Kurmanji Study Group

[księżycowy]

Compact Kurdish.

And I like it because 1) It's one of the few things you can find on the English market
2) but also I think it does a good job of explaining the grammar and giving some good dialogues and vocabulary.
It's not an awesome textbook, but it is a good one for sure.

[voron]

The author seems to be a nice guy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsI_ZOo-ccA

[księżycowy]

I figure it should at least give me a decent start, and then I can start using Thackston's grammar. That was my plan with Sorani, so I see no reason to change that for Kurmanji.

[vijayjohn]

Chapter Destpêk (Beginning)
Plan: July 9 - July 23

And we completed it in 1 week instead of the planned 2 weeks. Vijay, we rock!

Yay! And thanks (both for this and for your notes as always)!

Btw I also started watching some of the Dersa Kurdî videos, partly because you mentioned and I think recommended them.

And I'm doing exercise #2:

1 - Meral Tekçî di sala 1978'an de li Stenbolê ji dayik bûye.
2 - Malbata wê ji Çewlikê hatiye.
3 - Ji hunermendên kurd ew ji Şivan Perwer û Mihemed Şêxo hez dike.
4 - Kêfa wê ji pirtûkên Murathan Mungan, Amîn Maalouf û Mehmed Uzun re tê.
5 - Li gorî wê filmên Behman Qubadî gelekî serkeftî ne.
6 - Ew hînî lêdana qanûnê dibe.

[voron]

Btw I also started watching some of the Dersa Kurdî videos, partly because you mentioned and I think recommended them.

If you can't make out what they say at any particular moment, give me a link and I'll try to transcribe.

5 - Li gorî wê filmên Behman Qubadî gelekî serkeftî ne.

Not a correction, just wanted to comment that I found Behman Qubadi's films on youtube with English subtitles:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZtkKdKpJIQ

and I wanted to suggest that we watch them, but they are in Sorani...

Exercise 3
Match the synonyms.

amadekarî - hazirî (readiness)
domandin - berdewamkirin (to continue, trans.)
resen - orjînal (original)
cihêrengî - ciyawazî (difference)
dilkêş - balkêş (interesting)
berhem - eser (masterpiece)

Exercise 4
Ask each other.

1. Kêfa min ji sînemayê û wêjeyê re tê.
2. Na, şano bala min pir nakişîne.
3. Ez ji Jason Statham ku di fîlmê Hilgir (Transporter) de lîst hez dikim.
4. Erê, kêfa min ji xwendina pirtûkan re tê. Niha ez berhevoka çîrokên nivîskarê tirk Yaşar Kemal dixwînim, û kêfa min jê re pir tê.
5. Ez ji helbestan pir hez nakim. Helbesta dawîn ku min jê hez kir ya Aşık Veysel e.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yw4GxfVxMA

EDIT: In the next text where four people introduce themselves, the text about Qenco, a young worker from Diyarbakır, says that he sings the songs of Şakiro very beautifully. (Ew stranên Şakiro pir xweş dibêje). I thought 'No way it can be Shakira', so I googled, and it turns out there is a Kurdish artist (dengbêj) named Şakiro.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHwRsc7evNw

Apparently Shakira's name is Arabic and comes from شاكر 'thankful', so both her name and the Kurdish singer's name must be the same name.

[voron]

I've created a course on Memrise for Hînker 3, Kurdish-Turkish:
https://www.memrise.com/course/2009131/ ... seyemin-2/

Here are my answers to Exercise 1, Part B.


I spelt biyoloji wrong, the second letter should be i.

[voron]

I'm reading the text "Dapîra min" from Hînker 3, and I've bumped again into something I haven't seen explained in any Kurdish grammar, but what I discussed here and what I name "dative izafe".


So, normal izafe in Kurdish has the semantics of the genitive case:
Telefona Rojdayê - a phone of Rojda, Rojda's phone

However when you want to connect two nouns with the dative agreement type, a different construction is used
Telefonî Rojdayê - a phone call to Rojda

Use in a sentence:
Min telefonî Rojdayê kir - I made a phone call to Rojda

Seems like the '-î' ending is used for both masculine and feminine nouns in this 'dative izafe' construction; and when the noun already ends in '-î', it doesn't receive any ending.

In the screenshot above:
hêja -- worth
gotin -- saying

hêjayî gotinê -- worth saying, literally 'worth to saying'
Why dative (and not 'worth of saying')? Well because there's a similar expression in Turkish with the dative:
söylemeye değer

and I assume the Kurdish expression is just a calque.

[voron]

I'm reading the text "Dapîra min" from Hînker 3, and I've bumped again into something I haven't seen explained in any Kurdish grammar, but what I discussed here and what I name "dative izafe".

I just re-read that topic and the alternative explanation of this construction offered by the user daristani, and it makes sense just as well. So I sent an email to the Kurdish Institute in Istanbul asking it to them.

[voron]

makes sense just as well. So I sent an email to the Kurdish Institute in Istanbul asking it to them.

They replied. This topic is discussed in Sami Tan's Kurdish Grammar. It's essentially a contraction of prepositions li or ji, just like daristani suggested:
nêzîk li min = nêzîkî min - close to me

[Antea]

I don’t know if this is the right place to put that link, but I have found a YouTube channel for learning Kurdish (I suppose it’s Kurmanji ), and I find it interesting. I think it’s mostly aimed to Arabic speaking people, (but also have some translations in English), and that makes it very interesting for me, because of the vocabulary.

https://youtu.be/hnhvc0_3NmI

[vijayjohn]

Kurmanji isn't written in Arabic script AFAIK, so I think this is Sorani.

[Antea]

Oh

[voron]

Yeah, it's definitely Sorani.

[księżycowy]

Kurmanji isn't written in Arabic script AFAIK, so I think this is Sorani.

Wait, isn't Kurmanji sometimes written in Arabic script? I mean, I know that Roman script is all over the place, but I would still think that Arabic script is used for Kurmanji in various places/contexts.

[voron]

Wait, isn't Kurmanji sometimes written in Arabic script? I mean, I know that Roman script is all over the place, but I would still think that Arabic script is used for Kurmanji in various places/contexts.

Definitely not in Turkey. (For the obvious reason that most people who grew up in Turkey cannot read Arabic script).

Maybe in Iraq or Syria, but in any case writing Kurmanji with the Arabic script is not standardized and thus cannot be official.

[księżycowy]

Is Kurmanji also spoken in Iran?

[vijayjohn]

Nope.

[księżycowy]

So I'm guessing that's Sorani.

[vijayjohn]

Yes, of course:

Yeah, it's definitely Sorani.

[księżycowy]

No, no. I meant: "I guess it's Sorani that's spoken in Iran then."