL FEATURES
79
Ma tu ne herdem di odak de y? You are always in a room, arent you?
The reply to such a question need not be in the afrmative, but an afrma-
tive expectation is implied by the asking of such a question, as in the fol-
lowing exchange:
Gava mrik bdeng ma, jinik dsa
got,
Er, ma ne wilo ye?
Na, ne wilo ye! mrik bi hrs got.
When the husband remained silent, the
wife said once again, Yes, thats how it
is, isnt it?
No, the husband said irritatedly, its
not like that!
Ma also has the contradictory force of but, particularly in questions that
also contain an interrogative (who, where, why) or gelo, which intro-
duces a wondering querry and can be implied.
avn te girt bn germa dijwar la!
te sist kirib, te gj kirib. Ma hi! te
li ku b dema telefona li ber te, li ser
masa te, l xist?
Your eyes were closed, and the oppres-
sive heat had weakened your body, had
made you dizzy. But where was your
mind when the telephone in front of
you on your desk rang?
Er, ez im, ma tu k y? Yes, its me, but who are you?
Min xwe dt di Xo!nav de ma gelo
ew xwe di hinekn din de bibne?
I saw myself in Khoshnav, but I won-
dered if he would ever see himself in
others.
Ma saet and e? I wonder what time it is.
KURMANJI KURDISH
80