14. The past tense II: transitive verbs and split ergativity
🟡 Navîn · Dersa 14 ji 23
Ev rûpel niha bi îngilîzî ye.
The big switch
Compare the present and the past of to see:
| # | Kurdish | Arabic script | IPA | English |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ez te dibînim. | ئەز تە دبینم. | /ɛz tɛ dɪbiːnɯm/ | I see you. |
| 2 | Min tu dîtî. | من تو دیتی. | /mɪn tʊ diːtiː/ | I saw you. |
Everything has swapped:
| present I see you | past I saw you | |
|---|---|---|
| the doer I | ez (direct) | min (oblique) |
| the object you | te (oblique) | tu (direct) |
| the verb agrees with | the doer: dibînim (1sg) | the object: dîtî (2sg) |
This is split ergativity. In the present, Kurmanji works like English (accusative); in the past tenses of transitive verbs it is ergative:
- the doer (agent) is oblique;
- the object is direct;
- the verb agrees with the object.
Intransitive verbs are never ergative: ez hatim “I came” (lesson 13).
Paradigms
In the tables below the person column is the object, because that is what the verb agrees with. Any oblique agent can go with any form:
dîtin (دیتن) "to see, to find": present stem bîn, past stem dît, transitive
| person | agent (oblique) | object (direct) | Simple past | Past negative |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1sg | min | ez | dîtim دیتم | nedîtim نەدیتم |
| 2sg | te | tu | dîtî دیتی | nedîtî نەدیتی |
| 3sg | wî / wê | ew | dît دیت | nedît نەدیت |
| 1pl | me | em | dîtin دیتن | nedîtin نەدیتن |
| 2pl | we | hûn | dîtin دیتن | nedîtin نەدیتن |
| 3pl | wan | ew | dîtin دیتن | nedîtin نەدیتن |
Past tenses of a transitive verb are ergative: the agent is oblique and the verb agrees with the object (the object column), e.g. min tu dîtî "I saw you".
So dîtim means “(someone) saw me”, and dîtin means “(someone) saw them”.
With a 3rd-person or noun object, which is very common, the verb is simply 3sg or plural:
| # | Kurdish | Arabic script | IPA | English |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Min nan xwar. | من نان خوار. | /mɪn naːn xʷaːɾ/ | I ate bread. |
| 2 | Te nan xwar. | تە نان خوار. | /tɛ naːn xʷaːɾ/ | You ate bread. |
| 3 | Wê pirtûk xwend. | وێ پرتووک خوەند. | /weː pɪɾtuːk xʷɛnd/ | She read the book. |
| 4 | Me ew dîtin. | مە ئەو دیتن. | /mɛ ɛw diːtɯn/ | We saw them. |
| 5 | Wan ez dîtim. | وان ئەز دیتم. | /waːn ɛz diːtɯm/ | They saw me. |
| 6 | Jinê nan çêkir. | ژنێ نان چێکر. | /ʒɪneː naːn tʃeːkɯɾ/ | The woman made bread. |
In Jinê nan çêkir, the noun agent jin takes the feminine oblique ending -ê (lesson 9).
Checking it with zimankit
zimankit’s detect_alignment() finds the verb, decides whether the clause is ergative, classifies each argument by case and checks the agreement. This is the core of a Kurmanji grammar checker:
| sentence | English | alignment | agent | object | verb agrees with | check |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ez te dibînim. | I see you. | accusative | Ez (dir) | te (obl) | subject (1sg) | ✔ |
| Min tu dîtî. | I saw you. | ergative | Min (obl) | tu (dir) | object (2sg) | ✔ |
| Min ew dîtin. | I saw them. | ergative | Min (obl) | ew (dir) | object (pl) | ✔ |
| Wan ez dîtim. | They saw me. | ergative | Wan (obl) | ez (dir) | object (1sg) | ✔ |
| Min tu dîtim. | (wrong) *I saw you | ergative | Min (obl) | tu (dir) | object (1sg) | ✘ verb ending marks 1sg but object 'tu' is 2sg |
| Ez tu dîtî. | (wrong) *I saw you | ergative | · | Ez (dir) | object (2sg) | ✘ ergative clause without an overt oblique agent (pro-drop); verb ending marks 2sg but object 'Ez' is 1sg |
The last two are classic learner errors: putting the agreement on the agent (dîtim for min), and using the direct pronoun for the agent (ez). The checker flags both. Its explanation of the second one is not ideal yet: it takes ez for the object because it is direct, and then reports a person mismatch. A better message (“the agent of a past transitive verb must be oblique: min”) is one of the things a full grammar checker should add. Lesson 22 shows more cases, including where the checker still goes wrong.
Practice
- She saw me.
- I ate the apples (sêv).
- You (pl) read the book (past).
Answers
- Wê ez dîtim.
- Min sêv xwarin. (plural object → plural verb)
- We pirtûk xwend.
Summary
- Present: agent direct, object oblique, verb agrees with the agent.
- Past, transitive: agent oblique, object direct, verb agrees with the object.
- Past, intransitive: subject direct, verb agrees with it.