Kurdish affixes in Chaldean Neo-Aramaic

Summary

Affix function number of borrowed affixes

Description

Examples are from Gutman (2015:317) and pertain to the dialect of Ganzax. The affix was borrowed from Kurdish Ezafe, i.e. an affix marking the possessee, but in Neo-Aramaic it developed the meaning ‘descendant of’. This indicates that the affix was introduced via proper names (Gutman 2018:373). Kurdish Ezafe is also used in another North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic language, Suleimaniya Jewish Neo-Aramaic, but in that language only in complex loanwords consisting of Kurdish material only (Khan 2007:202).

1 noun possessee suffix

  • -ye ‘descendant of’, e.g. Yaqo-ye Musa (Yaqo-possessee Musa) ‘Yaqo, son of Musa’.