a-practical-kurdish-grammar

16 A PRACTICAL KURDISH GRAMMAR
ing 'vowel letter' and remains silent. Ex. (Jj^yJ (eware)
'evening', Jij) (Iran) 'Persia', .jj\ (ûrmi) 'Urmia', etc.
9. (bab) 'father'. As a final, however, it sometimes has
the sound of 'p'. Ex. c_jl_;-i (sharap) 'wine'.
10. (^ (Pa) and Cj (Ta) have the phonetic values of our
'p' and 't', respectively. Ex. jL (pîaû) 'man', ^J (tre)
'grapes'.
11. Cj (Sa) is used only in words borrowed from the
Arabic, and has the sound of sharp 's' in 'seek'. Ex. öNi«
(masalan) 'for instance'.
12. 5- (Jim) has the phonetic value of our 'j'. Ex. J>-
(jil) 'clothes'.
13. r (Chim) is pronounced like 'ch' in the word 'church'.
Ex. «5^(kich) 'girl'.
14. r- (Hi) is a strong aspirate, and has the phonetic
value of our 'h' in 'hurrah'. Ex. ^J 9j>' (hiriif) 'letter'.
15. 7- (Khi) is a harsh guttural which has no equivalent
in English, but comes very near to the German 'ch' in 'loch'.
Ex. T-j9- (kharj) 'expense'.
16. :> (Dal) as a rule, has the phonetic value of our 'd',
but as a final it sometimes has the sound of 't'. Ex. dA)\>
(daik) 'mother'.
17. i (Zal) is used only in words borrowed from the Ara¬
bic, and has the phonetic value of 'z' in 'brazen'. Ex. C^Ji-
(khizmat) 'service'.
18. J (Ra) and * (Za) are pronounced like our 'r' and