Kurdish Sorani, Grammar

1. The Absolute State of the Noun. A Kurdish noun in the absolute state, i.e. without any ending of any kind, gives a generic sense of the noun. It is also the “lexical” form of the noun, i.e. the form in which a noun is given in a vocabulary list or dictionary. The absolute state is normally used for the generic sense, as in قاوه رهشه qâwa rash a ‘coffee is black’.

2. The Indefinite State. The sign of the indefinite singular (‘a, any, some’) is an unstressed enclitic -(y)èk (i.e. ێک -èk after consonants and یهک -yèk after vowels) added to the end of the absolute singular noun. For example:

pyâw ‘man' --> pyâwèk 'a man'

Among the modifiers that demand that a following noun be indefinite are chand ‘a few', hamû ‘every', chi ‘what?', and har ‘each.'

chand pyâwèk 'a few men'

The construction ...i zor ‘many, a lot of’ also takes a preceding indefinite singular noun: 

kurdèk i zor 'a lot of Kurds '

The indefinite plural is formed by adding -ân to the absolute singular. If the absolute singular ends in -â, the indefinite plural ending is -yân. Nouns with absolute singulars ending in -a, like nâma 'letter', form the indefinite plural by dropping the final -a and adding -ân.

pyâw  --> pyâwân '(some) men'

3. The Definite State. Singular nouns are made definite (‘the’) by adding the suffix -(a)ká (i.e. -aká after consonants, u, e, and î, and -ká after the vowels a, â, and o).

pyâw 'man' --> pyâwaká 'the man'

The definite plural is made by adding (a)kân to the singular, i.e. by changing the -(a)ká of the definite singular to -(a)kân.

pyâwaká 'the man' --> pyâwakân 'the men'

coffee

قاوهیێک

every coffee

man

رۆژ