Half-Spaces and Joined Writing

Joined Writing

From the perspective of morphological typology, the world’s languages are divided into five types:

1. Isolating¹

2. Agglutinating²

3. Inflecting³

4. Incorporating⁴

5. Infixing⁵

It is evident that, within its morphological typology, Kurdish is a polymorphemic or incorporating language, follows a process of incorporation⁶, and is agglutinative. It displays a complex morphosyntactic structure in which one word can be written and appear in several forms. There is no linguistic evidence for declaring one form “wrong” and another “correct,” or for calling the matter “ungrammatical.”

This phenomenon and rule have created ambiguity while also exposing the unscientific character of prescriptive orthography. At the level of inflection, Kurdish words can be used in several forms:

ـ دەتانبینم   دەتان بینم.

ـ بەکارمانهێناوە   بەکارمان هێناوە.

ـ دەتانپارێزم   دەتان پارێزم.

ـ ڕایکرد   ڕای کرد.

ـ سەوداسەریکردن   سەوداسەری کردن   سەودا سەری کردن.

ـ جێبەجێکردن   جێبەجێ کردن   جێ بە جێ کردن.

ـ دەستهەڵگرتن   دەست هەڵ گرتن   دەست هەڵگرتن.

On morphological grounds, if writing is to remain rule-governed and protected, and if it is to form and maintain a logical orthographic and grammatical level, it must recognise, as has often been stated, that orthography is always changing. For linguistic progress, modernisation, and innovation, however, it must draw on the rules of the alphabet and grammar. Lexical, grammatical, morphosyntactic, phonological, phonomorphological, morphophonological, and phonomorphemic considerations must be observed, together with word components such as affixes, formatives, bases, stems, roots, interfixes, infixes, circumfixes, prefixes, suffixes, derived verbs, derived compounds, derived adverbs, compound adjectives, derived words, and derived infinitives. Morphology and grammar must advance logically within this framework. What is wholly clear is that the so-called half-space, at both the syntactic and morphological levels, is incompatible with the rules of Kurdish and, more broadly, with right-to-left alphabets.

This feature was evidently taken from Persian grammar, itself formulated in modern times in order to distinguish Persian from Arabic grammar.

Within Persian grammar, too, a number of linguists oppose the rule. This writing style was taken from polysynthetic languages and, more generally, from left-to-right Latin alphabets; it does not correspond to the mechanism of right-to-left alphabets and entered right-to-left writing through that model. Nevertheless, many adherents of this orthography in Kurdish and Persian apply it forcefully and in an entirely unscientific manner.

At the syntactic and morphological levels, this writing style occurs only with derived verbs and derived adverbs, such as (نان + خواردن = نان‌خواردن، کارکردن + دا = کارکردن‌دا...تاد). Yet the mechanisms of Kurdish and other right-to-left writing systems, including Persian, Arabic, Kurdish, Balochi, and Tajik, are incompatible with it. In their graphic structure and letter behaviour, these alphabets distinguish joining and non-joining graphemes. The non-joining graphemes are (ا، و، و، وو، ۆ، ۊ، وٓ، ڎ، د، ر، ڕ، ز), while joining graphemes include (ب، ت، س، ن، ڵ، ل، ێ، ی، خ، ح، ت ... تاد). In other words, most consonants and even some vowels have joining capacity. Left-to-right alphabets do not possess or follow this joining process. One aim and field of linguistics in orthography and grammar is elegant and easy writing. Beyond being illogical in Kurdish grammar and right-to-left alphabets, this writing style follows no principle of calligraphic elegance. Once it leaves the frames and keyboards of computers, mobile phones, and laptops and reaches the pragmatic level of writing on paper, it acquires a wholly unattractive and undesirable appearance. It is likewise not followed within the psycholinguistic foundations of right-to-left orthography.

To rescue their grammar, Persian grammarians continually formulate illogical and curious rules for their language. Some currents in Kurdish linguistics follow these grammarians.

One such rule is the half-space. In an unscientific condition, it is used at syntactic and pragmatic levels with all compound and derived words. Yet this rule, known in Persian as fāsele-ye majāzi (“virtual space”), belongs specifically to social networks and digital typing; at the pragmatic level of handwriting on paper, it has an unattractive and undesirable appearance.

In Kurdish and Persian, the half-space has departed from its own logical morphological and syntactic rules, which belong to left-to-right alphabets. According to the scientific rule and writing convention of the half-space in left-to-right alphabets, every compound word should take a half-space. Thus forms such as (یارمەت‌ی/ جوان‌نوس‌ی/ توک‌ن‌/ باوک‌ەجوان‌ەکەم/ بەران‌بەر/ سەران‌سەر، گیان‌ەکەم/ گیان‌م/ جوان‌ی/ باش‌ی/ دەنگ‌وباس‌ی/ دایک‌م/ بێ‌ئارام‌ی/ ب‌هات‌بایە/ ب‌گرت‌ایە/ ب‌ڕۆشت‌ایە/ لەتەنیشت‌ەوە/ بێ‌پێش‌ێ‌ی‌ەوە (بێپێشەیەوە)، بەشین‌ەوە) would have to appear exactly as shown if the original rule were followed consistently and the behaviour of agglutinative languages were observed, because separately attached morphemes would also require half-spaces.

At the syntactic level, the half-space follows its standard rule as a full sentential interval and appears at the morphological level specific to left-to-right orthography. The rule therefore belongs to left-to-right and Latin alphabets and is incompatible with the rules of right-to-left alphabets. If applied according to the original standard of its own alphabet, the forms would appear exactly as illustrated above.

An important point is that, within the syntactic domain, the half-space can be used and function in a right-to-left alphabet. For example, in syntax, subject and object appear within a functional grammatical process, allowing the practice of joined writing in Kurdish to make use of the half-space.

Sabir Zhakaw

Sources:

Lexicology, Sabir Zhakaw

A Linguistic Inquiry 1, Sabir Zhakaw, university

A Linguistic Inquiry 2, Sabir Zhakaw, university

Phonetics and Phonology, Sabir Zhakaw