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INTRODUCTION
A: Compilation
The first section (Kurdish-English) of this dictionary has been prepared by examining more than 300 Kurdish books, magazines and newspapers. This study enabled me to compile about 15,000 Kurdish words. I then added the words which I had gathered from spoken Kurdish, thus the number of the words totalled up to 25,000. Finally compared these words to the ones in several Kurdish dictionaries in various languages, classified them grammatically and then found English equivalents.
The second part (English-Kurdish) has been prepared by examining about 50,000 English words in several dictionaries and choosing about 20,000 words which were considered as the most common ones. I then classified those words and found Kurdish equivalents.
There are also thousands of idioms and phrases in both languages, as well as examples of different uses of the headwords.
Although this dictionary includes words from all Kurdish dialects, it has been based on Kurmancî which is the dialect spoken by most of the Kurds in Turkish Kurdistan, all the Kurds in Syria, the Soviet Union and Lebanon, and some of the Kurds in Iraqi and Iranian Kurdistan.
B: Alphabet
The dictionary uses the Roman spelling used by Kurmancî and Dimilî speakers. The Kurdish alphabet consists of 31 letters. The table shows the sounds they represent. As Kurdish spelling is phonetic, I have not used a phonetic alphabet. However, some of the letters represent pair sounds; aspirated (unaccented) and unaspirated (accented). In Kurdish we call them dengên cêwî (twin sounds). Among these, the letters “ç, k, p, r, t” are important, because they are in common use and the accent of the sound may create a different word. The Soviet Kurds use different letters for each accent of those letters. Due to the lack of a comprehensive research into the Kurdish sounds and the unfamiliarity of the non-native linguists with the accented sounds, one encounters contradictory conclusions about the subject. In order to avoid such contradictions, I analysed 10,930 basic Kurdish words (72,521 letters/sounds), the users can find the results of this study in the graphics and tables included in this dictionary. They reflect the frequency of the Kurdish letters (sounds), the ratios of the accented sounds, etc. To provide a good pronunciation and to avoid confusing words with one another, I underlined the letters when being accented (unaspirated). By doing this I also tried to distinguish between the words such as; “ta ∫ fever, temperature”, “tam thread”, “ço m rod, stick” and “ço int used for a donkey to move”, ‘‘ker n donkey” and “ker adj deaf ’, pir / bridge and pir adj much, many, very. Thus the user should consider that the underlined letters (ç, k, p, r, t) indicates the accented (unaspirated) pronunciation of the related letters, not different letters. The difference between the pair sounds represented by the letter r is that the accented one (r) is a rolled (r). This is why in some Kurdish texts it is indicated by double r (rr). However, since pronouncing one sound twice and rolling one sound is not the same, it would be much better to mark the accented r instead of doubling it. The fact that, as the first letter / sound of a word, the (r) is always accented (rolled) and that there are many words with two accented (r) or one unaccented and one accented (r) following each other in between other letters / sounds makes this method completely impractical. If we apply that method, we should write the words rê, rêz, berran, piranî, pirreng, pirrû, rêrast, serrişte, serrû, zêrav, kerelal, qareqar as rrê, rrêz, berrran, pirranî, pirrrreng, pirrrrû, rrêrrast, serrrişte, serrrû, zêrrav, kerrelal, qarreqarr. Any method intended to distinguish between the accented and unaccented (r) has to be consistent. One cannot use different letters for some and neglect the rest or mark them only in certain positions. In some words, e, h and x are pronounced like Arabic ... and ... Such pronunciation of those letters have been underlined (e, h, x).
Underlining has not been used for the words which I have only seen in texts and therefore not heard them being pronounced. In some Kurdish dictionaries published by the Soviet Kurds, the unaccented (aspirated) sounds have been marked, however as the purpose of underlining those letters is to draw the reader’s attention to the accented (unaspirated) sounds which are different to the sounds they already use, it should be more useful to distinguish between those pair sounds by underlining the unaspirated (accented) sounds. The first thing to do is to decide whether we should use different letters for the accented pronunciations. Considering the number of basic sounds (31), using different letters for the accented sounds will create an impractical and difficult alphabet (39 letters). This still leaves a pronunciation question for lexicographers and non-native speakers. Since the unaccented pronunciation of these letters are nearly the same as they are pronounced in other languages (Turkish, English, etc), the best thing to do is marking the letters when being accented. The assumption that the accented sounds appear more often is wrong. The unaccented sounds appear more often than the accented ones, with the exception that the accented (unaspirated) k and t appear more often than the unaccented (aspirated) ones. This prevents basing the system on the frequency of those letters. It also makes the idea of marking the unaccented sounds at least impractical. Besides, since the native users are already familiar with those sounds, what they need more is an indication of accented pronunciations. The marking system should also not affect the shape of the letters, otherwise it will mean changing the alphabet. As most Kurds are willing to preserve their traditional alphabet (with the exception of the letters i and î), at this stage one should avoid and leave it to an organisation representing at least most of the Kurmancî speakers. This will also help with preventing an anarchy on the subject. This is why I chose underlining those letters in my dictionary. Underlines are normally used to draw attention or put an emphasis on the related word(s) or letter(s) and have nothing to do with the shape of the letters.
C: Use Of The Dictionary
Kurmancî has genders, it is therefore important to know the gender of each noun, since it affects the case-endings, suffixes, inflections, etc. For example; Kurê min: My son (the possessive ending is ê), Keça min: My daughter (the possessive ending is a). To help the users with these differences, / (feminine noun) and m (masculine noun) have been written next to each noun in italics, n (noun) indicates that either the noun is used for both genders (such as friend, worker, student, etc.) or has not a certain gender (the gender may change in different regions). The genders of the Kurdish nouns have been indicated in the English-Kurdish part too, e.g.: abdomen anat zik m. m indicates that zik is masculine. And for example you say zikê min, you should not say zika min.
The grammatical use of the words have been written in italics. The obvious loan words from foreign languages have been indicated. Such as: Ayet f A, A indicates that the word is Arabic, though commonly used in Kurdish.
The brackets () are used to show an optional word or phrase. For example, in (ser) ber jêr bûn the brackets mean that this can be used in either of the forms ser ber jêr bûn or ber jêr bûn. Brackets are also used for an explanation. Such as, demsal / season (of a year). The imperative has been written in brackets following verbs. This will help the user with the present conjugation as well. For example, in çûn (biçe), biçe is the imperative of the verb çûn.
The slant mark (/) is used to show an alternative word or phrase. For example, in bi rê ve/va, the slant mark means that either bi rê ve or bi rê va can be used.
The tilde (~) is used in place of the letters of the headword to save space. For example in the entry of hesti you will find ~yê bazinê dest, ~yê bazinê pê, etc. Due to the differences in regional pronunciations and the lack of a standard spelling, some words have more than one spelling, such as şikandin, şikenandin, şkandin. They all have the same meaning. To save space, one of them has an entry, and the others refer to the one with an entry. For example, şikandin see şikenandin. şikenandin (bişikîne) vt break.
Yekî and tiştekî are the oblique cases of yek (someone/one) and tiştek (something).
Oblique nouns and pronouns (min, te, wî, wê, me, we, wan) are used in this case. For example; xew (a yeld) hatin vi be / feel sleepy. Xewa min / Zelalê tê. I am / Zelal is sleepy.
The adverbs / preverbs "jê, lê, pê, tê" are the contractions of ji wî / wê or ji yeld / tiştekî, li wî / wê or li yekî / tiştekî, bi wî / wê or bi yekî / tiştekî, di wî / wê or di yekî/tiştekî. These adverbs are very important in Kurdish, because they are so common and they usually change the main meaning of the verb. They are treated with special care in this dictionary. For example: kirin (bike) vt 1 do. Te çi kir? What did you do? 2 put (in/into). jê - vt 1 cut. 2 break off, tear off. 3 undress.
Min kinc ji pitikê kir* I undressed the baby, lê ~ vt 1 write. 2 put up (a wall, etc), build. 3 dress (sb), clothe (sb).
In Kurdish the possessive case is often used instead of an adjective. There are three endings for the definite nouns in the possessive case: yê (used for singular masculine nouns), ya (used for singular feminine nouns) and yên (used for plural nouns). To save space I have only used yê. The user should consider that yê can be replaced by ya (if the related noun is feminine) or yen (if the related noun is plural). The letter y is ommitted when the noun ends in a consonant. For example: manual rgd yê dest. ~ labour karê dest m.
The superscripts (123 etc.) number the headwords with the same spelling.
Many entries are divided into sections numbered in bold type, i.e. 1,2,3, etc. These numbers show the different meanings or usages that the headword has.
D: Acknowledgement
Many thanks to Songul, Ertugrul, Yildiz, Jonathan, Paul and Umut for their solidarity and help with some technical and practical problems.
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