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

door

نامه

پیاوێک

a day

ده رگایه ک

a letter

چهند پیاوێک

every day

لاپهڕه

what page?

لا

each direction

کوردێکی زۆر

many men

پیاوهکه

American

ئهمهریکیهکه

student

کتاویهکه

village

دێهکه

the door

نامهکه

the men (plural!)

کتاویهکان

the doors

نامهکان

(some) men

4. Demonstratives. As attributive adjectives the demonstratives (‘this, that’) envelop the nouns they modify. ‘This’ is am ... (y)á, and 'that' is aw ... (y)á. The forms of nouns enveloped by demonstra- tives are the absolute singular and the indefinite plural.

man = pyâw --> this man = am pyâwá

man = pyâw --> these men = am pyâwâná

this man

ئەم پیاوانە

ئەم کتاویە