Magin_Edward-thesis

145
tu hêye ve
2D exist.PRS.2SG again
‘Be compassionate to (your) disciples; when will you be back?’
Line 1 of the same poem has a similar situation as (211) where an object follows
the imperative, bike, ‘do.’ In this instance, the object is again an Arabic word, lutif,
which, means ‘kindness’ or, as it was translated, ‘benevolence.’ According to my
consultant, Kurds do not typically add Kurdish suffixes when using Arabic words. 78
Additionally, while it is true that the normal order for Arabic is VSO, Sindî’s confession
during my interview with him, that he tries to write in pure Kurdish, precludes us from
thinking that he would resort to Arabic word order.
(212) xan-ê xan-an can-ê can-an tu bi-ke (BS1:1)
Khan-EZ.M Khans-OBL.PL soul-EZ.M soul-OBL.PL 2D IRR-do.IMP.SG
lutif u were
benevolence and come.IMP.SG
‘Khan of khans, soul of souls―be beneficent and come back.’
Now, if Sindî were to have used the Northern Kurdish word for ‘kindness,’ başî,
he would have written tu bike başîekê. (Normal SOV word order is tu başîekê bike.) The
word başîekê includes both the indefinite article suffix, -ek, and the feminine oblique
marker, -ê. Hence, lutif must be an object and not part of a compound verb. It is possible
that Sindî resorted to this Arabic word for some nuance of meaning; however, it seems
more likely that he used lutif (without the suffixes -ekê) because it offered him two
syllables versus the four syllables in başîekê.
In line 43 of the same poem, shown in (213), a compound object, hizir u bîr, ‘idea
and thought,’ is positioned after the verb nebadan, ‘not surrender.’ Having the object at
the end allowed Sindî to rhyme bîr, ‘thought,’ with pîr, ‘elder,’ in line 44, also shown.
78 Some Arabic words have been used for such a long time that they have becoming part of the Kurdish
lexicon. One example would be the word for ‘school.’ In the Badinan region of Northern Iraq, both of the
words commonly used for ‘school,’ mekteb and medrese, come from near Arabic equivalents. According to
Chyet (2003:673), the Northern Kurdish word for school is xwendegeh.