kurmanji_complete

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 tiştên min nivisîbûn,
ne şiîr bûn.
Te xwest bibî başoke, ew teyrê te pirr jê
hez dikir.
I understood that the things I had written
were not poetry.
You wanted to become a falcon, that
bird you liked so much.
§ 31. The Emphatic Jî. The Kurmanji enclitic jî, equivalent to the Sorani
enclitic ﺶـــf -îsh, the Persian ﱒ, and the Turkish de/da, emphasizes the word
that precedes it. Its meanings range from ‘even’ to ‘also,’ but it is often untranslatable
since the function it serves is taken care of in English by voice
inflection and intonation (italicization or underscore in writing). It is often
helpful to think of jî as a spoken underscore.
Bêguman ew ne Xweda ye. Kêmasî û
şaşiyên wî jî hene.
Min mamostetiya zimanê erebî dikir û
ez demekê jî midûrê dibistanê bûm.
Di gelek waran de ew hê jî mamostayiya
me dike.
OTHER SYNTACTICAL FEATURES
Of course, he isn’t God. He too has
weaknesses and faults.
I used to teach the Arabic language, and
also for a time I was a school principal.
In many respects he is still teaching us.
§ 32. Expressions of Temporal Duration. There are two constructions for
temporal duration, the first of which is the more commonly used.
(1) The formula for present expressions of temporal duration (“I’ve been
here for two hours”) is as follows: (bi) length of time + e (or in) + (optional
ku) + present-tense affirmative verb or present-perfect negative verb.
Du saet e ku ez li vir im. I’ve been here for two hours.
…zimanekî mîna kurdî ku bi sedsalan
e nebûye zimanê nivîsandinê
…a language like Kurdish, which has
not been a language of writing for centuries
Ji kengê ve ye ku tu bi kurdî dinivîsî? Since when have you been writing in
Kurdish?
77