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penultimate syllable, is considered similar to ş in that both sounds are post-alveolar and
fricative. The only difference, again, is the voicing. The consonant ş is unvoiced, while
the consonant j is voiced. One word in (168), nekujtî, also differs in that the vowel u in
the penultimate syllable is unlike the vowel i in the rest of the rhymed words. Potentially
this can be considered vowel feature rhyme, which is discussed in § 5.3.3.1.5.2. Both
vowels are near-close. However, u is a rounded, back vowel, while i is an unrounded,
front vowel.
(167) bêjît me kuro hilo vî tişt u miştî (AN5:6, 8, 10)
me’na ku were bi xu vî tiştî
wey, pa tu neyê kirêt u ziştî
(168) me ji vî terefî dilê birijtî (AN5:16, 18, 22, 28)
wey sed ëceb tu hêj nekujtî
befira du şevî liser nihijtî
’Işqa te ezim jiber buhijtî
5.3.3.1.5.2 Vowel feature rhyme
Vowel feature rhymes may not depend on only one feature difference but on how
close the vowels are to each other, which may entail more than one feature difference.
For the discussion that follows, I will refer to vowel features as shown in the Northern
Kurdish vowel chart in Figure 2. This vowel chart is similar to the IPA vowel chart but
contains the letters from the Northern Kurdish Latin script orthography. For ease of
reference, I have included the IPA vowel chart as Figure 3.
Vowels that are on the immediate left side of a line are unrounded, while those on
the immediate right are rounded. The letter i is unrounded and the letter u is rounded.
Also notice the oval showing the variability of the letter e. As discussed in Chapter 4, the
sound for e varies from word to word, and, so it seems, from dialect to dialect. Opinions
vary insofar as what is believed to be the medial or most common sound for the letter.
The oval does not signify that the sounds for e are sometimes rounded. The sounds are
always unrounded, or in the instance of the sound //, it is neither unrounded or rounded.
In Figure 2, I have chosen to place the letter e in the position corresponding to the sound
//, a medial position to the sounds of //, /ɛ/ and /æ/, which are the three symbols