Kurmanji Kurdish Reader
Deniz Ekici
Dunwoody Press
This Kurdish newspaper reader is the latest addition to a small corpus of resources available to advanced student of Kurdish.
The articles that Mr. Ekici has chosen for this Kurmanji newspaper reader are timely, and the topics reflected in them give a good idea of how varied Kurdish life is today. The additional explanatory notes which have been provided — some about cultural matters, others about grammatical points -add to the book's value. The world of Kurdish studies welcomes a work such as this, showing things as they are in the first decade of the 21st Century. A great deal of effort has been put into this impressive undertaking: the newness of the material is truly refreshing.
With the exception of the correction of obvious typographical errors, the articles have been taken word for word as they appeared in their original format: grammatical inaccuracies have not been altered, although they are pointed out and discussed in the notes. This means that the spelling of certain words may vary from one article to the next, an inevitable ...
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments / i
Introduction / iii
User’s Guide / v
Abbreviations / vi
References / vii
Sources of the Selections / viii
Part 1 : Grammar
The Kurmanji Alphabet and Pronunciation Key / 3
Case Terminology / 4
I. Personal Pronouns / 4
A. Nominative Case Personal Pronouns / 4
B. Possessive (Oblique Case) Pronouns / 5
II. Ezafeh (Noun Connector / 5
A. Ezafeh with Definite Nouns / 6
1. The Usage of Ezafeh in the Possessive Structure / 6
2. The Usage of Ezafeh with a Modifier / 8
3. The Verb hebûn (to exist-to have-there is-there are) / 9
a) In the Northern Dialect / 10
b) In the Behdinî Dialect / 11
B. Indefinite Nouns / 12
1. The Indefinite Singular Article (-ek/-yek) / 12
2. The Indefinite Plural Article -y(in) / 13
C. Ezafeh with Indefinite Nouns / 13
1. The Usage of Ezafeh in the Possessive Structure / 13
2. The Usage of Ezafeh with a Modifier / 14
D. Secondary Ezafeh / 15
E. Secondary Ezafeh with Indefinite Nouns / 17
F. The Use of the Conjunction “û” [and] as a Secondary Ezafeh / 18
G. The Comparative Form of Adjectives and Adverbs / 18
H. The Superlative Form of Adjectives and Adverbs / 19
III. Pronouns and Nouns in the Nominative Case / 20
A. Nominative Case Personal Pronouns / 21
B. Nominative Case Demonstrative Pronouns and Adjectives / 22
C. The Negative Form of the Verb Bun (To Be) / 23
1. By using the particle ne before the predicate / 23
2. By prefixing the particle nîn to the verb / 23
D. The Days of the Week / 24
E. The Periods of the Day / 24
F. The Months / 25
G. The Seasons / 25
IV. Pronouns and Nouns in the Oblique Case / 25
A. Oblique Case Personal Pronouns / 26
B. Reflexive Pronoun Xwe / 28
C. Oblique Case Demonstrative Pronouns and Adjectives / 29
D. Definite Nouns in the Oblique Case / 31
E. Indefinite Nouns in the Oblique Case / 32
F. Nouns and Pronouns in the Oblique Case as the Object of a Preposition / 33
G. Pronouns in the Oblique Case as the Goal of the Sentence / 36
H. The Adverbial Uses of the Oblique Case / 36
1. The Days of the Week in the Oblique Case / 36
2. The Periods of the Day in the Oblique Case / 37
3. The Months in the Oblique Case / 38
4. The Seasons in the Oblique Case / 39
I. The Numbers / 39
J. Ordinal Numbers / 42
V. Vocative Case Endings / 44
VI. Imperative / 44
VII. Verb Tenses / 45
A. Present Tense / 45
1. Compound Verbs / 49
2. Present Tense to Convey Present Progressive Meaning / 50
3. Present Tense to Convey Present Perfect Progressive Meaning / 51
4. Subjunctive Mood and Its Use in the Present Tense / 53
a) Present Tense Optative Mood with Bila and Ka / 55
b) The Use of the Subordinating Conjunction da ku / 56
B. Future Tense / 57
C. Simple Past Tense / 61
1. Intransitive Verbs / 61
2. Transitive Verbs / 63
D. Past Progressive (Continuous) Tense / 66
1. Intransitive Verbs / 66
2. Transitive Verbs / 67
3. Past Progressive Tense to Convey Past Perfect Progressive Meaning / 69
E. Present Perfect Tense / 71
1. Intransitive Verbs / 71
2. Transitive Verbs / 73
3. Present Perfect Tense to Convey Present Perfect Progressive Meaning / 75
F. Past Perfect Tense / 76
1. Intransitive Verbs / 76
2. Transitive Verbs / 78
VIII. The Passive Voice / 79
A. Passive Present Tense / 80
B. Passive Future Tense / 82
C. Passive Simple Past Tense / 85
D. Passive Past Progressive Tense / 86
E. Passive Present Perfect Tense / 88
F. Passive Past Perfect Tense / 90
IX. Causative / 91
A. Causative Present Tense / 92
B. Causative Future Tense / 93
C. Causative Simple Past Tense / 94
D. Causative Past Progressive Tense / 95
E. Causative Present Perfect Tense / 97
F. Causative Past Perfect Tense / 98
X. Conditional / 99
A. Present Tense Subjunctive / 99
B. Past Tense Subjunctive / 100
1. Intransitive Verbs / 100
2. Transitive Verbs / 100
C. Conditional Sentences / 100
1. Present and Future Tenses Real Condition (True) / 101
2. Present and Past Tenses Unreal Condition (Untrue) / 103
3. Optative Mood with Xwezî / 105
Part 2: Selections
1: Malbata Mîrza Botî / 109
2: Qesra îshak Paşa û tirba Ehmedê Xanî / 110
3: Li Amedê festîvala zarokan / 112
4: Çend rewşenbîrên kurd / 114
5: Li Swîsreyê perwerdeya kurdî / 117
6: Li cîhanê jin roja xwe cejn dikin / 121
7: Li ser qursên zimanê kurdî yên taybet û rewşenbîrên kurd / 123
8: Kerkùk Kurdistan e bûye serkaniyeka herî bingehî ya ragihandina kurdî / 128
9: Kongreya Gelê Kurdistanê Abdullah Ocalan wekî ‘serokê gelê kurd’ hilbijart / 132
10: CD-Roma kurdî ji bo zarokan / 135
II : Li Amedê heşt hezar zarok li kûçeyan dixebitin / 137
12: Şagirdên kurd Newrozê pîroz dikin / 140
13: Ji bo hîndekariya zimanê kurdî Kurdiya Nûjen derdikeve / 141
14: Kurd û Paltalk / 144
15: Ciwan Haco: Hema bêjin mûzîka Ciwan / 147
16: Navenda PENa Kurd li dijî serxwebûna Bakuriyan e / 152
17: Siyabend û Xecê / 154
18: Salvegera 42emîn a şewata sînemeya Amûdê / 158
19: Balafirên “Kurdistan Airlines” berê xwe didin ezmana / 160
20: Ala Kurdî / 161
21 : Ji bo navên ku tê de tîpên “w, x, q, ê” hene destûr nehat day in / 163
22: Pirsgirêka alfabeyê û pêşniyazek / 164
23: Di salvegeriya rojnamegeriya kurdî de problemên rojnamegeriya kurdî / 167
24: Helbestvan hene, lê weşanxane tune ne / 170
25: Romana evînê: Leyla Fîgaro / 173
26: Çîroka keça kurd Fadia û problêma zewaca bi zorê li Elmanyayê / 176
27: Li Vesoulê du fïlmên kurdî hatin xelatkirin / 178
28: UNICEF û tirk bi hev re keçên kurdan asîmîle dikin / 180
29: Çima ji zarokan re xwendina çîrokan girîng e? / 181
30: Çima rojnamevanî li Kurdistanê pêş ve naçe? / 183
31: Ji polîtîkayê revîna Ciwan Haco xwekuştina wî ye / 187
Part 3: Translations
1: Mr. Botî’s Family / 195
2: Ishak Paşa’s Palace and the Tomb of Ehmedê Xanî / 195
3: The Children’s Festival in Diyarbakir [Amed] / 196
4: A Few Kurdish Scholars / 197
5: Kurdish Education in Switzerland / 198
6: Throughout the World Women Celebrate Their Day / 201
7: About Private Kurdish Language Courses and Kurdish Intellectuals / 201
8: Kerkuk Kurdistan (web page) Has Become the Most Fundamental Source of Kurdish Communication / 204
9: The Kurdistan People’s Congress Chose Abdullah Ocalan as “The President of the Kurdish People” / 206
10: Kurdish CD-ROM for Children / 207
11: Eight Thousand Children Work on Streets in Diyarbakir [Amed] / 208
12: Kurdish Students Celebrate Newroz / 209
13: Kurdiya Nûjen [Modem Kurdish] is Coming Out for Kurdish Language Teaching / 210
14: Kurds and Paltalk / 211
15: Ciwan Haco: “Let’s Call It Ciwan’s Music” / 212
16: PEN Kurdish Center Opposes the Independence of Northerners / 215
17: Siyabend and Khej / 216
18: The 42nd Anniversary of the Burning of Amud’s Theater / 219
19: The Planes of the Kurdistan Airlines Are Heading Toward the Skies / 220
20: The Kurdish Flag / 220
21 : Permission Was Not Given for Names Including the Letters “W,” “X,” “Q,” and “Ê / 221
22: The Alphabet Problem and a Suggestion / 222
23: On the Anniversary of Kurdish Journalism the Problems of Kurdish Journalism / 223
24: There Are Poets but There Are No Publishing Houses! / 225
25: The Romance Novel: Ley la Figaro / 228
26: The Story of the Kurdish Girl Fadia and the Problem of Forced Marriage in Germany / 229
27: Two Kurdish Films Awarded in Vesoul / 230
28: UNICEF and the Turks Together Assimilate the Kurdish Girls / 231
29: Why Is Reading Stories to Children Important / 232
30: Why Does Journalism in Kurdistan Fail to Make Progress? / 233
31: Ciwan Haco’s Flight from Politics Will Be Suicide / 235
Part 4: Glossary / 241
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This Kurmanji Reader has been a few years in the making. Although it is not a grammar book, it has an extensive grammar section in addition to its thirty-one selections and vocabularies.
The ideas expressed in the selections are those of the authors in their respective articles and they are not intended to represent the position of the author of this book.
During the writing process, many people offered me valuable help with this project. For his assistance in choosing appropriate articles and his continuous support, I am grateful to Mr. Thomas Creamer. I owe a great deal to Ms. Laura Boulden for her thorough review of this book and invaluable corrections and suggestions to improve the quality of this book. I would like to acknowledge Mr. Jack Jones, Ms. Erin Gyomber, and Ms. Carole Breakstone for their expert editing work. I would also like to thank Mr. Aung Kyaw Oo for formatting the book, and Mr. Mark Jeon for his help in recording the articles.
1 am indebted to Mr. Baran Rizgar for the long, valuable conversations we had over the phone and the Internet about Kurmanji grammar. I am also indebted to the editors of Kurdish newspapers, magazines, and web sites who let me use their news and articles; I would like to thank Mr. Şefik Beyaz, the former president of the Istanbul Kurdish Institute; Mr. Rojhat Amedi of Peyama Kurd; Mr. Haydar Diljen of dibistanakurdi.com; Mr. Arif Zêrevan of nefel.com and kerkuk-kurdistan.com; Mr. Sîrwan Hecî Berko of amude.net; Mr. Rêbiwar Pîremêrd of rojev.com; Mr. Tayîp Temel of Azadiya Welat; and Mr. Ali Riza Vural of Doz Publishing House. I must also thank my students at the lnlingua Language Center for all their help.
Most of all, 1 am eternally grateful to Dr. Michael L. Chyet, who reviewed numerous drafts of this book and each time provided me with invaluable comments, suggestions, improvements, and corrections that I have incorporated into my work. It has been a great privilege and source of confidence to have Michael’s support in this project.
A special thanks to my wife Dawin for her encouragement and constant support during this project.
Introduction
This Kurdish newspaper reader is the latest addition to a small corpus of resources available to advanced student of Kurdish.
The articles that Mr. Ekici has chosen for this Kurmanji newspaper reader are timely, and the topics reflected in them give a good idea of how varied Kurdish life is today. The additional explanatory notes which have been provided — some about cultural matters, others about grammatical points -add to the book's value. The world of Kurdish studies welcomes a work such as this, showing things as they are in the first decade of the 21st Century. A great deal of effort has been put into this impressive undertaking: the newness of the material is truly refreshing.
With the exception of the correction of obvious typographical errors, the articles have been taken word for word as they appeared in their original format: grammatical inaccuracies have not been altered, although they are pointed out and discussed in the notes. This means that the spelling of certain words may vary from one article to the next, an inevitable situation in a language as rich in multiformity and regional variation as Kurmanji Kurdish. The vocabulary also manifests variability', as some writers borrow liberally from Sorani, while others refrain from this practice.
The articles in this volume have been limited to publications and web sites that use the Latin orthography for Kurdish, although Kurmanji is also written in the Arabic script in Iraq and Iran (but not in Syria, interestingly enough, where it is written in the Latin script), and at least until recently in a modified Cyrillic script in the lands of the former Soviet Union (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan).
The very first Kurdish reader was Alexandre Jaba's Recueil de notices et récits kourdes servant à la connaissance de la langue, de la littérature et des tribus du Kourdistan, réunis et traduits en français published in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1860. It was in Kurmanji, the northern dialect of Kurdish, and consisted of 40 texts in Arabic script, accompanied by French translations. (A reprint edition is available through APA-Philo Press, Amsterdam.) Not until 1959 did the first modern Kurdish reader for foreigners appear, in the guise of Stig Wikander’s Recueil de textes kourmandji, which was published in Uppsala. It contained only the texts themselves, without accompanying translations, vocabularies, or explanatory notes. This was reprinted in Istanbul in 1992 under the Kurdish title Berhevoka Kurdi, without any editorial changes whatsoever. In 1968, Joyce Blau published a small volume entitled Kurdish Kurmandji Modern Texts:
Introduction, Selection and Glossary, which includes a glossary. Her …
Deniz Ekici
Kurmanji Kurdish Reader
Dunwoody
Dunwoody Press
Kurmanji Kurdish Reader
Deniz Ekici
2007
Dunwoody
Press
Kurmanji Kurdish Reader
Copyright © 2007 by McNeil Technologies, Inc.
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Dunwoody Press
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ISBN; 978-1.931546-33-1
Library of Congress Conttol Number: 2007927986
Printed and bound in the United States of America
