Magin_Edward-thesis

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Table 11. Non-possessive existential verbs (Thackston 2006:31)
person present tense past tense
1SG heme hebûm
2SG heyî hebûyî
3SG heye hebû
1, 2, 3PL hene hebûn
The following is one example of an intransitive usage of this verb.
(63) Gotin-ek-e pêşi-yên me heye (Thackston 2006:31)
saying-INDF-EZ.M ancestor-EZ.PL 1OP exist.PRS.3SG
‘There is a saying of our ancestors.’
Table 12 provides the more common forms for transitive uses of hebû/heb. Here
we can see that the forms are different for questions than for statements or negations.
There are also irregular forms for negated verbs.
Table 12. Irregular forms of hebû/heb in the present tense (Şirîn 2002:6)
Type of sentence Number Form of verb
statement
SG
hey
PL
heyn
question
SG
heye
PL
hene
negative
SG
nîne
PL
nînin
Thackston (2006:31-2) also calls hebû/heb an “existential verb” and states that
Northern Kurdish “expresses possession by the possessive construct followed by the
appropriate third person of the existential verb heye, ‘there is,’ hene, ‘there are,’ hebû,
‘there was,’ or hebûn, ‘there were.’ Example (64) is one present tense example from his
grammar on the language that illustrates this sort of possession. The pronoun wî, 3OM,
which expresses the possessor, modifies zarok, ‘child’ (what is possessed), and is
connected to the noun by the plural ezafe conjunctive particle -ên.