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4.2.4 Glides
A glide is often added when a suffix (ezafe 36 conjunctive particle, oblique marker,
or indefinite article marker) or enclitic 37 (copula) is added to a word ending in a vowel.
This is most easily understood by means of example. In example (1), which is a line from
the corpus, the word meyî consists of the 3PL personal pronoun, me, and the 2SG copula, î.
For glossing, it is customary to consider the glide to be a part of the enclitic, or in other
instances as part of the suffix. In this example the copula with the glide is yî.
(1) baz-ê baz-an şah-ê Kurd-an ruhinî-ya çav-ê (BS1:5)
falcon-EZ.M falcon-OBL.PL king-EZ.M Kurd-OBL.PL light-EZ.F eye-EZ.M
me-yî
1DP=COP.PRS.2SG
‘Falcon of falcons, king of Kurds, you are the light of our eye.’
In some instances a glide must be changed to a vowel, and in other instances a
vowel may change to a glide. In line six of the same poem, shown in (2), the word for
‘wine,’ mey, appears twice. In the first instance, meîya, the y on mey is changed to an î so
that the ezafe particle, in this case ya, can be added. The change is necessary because the
language does not phonologically have consecutive y’s. On the second mey, a glide is not
required and the copula is simply added. The contrast in these two examples needs
further research to explain why in the first instance the ezafe conjunctive particle -ya was
added, when seemingly it could have simply been -a. The difference between these two
examples may be phonological or it may have something to do with the difference
between an ezafe conjunctive particle being added versus a copula. There’s also a
possibility that the reason has something to do with poetics. My purpose is not to
36 The ezafe conjunctive particle is used to connect modifying nouns, pronouns and attributive adjectives to
a head noun. § 4.4.2.4 discusses the ezafe conjunctive particle as well as other particles and markers that are
attached to nouns.
37 The term enclitic is used to refer to a word that are attached phonetically to end of another word. The
Northern Kurdish present tense copula is considered an enclitic. Ezafe particles and markers, such as
oblique markers, are attached to words but are not considered to be words themselves.