Ezafe in Genç Zazaki



In the variety of Zazaki spoken in Genç, a district of Bingöl in Eastern Turkey, ezafe marking is conditioned by the gender and number of the head noun, by the type of dependent, and by the phonological shape of the noun stem.

Terms

Term	Definition
Ezafe construction	A noun phrase in which a noun is linked to a following modifier or possessor by a short linking element called the ezafe.
Head noun	The main noun that the rest of the noun phrase describes or modifies.
Dependent	The word or phrase that describes or modifies the head noun.
Adjective-dependent ezafe	An ezafe construction where the head noun is modified by an adjective or adjective phrase.
Noun-dependent ezafe	An ezafe construction where the head noun is modified by a noun, pronoun, or noun phrase.
EZ.N	Noun-dependent ezafe.
EZ.ADJ	Adjective-type ezafe; also used on non-final adjectives in mixed chains.
Oblique	A non-default case used to mark possessors, objects, and subjects of transitive past clauses.

Oblique Case and Plural Marking on Nouns

Phrase final nouns in ezafe constructions receive oblique case marking. If the ezafe construction is in object position or if it is the subject of a transitive past clause, the head noun will also receive oblique case marking.

Masculine Nouns

Masculine nouns whose right-most vowel is high (û, o, i, ê, y) do not get marking for oblique singular or direct plural; masculine nouns with lower vowels (a, â, e, ı) undergo vowel raising (a > â, â/e > ê, ı > i) in both oblique singular and direct plural. For nouns without vowels that can raise, the direct plural, direct singular, and oblique singular forms are all identical. For masculine nouns with vowels that can be raised, the direct plural and oblique singular forms are identical.

Gloss	DIR.SG	OBL.SG	DIR.PL	OBL.PL
food	yemeg	yemêg	yemêg	yemegû
man	mwerık	mwêrik	mwêrik	mwerıkû
son	lac	lâc	lâc	lacû
lip	low	low	low	lowû

Feminine Nouns

For feminine nouns, vowel raising appears only in the direct plural on nouns with vowels that can be raised.

Gloss	DIR.SG	OBL.SG	DIR.PL	OBL.PL
stone	kerra	kerra	kerrê	kerrû
finger	gışt	gışt	gişt	gıştû
girl	kêna	kêna	kênê	kênû
apple	say	say	say	sayû

Nouns with Context-Dependent Gender

For context-dependent nouns with vowels that can raise, gender can be distinguished by the presence or absence of vowel raising in singular oblique.

Gloss	DIR.SG	F.OBL.SG	M.OBL.SG	DIR.PL	OBL.PL
child	qıc	qıc	qic	qic	qıcû
grandchild	twern	twern	twêrn	twêrn	twernû
grandparent	pirık	pirık	pirik	pirik	pirıkû
friend	ûmbaz	ûmbaz	ûmbâz	ûmbâz	ûmbazû
teacher	ma’hlem	ma’hlem	ma’hlêm	ma’hlêm	ma’hlemû
neighbor	cirûn	cirûn	cirûn	cirûn	cirûnû

Ezafe Constructions with Masculine Head Nouns

Adjective-Dependent Ezafe: No Marking

Masculine head nouns in adjective-dependent ezafe constructions have no overt ezafe marking: the adjective follows the head directly.

Noun-Dependent Ezafe

Masculine head nouns are marked in one of three ways: replacement of the final vowel with -ê, vowel raising in the stem, or no observable ezafe marking.

Stem-Final Vowel Replacement

For vowel-final masculine heads in noun-dependent ezafe constructions, the final vowel is replaced by -ê.

Vowel Raising in the Stem

For consonant-final masculine heads with vowels that can be raised, noun-dependent ezafe is reflected as vowel raising in the stem. The interlinears mark this as RAISE.

Optional [a] Raising

For consonant-final masculine heads whose last stem vowel is [a], raising to â is optional in noun-dependent ezafe constructions. Both raised and unraised forms are accepted. Other raising and final-vowel replacement patterns above are obligatory in this environment. Further research is needed to determine why both raised and unraised forms are accepted; it may reflect a dialectal difference.

No Marking: Already-High or Glide-final Heads

If the head noun is consonant-final and the right-most vowel or glide is already high (û, o, i, ê, y), there is no observable ezafe marking in noun-dependent ezafe constructions.

Ezafe Constructions with Feminine Head Nouns

Adjective-Dependent Ezafe: -(w)a

With an adjectival dependent, a feminine head takes -a. After vowel-final heads, a w buffer appears before the ezafe vowel.

Noun-Dependent Ezafe: -(y)ê

With a noun dependent, feminine heads take -(y)ê, not adjective-dependent -(w)a. For feminine noun stems with stem final a, the final vowel is replaced by -ê.

Ezafe Constructions with Plural Head Nouns

In plural headed ezafe constructions, there is no observable marking for ezafe. Vowel raising would be impossible for plural head nouns anyway since both the oblique and direct case plural noun marking already result in high vowels.

Adjective-Dependent Ezafe

Noun-Dependent Ezafe

Chained Ezafes

In mixed ezafe chains, noun-type ezafe marks noun, pronoun, or noun-phrase dependents, while adjective-type ezafe marks adjective dependents and non-final adjectives in the chain.