—Kurmanji Kurdish— A Reference Grammar with Selected Readings

Te dixwest jinek porzer û laş spî û
dagirtî bi te re baya.
You wanted there to be a blond-haired,
white-skinned, well-built woman with
you.
Some writers use it after berî ku ‘before’ with reference to past time: 1
Aw nivîsarên ku ji Hawarê re dihatin
şandin, berî ku bihatana weşandin
kesî ew di ber çav 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 karîn ‘to be able’ for an unfulfilled,
unfulfillable, or unrealized situation, i.e. what one couldn’t do,
couldn’t have done, could have done but didn’t, or should or shouldn’t have
done.
Di mehên destpêkê de ez nikaribûm jê
re bibûma alîkar.
Ew dikaribû bibûya yek ji şaîrên dema
xwe yê herî navdar.
Meriv dikaribû ew bi her tiştî bi nav
bikirina, lê ne …
Îmkanên min ku ez bikaribûma vegeriyama
Batmanê, Sêrtê an jî Diyarbekirê
bimama, bijiyama, tune bû.
Kesên ku bikaribana binivîsiyana jî
gelekî kêm bûn.
In the initial months I wasn’t able to be
helpful to him.
He could have become one of the most
famous poets of his age.
One could call them anything but not …
There were no possibilities for me that I
could return to Batman, Siirt, or even
Diyarbekir and remain and live there.
Persons who could write were very few.
With the addition of ê/wê/dê to the past conditional, a future conditional
modal (‘would, should’) is produced.
Berî min, kesin din ev şixul bi ser
xistibûn. Çima min ê nekira?
Lê wî biryara xwe dabû, wî ê bixwenda.
KURMANJI KURDISH
Others before me had put this business
in their heads. Why shouldn’t I do it?
But he had made his decision: he would
study.
1
Other writers prefer the present subjunctive exclusively after berî ku.
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