DOCUMENT RESUME ED 089 545 FL 004 874 AUTHOR McCarus, Ernest N. TITLE A Kurdish Grammar: Descriptive Analysis of the Kurdish of Sulaimaniya, Iraq. American Council of Learned Societies Program in Oriental Languages, Publications Series B - Aids - Number 10. INSTITUTION American Council of Learned Societies, New York, N.Y.; Spoken Language Services, Inc., Ithaca, N.Y. SPONS AGENCY Ford Foundation, New York, N.Y. PUB DATE 58 NOTE 145p. AVAILABLE FROM Spoken Language Services, Inc., F. O. Box 783, Ithaca, N. Y. 14850 ($4.00) EDRS PRICE MF-$0.75 HC Not Available from EDRS. PLUS POSTAGE DESCRIPTORS *Descriptive Linguistics; *Grammar; *Kurdish; *Language Instruction; Modern Languages; Morphology (Languages); Morphophonemics; Phonology; Syntax; *Textbooks; Vocabulary Development ABSTRACT This study is a description of the Kurdish of the city of Sulaimaniya, Iraq. Kurdish dialects cover an area embracing parts of eastern Turkey, Soviet Armenia, northern Syria, western Iran, and Khorasan in Iran. The language is described in terms of (1) phonology,(2) morphology,(3) morphophonemics,(4) word formation, and (5) syntax. An appendix, a bibliography, and a glossary are included. (RL) AMER!CAN COUNCIL OF LEARNED SOCIETIES a Program in Oriental Languages Publications Series B-- Aids--Number 10 US DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION &WELFARE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRO ouceoEXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE PERSON 04 OROANI/ATioNoRo,N &TING i! POINTS Of VIEW OR OPINIONS STATED DO NO1 NECESSARILY REPRE SENT OFFICIAL NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION POSITION OR POLICY A KURDISH GRAMMAR DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS OF THE KURDISH OF SULAIMANIYA, IRAQ by Ernest N. McCarus Spoken Language Services, inc. o0 American Council of Learned Societies 0 New York O 1958 The publication of this work was made possible by a subvention from The Ford Fbundation Library of Congress catalog card number 58-13564 Copyright, 1958, by PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL bY MICRO PICI ONLY HAS SEEN GRANTED ay SpokenLanguage.._. Inc; TO ERIC AND ORGANIZATIONS OPERAT 1NouNDER AGREEMENTS KITH THE NA TIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION FUR THER REPRODUCTION OUTSIDE THE ERIC SYSTEM REQUIRES PERM'S SION OF THE COPYRIGHT OANER LITHOGRAPHED IN THEuNirEoSTATES OF AMERICA BY THE WASHINGTON PLANOGRAPH COMPANY C u.S. S.R. 34 64 60 Ip TU E pp..114 bays.Vs* U. S. S. R. J7---''''.--.......---, .... ao. O Kb-,"ZASA" k1`.--''..r".-.."`,..---., IkAO . Dm. -te r 110. f. arr.«. ra SAUDI ARABIA -3` ,01 38to ...me 4Z 46 off C"ra't TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page 1 Introduction 1 .0 The Kurdish language .1 The data .2 Previous works on Kurdish .3 Correlation of orthographic systems. .4 Style of Kurdish described 2 Phonology 13 .0 Introductory .1 Linear phonemes .11 Vowels .12 Consonants .121 The consonant phonemes .122 Consonants of limited distribution .13 The syllable .131 Syllable structure .14 Distribution of phonemes .141 Vowel s .142 Consonants .143 Summary 2 Non-linear phonemes 21 Lexical stress .22 Sentence stress .23 Intonation .231 Pitch phonemes .232 Pitch morphemes .233 Summary .3 Morphophonemics .31 Vowels .311 Vocalic processes .312 The vowel /i/ .313 Elision .314 Summary .32 Consonants .321 Assimilation .322 Excrescence .323 Loss of consonant vii 3 Morphology: form classes and their inflection 45 .0 Introductory .1 The noun .11 Noun inflection .111 Definition .112 Number .12 Noun subclasses .121 Locative .122 Vocative .13 Noun with pronominal suffixes .14 Noun diagram .2 The adjective .21 Adjective inflection .211 Definition .212 Number .213 Comparison .22 Adjective plus pronominal suffix .23 Adjective diagram .3 The pronoun .31 Pronoun inflection .311 Person .312 Number .32 Pronoun subclasses .321 Vocative: .33 Pronouns with pronominal suffixes .34 Pronoun diagram .4 The verb .41 Verb inflection .411 Person and number .412 Aspect .413 Transitivity .414 Tense .415 Mood .416 Voice .42 Non-inflectional processes .421 Pronominal goal .422 Negation .43 Summary of verbal features .5 Particles .51 Interjections .52 Conjunctions .53 Interrogatives .54 Muriel als .541 Compound numerals .542 Numerals plus pronominal suffixes viii 3 (continued) .55 Prepositions .551 Simple prepositions .552 Compound prepositions .56 Adverbs .57 Demonstratives .58 Relatives 4 Word formation 82 .0 Introductory .1 Reduplication .2 Compounding .21 Descriptive compounds .211 Noun compounds .212 Adjective compounds .22 Emphatic compounds .23 Coordinate compounds .3 Suffixation .31 Nominal suffixes .32 Adjective suffixes .33 Verbal suffixes .34 Particle suffixes 5 Syntax 92 .0 The utterance .1 Phrases .11 Nominal phrases .111 Minimal nominal phrases .112 Expanded nominal phrases .12 Verbal phrases .121 Minimal types of verbal phrases .122 Expanded types of verbal phrases .123 Verbal phrases with nouns and adjectives .124 Verbal phrase diagram .2 The clause .21 Subject .22 Object 23 Clause word order .231 Basic clausal types .232 Limited clausal types .24 Order of modifiers .25 Introductory expressions .3 Combinations of clauses .31 Clause connectors .311 Independent connectors .312 Subordinate connectors .313 Connectors and the mood of the verb ix 5 (continued) .32 The clause as a syntactic unit .321 Sequences of clauses .322 The clause as a modifier of nominal phrases .4 Displaced suffixes .41 Displaced subject suffixes .42 Displaced prepositional suffixes Appendix 107 Bibliography 119 Glossary 127 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author wishes to express his deep gratitude to those Kurds who acted as his informants and whose cooperation was indispensable to the preparation of this study.Their contribution is fully acknowledged in the Introduction, paragraph 1.1., where thay are mentioned by name. The author also wishes to acknowledge his indebtedness to the following persons for their interest in this work and for their many helpful suggestions: Carleton T. Hedge, of the Foreign Service Institute, Department of State, Wash- ington; John Kepke, of the Program in Oriental Languages, American Council of Learned Societies; and PrOfessors George G. Cameron, Lawrence B. Kiddie, Albert H. Marckwardt, Herbert H. Paper, and Herbert Penzl, of the University of Michigan.Professor Cameron stimulated the author's initial interest in the area of Kurdish studies, and Professor Penzl has offered valuable help and continued support. The present publication is under the auspices of the Program in Oriental Languages of the American Council of Learned Societies and was prepared under the editorial direction of Earle Brockman. xi CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION LO The Kurdish Language This study is a description of the Kurdish of the city of Sulaimaniya, Iraq. Kurdish is a member of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo - European family of languages. Kurdish dialects cover an area embrac- ing parts of eastern Turkey, Soviet Armenia, northern Syria, northern Iraq, and western Iran, as well as Khorasan in Iran. (See Figure 1.) It is difficult to obtain reliable figures on the total Kurdish population in the Near East, estimates ranging from 1.51 to 9 million.2 Further study remains to be done on the classification of Kurdish dialects. The most systematic study is Karl Hadank's Untersuchungen zum Westkurdischen: Ban und Ezicli3, in which a limited number of phonological, morphological, and lexical isoglosses are used to set up two major areas, West Kurdish and East Kurdish, with the boundary co- inciding roughly with a line drawn from Lake Urmia to the junction of the Greater Zab with the Tigris. According to this classification, the Sulai- maniya and Mukri dialects are East Kurdish, and the Zaza, Hakari, and Bandinan dialects are West Kurdish. The Kurdish of Sulaimaniya is mu- tually intelligible with Mukri Kurdish, as well as with dialects as far north as Ruwandiz in Iraq and Sujbulak in Iran and as far south as Sinna and Kermanshah in Iran. Of all the Kurdish dialects in Iraq, that of Sulaimaniya seems to enjoy the greatest cultural prestige, as is acknowledged by speakers of other dialects.It is the Sulaimaniya dialect that the central government in Baghdad has chosen to be used in Kurdish textbooks for elementary schools throughout Iraqi Kurdistan, and for all Kurdish language broad- casts from Radio Baghdad. It is in this dialect too that the United States Information Service in Baghdad published (as of 1951) its weekly Kurdish language news bulletin. 1.1 The Data The corpus of data for this description was gathered on the occasion of a University of Michigan expedition to Iraq and Iran in the spring and summer of 1951. In Baghdad I obtained, through the offices of Professor George Cameron, the director 0( the expedition, the services of Mr. Abdul Qadir Qazaz, then an official in the Department of Post and Telegraph. 'Encyclopaedia Britannica (Chicago, 1942) 13.520. 2Lucien Rambout, Les Kurdes et le droit (Paris, 1947) 18. 3Karl Hadank, Untersuchungen zum Westkurdischen: Botl und ractr, Arbeiten aus dem Institut fur Lautforschung an der Universitat Berlin 6.1-6 (1938). 1 1.1 He was a native of Sulaimaniya and had completed secondary school there. His English and his Arabic, as well as his Kurdish, were excel- lent and he proved ideal as an interpreter and informant. He had trans- lated works into Kurdish from English and Arabic, and was considered by other literate Kurds as having an excellent command of the language. He was then approximately forty years of age. The expedition eventually established its field headquarters in the village of Ruwandiz, where I worked with Mr. Qazaz and some members of the local population. After about a month. Mr. Qazaz was obliged, because of personal reasons, to return to Baghdad, just as I had arranged to go to Sulaimaniya itself to continue field work there.I worked two months more in Sulaimaniya, where I was the sole foreigner in town. This town, the capital of the Liwa of Sulaimaniya, has a predominantly sedentary Kurdish population, with a few Assyrian and Armenian families, totaling about twenty thou- sand people.' In Sulaimaniya I received the wholehearted cooperation of the Director of Education and the excellent assistance of Mr.