Magin_Edward-thesis

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variation on an existing word (Adams 1997:132). I did not find a single neologism in the
poems of this corpus. While analyzing the poems, I sometimes thought that I had found a
newly created word. However, I eventually learned through a native speaker that the
word was known by speakers of Northern Kurdish. Adams (1997) also writes, “poets
have a legacy of such creations, often quite memorable.” I must remind the reader how
small this corpus is, and that the poems selected for analysis are only a subset of those
collected. A greater inventory of Northern Kurdish poetry would be needed before
determining whether or not poets are using neologisms for expressing ideas in their
poetry.
5.4.1.6 Shortened phrases
In the following examples, words or word combinations were shortened, probably
to help the poet meet a desired number of syllables. The missing parts are in parentheses.
In (349), the command were, ‘come,’ is missing the final vowel, e. No resource that I
have seen mentions wer as a short form of were. Nor have I personally observed its usage
in everyday conversation. Even if wer is spoken, it is not the form common to literature.
Sindî would therefore be using a colloquial term in his poem. In (350), the word ji takes
on the meaning of ji ber or ji ber hindê, ‘because.’ It does not mean what ji typically
means in isolation, a preposition meaning ‘from, of, out of, made of.’
(349) wer(e) bi-xuîn-in ey heval-an ayet-a xuş (BS1:38)
come.IMP.SG IRR-read.PRS-IMP.PL O friend-OBL.PL verse-EZ.F good
hîmet-ê
effort-OBL.F
‘Come, read, O friends, with us the (poetic) verse of good effort.’
(350) kew-ek bu-Ø lê ne-çu-Ø rav-ê (MT:11)
partridge-INDF COP.PST-3SG but NEG-go.PST-3SG hunting-OBL.F
ji (ber) kewgiran 143 ne-kew_gir bu-Ø
because hunter not-partridge_catcher COP.PST-3SG
‘He was a partridge but he didn’t go hunting because for the hunters this partridge
143 Literally ‘partridge hunter.’