Kurdish Word Pairs and Reduplication

● Advanced level ●

Paired Words

The treatment of “paired words in Kurdish” contains ambiguity at the syntactic, lexical, and morphological levels and is often presented without a scientific foundation. The term paired word¹, understood in relation to a lexical blend² meaning mixture or combination, has been coined for this level in Kurdish. This is a grammatical and lexicological³, or lexicographic, process and linguistic state that operates through the particular morphology and phonology of each language at the level of words, morphemes, and syllables. It represents a type of compound-word function formed from two lexical or root morphemes. Whether joined with the assistance of another morpheme or without any device, the parts occur beside one another without changing their meaning, form, or order and without assuming a meaning-changing role. Once they form a word within this domain, they belong to the same unit, take on grammatical and semantic form, and represent a new state. If these words undergo movement or alternation, they must move and change together, while each segment and syllable produces its own particular and independent meaning.

Several types of paired word occur in Kurdish. They must be studied according to phonological, morphological, pragmatic, semantic, and syntactic principles and used and defined within a morphological framework. For example:

Paired words such as:

(کار و مار _ جوان و موان _ وانە و مانە _ وشە و مشە _ دار و مار _ ساز و ماز _ یاری و ماری _ قازی و مازی _ کتێب و متێب _ دیوار و میوار _ گوڵ و موڵ _ بەرگ و مەرگ)

These and related forms represent a distinct level of Kurdish lexical writing. In this type, one component is ungrammatical and appears through collocation⁴: one part is meaningless and ungrammatical, while the other is meaningful and functions as the base.

In the Kurdish lexicon, a number of syntactic states and ungrammatical, non-lexical words are formed by this rule. At the syntactic and pragmatic levels, these unscientific forms arise through linguistic economy, helping speakers shorten their intention within a sentence and express it concisely. At the syntactic level, they appear as follows:

ـ دار و مار: the simple, independent morpheme دار is clear and refers to a tree. The ungrammatical morpheme مار becomes its formal counterpart and rhyming co-morpheme. Semantically it is homophonous with the word for the animal “snake,” but its meaning is different here. In this expression, مار represents leaves, litter, bark, reeds, branches, twigs, and everything associated with a tree, not the animal.

ـ گوڵ و موڵ: گوڵ is the core of the expression, while موڵ represents flowers, scrub, grass, and garden.

ـ بەرگ و مەرگ: بەرگ is the core, while the ungrammatical مەرگ completes the meanings of pages, covers, clothes, coverings, and anything associated with بەرگ, whether a book, clothing, or a tree.

Another state has the same principal lexical base but a different meaningful domain, as in the paired words (مار و مێرو _ مۆز و مێوژ _ مار و مێش _ مێش و مێژ...تاد). Here the situation differs: it is a lexical and syntactic pairing in which each base has an independent meaning. Within morphology and lexicology, the stem, root, base, or part of the word is repeated. This is widespread among languages, especially Kurdish, as in:

(پڕپڕ، لیپلیپ، زۆرزۆر، پانپان، گەشگەش، جوانجوان...تاد). Kurdish also has onomatopoeic, collective, verbal, diminutive, and other morphologically specialised paired words, each representing a different state.

In another semantic state, paired words are formed with the aid of linking morphemes or interfixes⁵ such as (و، او، ە، بە، ان). These operate within Kurdish morphology and lexicology, as in (بەرانبەر، سەرانسەر، دەربەدەر، ماڵبەماڵ، خواراوخوار، ڕاستاوڕاست، پشتوپشت، دورودور، تەقەتەق، خرتەخرت...تاد). They occur between two similar and corresponding words. This active level of the language requires expertise in morphology and lexicology.

Sabir Zhakaw

For further information, see A Linguistic Inquiry 1 and 2.