—Kurmanji Kurdish— A Reference Grammar with Selected Readings

Examples reflect changing agents (‘I, you, &c. have seen him/her/it’) and
changing patients (‘he has seen me, you, &c.’). The negative is formed by
prefixing né- to the verb.
DIFFERENT AGENTS;
3rd-PERSON SINGULAR PATIENT
KURMANJI KURDISH
3rd-PERSON SINGULAR AGENT;
DIFFERENT PATIENTS
min ew dîtiye me ew dîtiye wî ez dîtime wî em dîtine
te ew dîtiye we ew dîtiye wî tu dîtiye wî hun dîtine
wî ew dîtiye wan ew dîtiye wî ew dîtiye wî ew dîtine
min ew nedîtiye me ew nedîtiye wî ez nedîtime wî em nedîtine
te ew nedîtiye we ew nedîtiye wî tu nedîtiye wî hun nedîtine
wî ew nedîtiye wan ew nedîtiye wî ew nedîtiye wî ew nedîtine
Generally, the present perfect tense of Kurdish corresponds fairly closely to
the English present perfect (“I have come”).
Min heta niha çar kitêb çap kirine. Until now I have published four books.
Gelo ew jî wek min winda bûye. 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 = ما ﻩﺪــﻣآ,
maye = ﺖ ــﺳا
ﻩﺪــﻧﺎــﻣ).
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:
Wî tu caran tiştekî wilo negot. “He never said any such thing.”
Wî tu caran tiştekî wilo negotiye. “He has never said any such thing.”
The first 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 present—i.e., is it still true and relevant to the topic at
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