Zazaki/Grammar
Contents
Parts of Speech
Nouns
Nouns in Zazaki are inflected for case, number, and specificity. In addition they have gender. The cases are direct, oblique, locative, and vocative. The genders are masculine and feminine. And the specificities are specific, nonspecific, and indefinite.
Gender
All nouns are either masculine or feminine, and most nouns have inherent gender. However, some nominal roots have variable gender, i.e. they may function as either masculine or feminine nouns. On most nominal roots gender is not overtly marked, but is apparent from agreement with verbs and adjectives. The grammatical gender of animate nouns reflects the biological sex of the referent. Inanimate nouns have invariable grammatical gender. Homophones exist that are distinguished by gender, e.g. la is masculine for 'thread' but feminine for 'river'.
- camêrd<n><m><sg><dir> ↔ camêrd "man"
- ceni<n><f><sg><dir> ↔ ceni "woman"
- pirtok<n><m><sg><dir> ↔ pirtok "book"
- mar<n><m><f><sg><dir> ↔ mar "snake"
Number
Nouns are unmarked for the singular and marked with the unstressed suffix -i in the plural. The unmarked noun also serves as the generic form.
- roj<n><m><pl><dir> ↔ roji "days"
- pirtok<n><m><pl><dir> ↔ pirtoki "books"
- panj roj<n><m><pl><dir> ↔ panj roj-i "five days"
Case and Specificity
Zazaki has two primary formal cases: direct (morphologically unmarked) and oblique (morphologically marked). There is also a remnant locative case on some feminine nouns and a vocative for a few kinship terms. Oblique forms are only distinguished from direct forms when the noun is specific in reference.
| Masculine | Feminine | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Direct | ∅ | ∅ | -i |
| Oblique | -i | -er | -an |
| Kinship OBL. | -r | -r | -ran |
| Locative | ∅ | -ı | ∅ |
- bergir<n><m><sg><obl> ↔ bergiri "stallion (OBL)"
- mang<n><f><pl><obl> ↔ mangan "cows (OBL)"
- laj<n><m><sg><dir> ↔ laj "son (DIR)"
- laj<n><m><sg><obl> ↔ laji "son (OBL)"
- dew<n><f><sg><loc> ↔ dewı "village (LOC)"
Indefinite Suffix
Nouns may take an unstressed indefinite suffix -ê (or -ên before other suffixes) if they are indefinite. At times the suffix is accompanied by the number one (jew (m) or jû (f)). At other times the number one acts as an indefinite article with no accompanying suffix.
- roj<n><m><sg><ind> ↔ rojê "a day"
- merdım<n><m><sg><ind> ↔ merdımêndo "a man (with ezafe)"
- çay<n><m><sg><ind> ↔ çayênda "a tea (with ezafe)"
- zalım<n><m><sg><ind> ↔ zalımê "an overlord"
Pronouns
Pronouns in Zazaki are of five basic types: deictic, personal, anaphoric, extrasystemic, and interrogative. Pronouns are inflected for person, number, gender, and case.
Personal Pronouns
Personal pronouns distinguish three persons, two numbers (singular and plural), and two cases (Direct and Oblique). Third-person pronouns overlap with the deictic system and additionally distinguish gender and near/far deixis. Case is not distinguished in the plural of 1st and 2nd person.
| Singular DIR | Singular OBL | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | ez<prn><pers><p1><sg><dir> ↔ ez | ez<prn><pers><p1><sg><obl> ↔ mın | ma<prn><pers><p1><pl> ↔ ma |
| 2nd person | tı<prn><pers><p2><sg><dir> ↔ tı | tı<prn><pers><p2><sg><obl> ↔ to | şıma<prn><pers><p2><pl> ↔ şıma |
Third-person personal pronouns are identical to the deictic pronouns (see Nouns: Gender section for the near/far deictic forms such as no/o for masculine and na/a for feminine).
Interrogative Pronouns
Only the interrogative kam 'who/which' is inflected, taking the masculine oblique case ending -i. The others (koti 'where', sênin 'how', çıçi 'what', etc.) do not vary with case.
- kam<prn><itg><dir> ↔ kam "who; which"
- koti<prn><itg><dir> ↔ koti "where"
- kınga<prn><itg><dir> ↔ kınga "when"
- çend<prn><itg><dir> ↔ çend "how many"
- sênin<prn><itg><dir> ↔ sênin "how"
Adjectives
There are three types of adjectives: descriptive adjectives, deictic adjectives, and numerals. The descriptive adjective is inflected only for gender and number to agree with the noun it modifies. The deictic adjective is inflected for case and deixis in addition to gender and number. The numerals are not inflected.
Descriptive Adjectives
The descriptive adjective agrees in number and gender with the head noun of the NP which it modifies. Masculine singular is unmarked, feminine singular takes -ı, and plural takes -i.
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| Masculine | -∅ | -i |
| Feminine | -ı |
- gırd<adj><m><sg> ↔ gırd "large (m.sg)"
- gırd<adj><f><sg> ↔ gırdı "large (f.sg)"
- gırd<adj><pl> ↔ gırdi "large (pl)"
- sıpe<adj><m><sg> ↔ sıpe "white (m.sg)"
- sıpe<adj><f><sg> ↔ sıpê "white (f.sg)"
(Demonstrative) Determiners
(Demonstrative) Determiners always precede a noun and distinguish near versus far deixis. In the plural, only the near/far distinction is maintained; case distinction is lost on the adjective (though maintained on the noun). The case distinction is also lost for the feminine singular.
- no<det><dem><m><dir> ↔ no "this"
- no<det><dem><m><obl> ↔ nê "this"
- no<det><dem><f> ↔ na "this"
- o<det><dem><m><dir> ↔ o "that"
Verbs
The Zazaki verb is inflected for tense, aspect, mood, person, number, and gender. Each verb has three stems: present, subjunctive, and past. The gerund serves as the citation form. Personal endings distinguish person, number, and gender (in 2nd/3rd person singular).
Present Tense
Formed by adding personal endings to the present stem (which ends in -en-). All plural forms share the same ending -ê. Paradigm of 'mow' (stem çinen-):
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| 1st sg. | çin<v><pres><p1><sg> ↔ çinenan |
| 3rd sg. masc. | çin<v><pres><p3><m><sg> ↔ çineno |
| 3rd sg. fem. | çin<v><pres><p3><f><sg> ↔ çinena |
| all plurals | çin<v><pres><pl> ↔ çinenê |
Preterite Tense
Based on the past stem. The 3rd person masculine singular is unmarked. Paradigm of 'pull' (past stem ant-):
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| 1st sg. | anc<v><past><p1><sg> ↔ antan |
| 3rd sg. masc. | anc<v><past><p3><m><sg> ↔ ant |
| 3rd sg. fem. | anc<v><past><p3><f><sg> ↔ antı |
| all plurals | anc<v><past><pl> ↔ anti |
Subjunctive Mood
Based on the subjunctive stem with the prefix bı-. Gender is not distinguished. Used in subordinate clauses and to form the future tense.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| 1st sg. | çin<v><subj><p1><sg> ↔ bıçinan |
| 2nd sg. | çin<v><subj><p2><sg> ↔ bıçinê |
| 3rd sg. | çin<v><subj><p3><sg> ↔ bıçino |
| all plurals | çin<v><subj><pl> ↔ bıçinê |
Imperative
Uses the subjunctive stem with prefix bı- and suffix -ı (singular) or -ê (plural).
| Singular | Plural |
|---|---|
| şım<v><imp><sg> ↔ bışımı | şım<v><imp><pl> ↔ bışımê |
| wan<v><imp><sg> ↔ bûwanı | wan<v><imp><pl> ↔ bûwanê |
| omor<v><imp><sg> ↔ omorı | omor<v><imp><pl> ↔ omorê |
Particles
Particles are uninflected words. In Zazaki they include adverbs, postpositions, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections.
Adverbs
- tım<adv> ↔ tım "always"
- pêt<adv> ↔ pêt "fast"
- bol<adv> ↔ bol "very"
- berey<adv> ↔ berey "late"
- 'tayn<adv> ↔ 'tayn "late"
Postpositions
Postpositions are of two kinds: those that require the oblique case on the preceding NP (e.g. myan 'among', het 'chez', sero 'on') and those that do not (e.g. dı 'in', zi 'also').
- myan<post> ↔ myan "between, among"
- sero<post> ↔ sero "on"
- zere<post> ↔ zere "inside"
- ver<post> ↔ ver "in front of"
- pey<post> ↔ pey "behind"
Conjunctions
- û<cnjcoo> ↔ û "and"
- ya<cnjcoo> ↔ ya "or"
- wa<cnjcoo> ↔ wa "so that"
