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attached to the adjective cuan in example (53). Because this present tense copula behaves
as an enclitic, i.e. it behaves grammatically as a word but phonologically as a suffix, the
equal sign, =, is used in our glossing system. The copula is often written as a separate
word by writers of Northern Kurdish outside Iraq. However, writers in Iraq tend to attach
the copula to the ends of words.
(52) ez birsî=me
1D hungry=COP.PRS.1SG
‘I’m hungry.’
(53) maḧfîr-a te cuan=e
rug-EZ.F 2O beautiful=COP.PRS.3SG
‘Your rug is beautiful.’
Besides the present tense copula illustrated above (as a zero form), there is also a
copula stem b, ‘be.’ Non-past forms of b are summarized in Table 9.
Table 9.
Conjugations of non-past copula b
person & number present future
1SG bim dê…bim
2SG bî dê…bî
3SG bit dê…bit
1PL bîn dê…bîn
2PL & 3PL bin dê…bin
Many of the uses of this ‘be’ word appear as part of complex predicates, which I discuss
in § 4.4.3.6. Hence, some uses of b may not be considered copular. Additionally, only the
regular forms of this word can take an irrealis, imperfective or negative affix (see
§ 4.4.3.7 on aspect, mood and negation). Such instances can have the sense of ‘become,’
as example (54) shows.
(54) mêz-a wê delal-tir di-b-it (HS:18)
table-EZ.F 3OF graceful-more IPFV-become.PRS-3SG
‘Her table becomes more graceful.’
As mentioned, future tense consists of the word dê in conjunction with a regular
conjugation of a present tense verb root. For the copula, the same non-past stem b is used,
also shown in Table 9. Example (55), an attributive clause, shows dê with the conjugated