Magin_Edward-thesis

176
The word for ‘but’ varies among speakers of Northern Kurdish. According to
Chyet (2003:352), lê and lêbelê can both mean ‘but.’ The corpus contains examples of
both. There were also two examples of belê being used for ‘but,’ as shown in (286) and
(287).
(286) belê bê qeyd=e bê lûm=e (AN1:66)
but without fetters=COP.PRS.3SG without lûm 111 =COP.PRS.3SG
‘But it is an unnecessary complaint.’
(287) xwelî ya wî jî bin ax-kir-in (H:7, 8)
ashes EZ.F 3OM also below earth-do.PST-3PL
‘They also buried his ashes in the earth.’
belê jinav xelkî ne-çu-Ø
but among people NEG-go.PST-3SG
‘but he did not go from among the people.’
However, belê can also mean ‘yes,’ as shown in (291). The context provides the correct
interpretation.
(288) gut-in belê .. me dît-Ø (BS6:26)
say.PST-3PL yes 1OP (3OF) see.PST-3SG
‘They said, Yes, we saw it.’
What I found particularly puzzling were usages of lê belê (with the lê separated
from belê in the original text) that had originally been translated as ‘yes.’ These examples
are shown in (289) and (290). According to Chyet (2003:352), ‘yes’ is not an optional
definition for lêbelê. Furthermore, he does not list belê as meaning ‘but.’ It only means
‘yes’ (2003:33). However, belê is commonly used in Northern Iraq for ‘but.’ 112 I asked
one of my consultants if lê belê could be translated as ‘but yes,’ and she said that this
may actually be a better translation. However, she does not use lê belê in her common
spoken language or poetry, and she finds its usage a little odd. Between hearing her
comments and seeing the number of words meaning ‘but,’ it is clear that we are dealing
111 Meaning unknown.
112 From personal experience, I can affirm that belê is used for ‘but’ in Northern Iraq. Additionally, the
word bes is used. Bes, however, is usually never used in writing in Iraq; belê (and perhaps lê) is used.