a-practical-kurdish-grammar

DIPHTHONGS 27
'balcony'; Cf'^j] (aû-lad) 'descendant'; ±ij\ (aû-ish) 'he,
she, or it also'. The other three diphthongs cannot stand
alone, nor constitute the very first character in a word. Ex.
(JjJ (r-oi) 'he, she or it went' ; (Jy~ (kh-oi) 'him, her or
itself; ^^_J (r-ei) 'road'; j^^ (p-ei) 'foot'; ^ (n-eij)
'half, 'in', 'into'.
54. Combination Diphthongs: The combination diph¬
thongs have the same phonetic values as their corresponding
'Simple Diphthongs'. They are only formed differently, being
a combination of a vowel letter and a vowel mark. This
formation is often due to vowel changes.
These are: (1) ^J _ (ai), and (2) j '_ (aû).
55. The combination diphthongs cannot stand alone, but
may occupy any syllable in a word. Examples: e,^£ (gaû-
ra) 'large'; 0_^ (haût) 'seven'; J_^ (khaûn) 'sleep';
cl-^ (malt) 'corpse'; ^_jidL. (ma-bai-ne) 'between'; ^p^)^
(hal-kaij-tin) 'to happen', etc.
>S6. When a word ending in < is to add fj the o is
assimilated by the (j and the 'Combination Diphthong' ^j-
is formed; and this again is sometimes contracted into iS
'e'. Examples : ^ja^ j\ (aû haspai) 'that horse', is usually
written j_j--* jl and that again is occasionally contracted to
j^~-A j)\ (aû haspe). In the same way ^^i]\, j| (au
malai) 'that house', becomes IjU j| and is sometimes even
contracted to JU j\ (au male), etc.
57. Long Diphthongs:The long diphthongs are like
their corresponding 'Simple Diphthongs' as to form. The