—Kurmanji Kurdish— A Reference Grammar with Selected Readings

Tirs herku çû bêtir bû û tamarên
Şerko sist kirin.
The fear kept getting more and weakening
Sherko’s nerves.
§ 30. Relative Clauses. Relative clauses in Kurdish are introduced by the
relative pronoun ku (or the variant ko) ‘who, which, that.’ Unmodified
antecedents of the relative are in the construct case (tiştê ku ‘the thing that,’
sala ku ‘the year which,’ welatekî ku ‘a country that,’ tiştekî ku ‘a thing
which,’ tiştên ku ‘things that,’ çîrokên ku ‘stories which’). Modified antecedents
have the construct extender (zimanê me yê ku ‘our language,
which,’ dayka xwe ya ku ‘his mother, who,’ tiştên din yên ku ‘other things
which’). When relative clauses are embedded within the main clause, there
is no distinction between restrictive and nonrestrictive relative clauses.
Min meqaleyên ku bi zimanê kurdî
hatibûne nivîsandin dîtin.
Ji dengê zarokên ku li der û dor dilîstin
pêştir deng tunebû.
Digel ku gelek salên dirêj di ser re
derbas bûne, ew alfabe û rêzimana
ku ji aliyê Celadet Bedir-Xan ve hatiye
danîn û di kovarên wî de hatiye bikaranîn,
îro jî bersiva hewcedariya
zimanê kurdî dide.
Ew wî zimanê ku li ber mirinê ye jîndar
dike.
I saw articles that had been written in
the Kurdish language.
There was no sound from the children
who had been playing in the vicinity
before.
Although many long years have passed,
the alphabet and grammar that were
established by Jeladet Bedir-Khan and
were used in his journals satisfy the
needs of the Kurdish language even
today.
He is revivifying this language, which is
on the verge of dying.
When relative clauses follow the main clause they are introduced by yê
ku, ya ku, and yên ku and are nonrestrictive.
Dengê segên gund Şerko dîsa hişyar
kir, yê ku ji kêfxweşiyê hema hindik
mabû bifire.
OTHER SYNTACTICAL FEATURES
Li ser milek wî jî tûrek mezin hebû, yê
ku di hindirê xwe de şekir û tiştên din
yên ku ji qaçaxçiyan hatibûn kirîn,
dihewandin.
75
The sound of the village dogs once again
awoke Sherko, who was almost flying
from happiness.
Over one of his shoulders there was a
large sack, which contained sugar and
other things that had been bought from
smugglers.