Kurdish grammar explained

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

Split-ergative system

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

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

Nouns

Possession

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

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

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

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

Pronouns in various Kurdish languages and other languages for comparison

		Central Kurdish^[7]	Southern Kurdish^[8]	Kurmanji^[9]	Gorani^[10]	Zazaki^[11]	Talysh^[12] ^[13]	Avestan^[14]	Parthian^[15]	Middle Persian
			no distinction of nominative and oblique		nominative
1st person	singular	min	min	ez	min	ez	az	azəm	az	an
	plural	ême	îme	em	ême	ma	əmə	ahma- (accusative)	amāh	amāh
2nd person	singular	to	ti	tu, ti	to	ti	tı	tvəm	tu	to
	plural	êwe	îwe	hûn	şime	şima	şımə	yūšma- (accusative)	aşmāh	aşmāh
3rd person	singular	ew	ew	ew	ad (masculine) ade (feminine)	o (masculine) a (feminine)	əv	hva- (masculine) hā (feminine)	ho	oy
	plural	ewane	ewane	ew / ewana	adê	ê	əvon	?	hawin	oy

Talysh^[16]

Oblique				accusative
min	mi(n)	man	man	mıni
te	to	to	to	tıni
wî	ey	ho	oy	əvi
wê	ay	ho	–
me	ma	amāh	amāh	əməni
we	şıma	aşmāh	aşmāh	şıməni
wan	inan	hawin	awêşān	əvoni

Verbs

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

General description

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

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

Non-finite endings

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

See also

• Elî Teremaxî
• Kurdish alphabets
• Sorani grammar

Notes

1. Web site: Welcome to Encyclopaedia Iranica.
2. Web site: Archived copy . 2013-07-30 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130129135720/http://kurdishacademy.org/sites/default/files/KurdAlignment_0.pdf . 2013-01-29 . dead .
3. Theodora Bynon. 1979. The Ergative Construction in Kurdish. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies Vol. 42, No. 2, pp. 211–224.
4. John Haiman. Ergativity in Sorani Kurdish. Essais de typologie et de linguistique générale : mélanges offerts à Denis Creissels. Ed. Franck Florici et al. Lyon: ENS Editions, 2010. 243–250
5. http://www.ling.helsinki.fi/uhlcs/LENCA/LENCA-2/information/datei/14-haig.pdf Abstract on origins of ergativity
6. Friend, Robyn C. 1985. Some Syntactic and Morphological Features of Suleimaniye Kurdish. Ann Arbor: UMI. (Doctoral dissertation, University of California at Los Angeles; 240pp.)
7. Thackston, W. M.: http://fas.harvard.edu/~iranian/Sorani/ – Sorani Kurdish. Iranian Studies at Harvard University. 2006. (Page 27)
8. Celîliyan, ʻEbasî: Ferhengî başûr: Kurdî-Kurdî-Farisî. 2004. (Page 26, 80, 85, 86, 706)
9. Windfuhr, Gernot: The Iranian languages. Routledge Language Family Series. 2009. Ernest N. McCarus'un makalesi. (Page 629)
10. http://www.royalacademy.dk/Publications/High/737_MacKenzie,%20D.pdf
11. Windfuhr, Gernot: The Iranian languages. Routledge Language Family Series. 2009. Ludwig Paul. (page 551)
12. Aboszodə, Müəllifi-Fəxrəddin: Talıçca-Türkçe Luğət. 55 min kelimə. Bakı. 2011. Yeniden neşri. Bakü. 2015. (page 24, 210, 211, 214, 441, 501)
13. Wolfgang, Schulze: Northern Talysh. Lincom Europa. 2000. (Sayfa 35)
14. Bartholomae, Christian: Altiranisches Wörterbuch, Strassburg. K. J. Trübner. 1904. (page 225, 295, 660, 1303, 1718, 1844)
15. Book: The Iranian Languages. 9781135797034. Windfuhr. Gernot. 13 May 2013.
16. Aboszodə, Müəllifi-Fəxrəddin: Talıçca-Türkçe Luğət. 55 min kelimə. Bakı. 2011. Yeniden neşri. Bakü. 2015.

References

• Book: Thackston, W. M. . Kurmanji Kurdish: A Reference Grammar with Selected Readings . 2006a .
• Book: Thackston, W. M. . Sorani Kurdish— A Reference Grammar with Selected Readings . 2006b .

External links

• Learn Kurdish
• Kurdish Academy of Language