Among all modernIranian languages, only Yaghnobi and Kurdish are ergative, with respect to both case-marking and verb-agreement. There are general descriptions of ergativity in Kurdish, as well as in specific forms of Kurdish, such as Sorani and Kurmanjî. Sorani Kurdish has a split-ergative system. Transitive verbs show nominative/accusative marking in the present tense, and ergative marking in the past tense.
Nouns
Summary
A Kurdish noun in the absolute state, in other words 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.
Nouns in Kurmanji are declined in four cases: nominative, oblique, construct and vocative. The distinction of nominative and oblique doesn't exist in Sorani.
Nouns in Sorani can be simple or compound.
Any unmodified noun in Kurdish may be generic, i.e., it can refer to one or more than one items. Plural is not obligatory when more than one item are implied.
For most in Sorani nouns the plural is formed through adding a suffix, some are formed through irregular endings. For Kurmanji, the plural suffix doesn't exist for nominative case, plural is marked by verbs.
There are 3 grammatical genders in Kurmanji: feminine, masculine and neuter. Sorani has no grammatical gender. Languages like Zazaki and Hawramani have likewise 3 grammatical genders.
Definiteness is not formally marked in Kurmanji. In Sorani nouns may be marked with a definite marker or an indefinite marker.
Adjectives agree with the nouns they modify in number and case.
Personal pronouns are marked for number and person. They can be free-standing or take the form of clitics. Free-standing forms are used for emphasis.
Sing. M.
Sing. F
Plur.
Oblique
-î
-ê
-an
Construct
-ê
-a
-ên/êt
Vocative
-o
-ê
-no/ine
Possession
is used with nouns to indicate possession. Ezafe joins the possessive noun with its possessed noun jēgā-y pāsā = the king's place '' Ezafe is also used alongside pronouns to show possession. Ezafe joins the possessor pronoun with its possessed noun. jēgā-y min = my place
Pronouns in various Kurdish languages and other languages for comparison
Oblique
Adjectives
In Sorani, adjectives follow the head noun and may be joined by 'ezafe' or an open compound structure. The following example shows the Ezafe construction: pyāw-ī čak = a good fellow
Demonstrative
Demonstrative pronouns when followed by postpositions become demonstrative adjectives. As demonstrative adjectives, Sorani Kurdish does not use OBL forms ; neither Kurmanji uses nominative plural forms.
Prepositions and postpositions
Verbs
General description
Kurdish verbs agree with their subjects in person and number. They have the following major characteristics:
Verbs have two stems: present and past.
Present stems can be simple or secondary.
Simple tenses are formed by the addition of personal endings to the two stems.
Secondary stems consist of a root + suffixes that indicate transitivity, intransitivity, and causativity.
There are 4 moods: indicative, conditional, imperative, and potential.
Past tense transitive sentences are formed as ergative constructions, i.e., transitive verbs in the past tense agree with the object rather than the subject of the sentence.
Present and future
Present and future tenses for the verb zanîn. Past tenses for intransitive verb of hatin. If a past transitive verb accepts a nominative personal suffix, it agrees with the object of the sentence. Transitive past verbs in Sorani have OBL connected/dependent personal pronouns on the object, if object is not mentioned they are on prefix or first part of the verb if the verb was compound, if there were not any prefix so they will be on the same place as th NOM ones. OBL connected pronouns: -m, -t, -y, -man, -tan, -yan.
Word order
The normal word order in Kurdish is Subject-Object-Verb. Modifiers follow the nouns they modify.
