Magin_Edward-thesis

115
(140) xwozîya kesê guh daye min şêx u melaw mêr u jin 64 (AN3:27, 28)
me divêt bu wan faîdê mezin lew min dewam gazindeye
(141) me͡ d(i).vêt bu wan fa͡ î.dê mez.in
In another poem, Mîrê Peyvan, ‘The Prince of Words,’ by Sindî, the word biçin,
at the end of the 5th line, joins with the previous word te, shortening the apparent 17-
syllable count by one, as shown in (142). Hence, the poet has taken the performance of
the poem into account while forming his 16-syllable count lines.
(142) te da rê ey mîrê peyvan bê saz u maz li pêş te biçin (BS7:5)
te da rê ey mî.rê pey.van bê saz u maz li pêş te͡ b.(i)çin
In truth, when speakers of the Bahdini subdialect say te biçin, it sounds more like tep çin.
The b sounds more like a p, taking on the minus voice distinctive feature of the letter ç.
Lastly, as Thackston states, the i can disappear at the end of a word when a
vowel-initial enclitic or suffix is added. In line 11 of Dergehê Jîn U Hîvî Ya, ‘The Door
of Life and Hopes,’ shown in (143), the verb ketin usually has two syllables. However,
because of the e directional enclitic, the word ke.tin, having a CV.CVC structure, is
pronounced ket.ne. The t becomes the coda of the first syllable, now CVC, and the n
becomes the onset of the second syllable, ne, a CV syllable. The syllabic breakdown is
shown in the second line of the example. If the i is pronounced, the syllable count for the
line would exceed the poem’s syllable count of 15.
(143) canîkên kumêda revîn ketine nav çul u çîan (BS4:11)
ca-nîk-ên ku-mêd-a re-vîn ket-(i).ne nav çul u çî-an
These elisions of the i vowel may be represented by the rule in (144). Concerning
the consonants that are marked in the {} brackets, one or the other is required. The
consonants in parentheses are optional. To see how the rule works, I have provided two
examples. In (145) the word befir has two syllables. When befir is in the oblique case, the
feminine oblique marker, -ê, is added and the i elides. The resulting word is bef.rê. In this
64 While this line contains 16-syllables, the syllable min, which rhymes with jin and mezin, happens to
occur on the 9 th syllable, not the 8 th , where it is to be expected. It seems that Nalbend was content with this
deviation in syllable count.