Kurmanji Study Group

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Re: Kurmanji Study Group

Postby Antea » 2018-07-23, 19:12

I am posting here this introduction to the language, for the beginner persons that are a little bit lost (like myself :roll: ); I think it can be useful.
https://youtu.be/UFbUp8916_o

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Re: Kurmanji Study Group

Postby Antea » 2018-07-23, 19:15

By the way, do you know if there is a Kurdish TV? I think it could be useful for the listening, but everything I find are songs videos :hmm:

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Re: Kurmanji Study Group

Postby voron » 2018-07-23, 19:38

vijayjohn wrote:Nope.

According to Wiki, Omniglot and other sources, Kurmanji is spoken in Iran (I have met Kurmanji speakers from Syria and Iraq so Kurmanji being spoken in these countries I know from my own experience, but I haven't met any Kurmanji speakers from Iran so I forget to mention this country when I speak about Kurmanji).

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Re: Kurmanji Study Group

Postby voron » 2018-07-23, 19:41

Antea wrote:By the way, do you know if there is a Kurdish TV? I think it could be useful for the listening, but everything I find are songs videos :hmm:

Yes. The one I mentioned in my TAC is Turkish state channel TRT Kurdî:
https://www.trt.net.tr/anasayfa/canli.aspx?y=tv&k=trt6

AFAIK there are a few Kurmanji TV channel broadcasting in Europe as well.

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Re: Kurmanji Study Group

Postby Antea » 2018-07-23, 19:50

Thanks! it makes the language more « alive » for me, as I have no contact with it.

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Re: Kurmanji Study Group

Postby księżycowy » 2018-07-23, 20:06

voron wrote:
vijayjohn wrote:Nope.

According to Wiki, Omniglot and other sources, Kurmanji is spoken in Iran (I have met Kurmanji speakers from Syria and Iraq so Kurmanji being spoken in these countries I know from my own experience, but I haven't met any Kurmanji speakers from Iran so I forget to mention this country when I speak about Kurmanji).

I thought so!

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Re: Kurmanji Study Group

Postby voron » 2018-07-26, 10:44

I'm continuing doing the exercises.

Part B
Exercise 2 - skipping

Nivîs (Writing)
Writing about my friend

Navê hevalê min Cengiz e. Ew kurd e. Ew çil û sê salî ye. Ev sê sal e ku em hev nas dikin û niha em bi hev re dimînin. Ev mirov ji bo min girîng e li ber ku li ser Turkiyeyê û edetên Turkiyeyê gelek tiştan ferî min kir. Heweskariya wî di qehweyeke de runiştin û tewla leyîstin e.

Exercise 3
Dema ku ew hevalên xwe dibîne, gelekî kêfxweş dibe. (When he sees his friends, he becomes very happy).
Dema ku ez diçim Amedê, ez li mala xaltîka xwe dimînim. (When I go to Amed/Diyarbakır, I stay at my aunt's home).
Dema ku baran dibare, bêhna axê tê. (When it rains, it smells soil)
Dema ku dinya germ dibe, mirov berê xwe didin cihên hênik. (When the weather becomes hot, one directs towards cool places).
Dema ku dengê def û zirnyeyê tê, ez dixwazim rabim govendê. (When there comes the sound of drum and oboe/zurna, I want to dance govend/halay).

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Re: Kurmanji Study Group

Postby vijayjohn » 2018-07-29, 23:34

I'm struggling through "Dapîra min" so that I can try to do exercise 2, but I don't understand what dema ku mirov wê dibîne means, except that dema ku apparently means 'when'. EDIT: Wait, does it mean 'when someone sees her'?

I also took a look at the links you posted, voron, and found a few movies in Kurmanji about life in Turkey: first Selamo and then Çevirmen. :) (I also found a documentary about how Kurds are treated in Turkey, but it doesn't have much Kurdish in it).

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Re: Kurmanji Study Group

Postby voron » 2018-07-30, 7:19

vijayjohn wrote:Wait, does it mean 'when someone sees her'?

Yes, it does.

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Re: Kurmanji Study Group

Postby vijayjohn » 2018-07-30, 8:48

Okay, so how about kilkirî bala mirov dikişînin? I can barely make head or tail of that sentence.

EDIT: Also cîran û xizmên me her dem tên gilî û gazinên xwe jê re dikin - something like 'my neighbors and relatives always express their own thirst(?) and complaints to her'? And ew ji şênahiyê ji pir hez dike - something like 'she really likes happiness'? And pirî çaran diçe nav baxçeyan û li bin daran rûdine - something like 'in her old age, she sometimes goes into the garden and sits under the trees'?

EDIT2:

Kesayetî: Diltenik, xwîngerm, bîrbir, destxweş, dilovan...
Dirûv: Çaven wê yên zerîn (û kilkirî bala mirov dikişînin? :P). Porê wê yî spî û pêldar hê jî gur e. Deqa li eniya wê hene(?).
Bejn û bal: Ew dirêj e, dema ku dikene xêzikên diranên wê yên zêrîn xuya dikin
Heweskarî: Ew ji çarokan pir hez dike û pir xweş çîrokan dibêje. Pirî çaran diçe nav baxçeyan û li bin daran rûdine ( :whistle: ).

I'm not sure I really get the difference between dirûv and bejn û bal. :hmm:

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Re: Kurmanji Study Group

Postby voron » 2018-07-30, 11:47

vijayjohn wrote:Okay, so how about kilkirî bala mirov dikişînin?

'Kilkirî' is an adjective modifying 'çavên wê'. It means 'highlighted by kohl' (kil - kohl, kirî - a participle of kirin 'to make').
https://glosbe.com/ku/tr/kilkir%C3%AE

Bal kişandin - attract attention.
https://glosbe.com/ku/en/bal%20ki%C5%9Fandin

Çavên wê yên zerîn û kilkirî bala mirov dikişînin.
Her golden eyes highlighted by kohl attract people's attention.

cîran û xizmên me her dem tên gilî û gazinên xwe jê re dikin

Gilî and gazin both mean 'complaint'. Kurdish really likes reduplication, just like Turkish (bejn û bal is another example).
Our neighbours and relatives come all the time to complain to her ('to make their complaints to her').

Jê is a contraction of 'ji wê' or 'ji wî'.

ew ji şênahiyê ji pir hez dike

She likes greenery a lot.
Ku-En dictionary on Glosbe doesn't list this meaning, but Ku-Tr does:
https://glosbe.com/ku/tr/%C5%9F%C3%AAnah%C3%AE

pirî çaran diçe nav baxçeyan û li bin daran rûdine

It's caran.

Pirî caran -- (for) most of the time.
The rest of your translation is correct.

Deqa li eniya wê hene

Deqek li eniya wê heye.

I'm not sure I really get the difference between dirûv and bejn û bal

Dirûv is 'appearance' and 'bejn û bal' is 'posture, figure' -- which is a part of appearance as well; but it seems like specifically in this book when they say 'dirûv' they expect the description of hair and facial features, and 'bejn û bal' refers to the figure (tall, short, slim etc).

Good job! :waytogo:

EDIT:
Çavên wê yên zerîn û kilkirî bala mirov dikişînin.

Wait, it's not zêrin - golden, it's zerîn, which means yellowish I guess? I don't really understand why they refer to the eyes as yellow; perhaps they mean the area surrounding the iris.

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Re: Kurmanji Study Group

Postby daristani » 2018-07-30, 13:30

I don't check this board very often, but I came back today and saw this thread. Re the question on Kurdish television channels, you can watch a bunch of them online, or listen to radio stations, "live" from this website:

http://karwan.tv/kurdistan-tv.html

Just click on the TV links to the left, or the radio links to the right, to "switch channels".

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Re: Kurmanji Study Group

Postby voron » 2018-07-30, 18:54

Thank you daristani for the links!

I will continue doing the exercises.
Part C, Exercise 2 - Write titles of the paragraphs according to their topics
► Show Spoiler

Exercise 3
► Show Spoiler

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Re: Kurmanji Study Group

Postby Antea » 2018-07-30, 19:12

Thanks!

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Re: Kurmanji Study Group

Postby voron » 2018-07-30, 19:55

Vijay, I've translated the text from Part C, so you can peek into the translation if there are obscure places.
► Show Spoiler

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Re: Kurmanji Study Group

Postby voron » 2018-07-30, 20:04


Heh, this website is apparently blocked in Turkey. The link didn't open for me so I thought it was broken, but when I tried VPN it magically opened.

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Re: Kurmanji Study Group

Postby vijayjohn » 2018-08-01, 5:58

Sepas, voron!

I tried to write a similar essay about Austin but said a lot less than the original article did. :P I've also included a translation into English surrounded by spoil tags to show what I was trying to say, just in case it helps:

Austin ji navê Teksas nezîk e; Teksas dewleteke Amerîka ye. Austin serbajar anku paytexta Teksas e, lê ji bajarên Teksas ne mezintir e. Ew pir ziwa û germ e, lê ji berî heyvan barana hene. Serjimarê Austin bi piranî îngilîzî xeber didin, lê teqrîben 30 selefê serjimar ji Meksîk e ya malbatî ew ji Meksîk e.

Austin bajareke ciwan e. Ew di sala 1839'an de ava bûye. Pîşesazîyê teknîk di Austin de pir taybet e û gelek mirov di Austin de ev kar dikin. Çandê Meksîkê li çandê Austinê hukum kir. :?:
► Show Spoiler

Also, if you don't mind me asking: In the first lesson of Dersa Kurdî, what does Bawer say at 1:07? Just "erê"? And then what about 1:41? I can tell from this version of the video (with subtitles in Romanized Persian! :lol:) that he's saying something like 'it's always very beautiful there, isn't it?', but the only actual words I can make out are her dem pir and maybe na.

Then I think Azad says, "A-a, Dêrika bajarekî pir kevn e, pir..." and Bawer interrupts him by saying, "Bajarekî baş e!" right? And at 2:06, Bawer says, "ji te dipirse ew"? At 2:10, does Azad say, "Na...ji re bêje!" And at 2:42 (with Bawer), "A, ê! Em ne durî hev e!"? And at 3:07, "Jî ez zanim (ez jî Kurd im)"? Any idea what Bawer says right after that? :P

Okay, I think that's enough questions for now lol. :D

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Re: Kurmanji Study Group

Postby voron » 2018-08-01, 20:21

That's a very cool text about Austin! I will write a similar text about my city, Minsk.

Here are corrections, to the best of my knowledge. (I didn't want to mess with the highlighting using the forum's engine, so I edited it on Google docs in the suggestions mode and then just took a screenshot).
https://ibb.co/dH0e3z

Notes:
1) Most geographic names are feminine, that's why I added the -ê ending in the oblique case on Austin, Teksas, Meksîk and Amerîka. Thackston's grammar, page 7, paragraph 1.1. Gender, says:
as a rule, the names of towns, cities, and countries are feminine

I also checked the articles Amerîka and Meksîk on Kurmanji wiki and yes, these nouns are treated as feminine there.

2) You got the genders of a few nouns wrong. You can look them up on glosbe: m stands for the feminine gender (from mê), and n stands for the masculine gender (from nêr). For example, serjimar is feminine:
https://ibb.co/iz2nqe
(Yeah I know it's very counter-intuitive to read 'm' as feminine. I keep reminding myself all the time that it's the opposite to the English/Latin meaning).

3) gelek mirov di Austinê de vî karî dikin
Nouns modified by "this" and "every" decline slightly differently than usual. See Thackston, page 9, paragraph 2 Demonstrative adjectives and Her 'Every'.

4) In the last sentence, we could go fancy and use the passive voice in Kurdish to say "is influenced", but I went for a simpler construction and said 'Upon the culture of Austin there is influence of Mexican culture'. It seems to be quite idiomatic, according to Google search results.

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Re: Kurmanji Study Group

Postby voron » 2018-08-01, 20:39

As for your questions about Dersa Kurdî, the first lesson is fully transcribed here:
http://kurdistan.com.ua/dersa-kurdi-1-kurd1

There are quite a lot of spelling mistakes in the transcription, but I'm sure they won't be a problem for you.
Unfortunately, only the first lesson is transcribed on that website.

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Re: Kurmanji Study Group

Postby vijayjohn » 2018-08-02, 4:04

Sepas, voron! :mrgreen:


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