The Investigation of the Progressive Prefix Relict in Kalhori Kurdish: A Comparative and Intralingual Approach

Background and Aim: Kurdish is classified into three sets of Northern, Central, and Southern branches, with Kurmanji, Sorani, and Kalhori being the main dialects of these branches respectively. The progressive prefix is /di-/ in Kurmanji, /da-/ in Sorani, /də-/ in Ilami, and with no phonetic realization in Kalhori. However, there is evidence that suggests this prefix has been once phonetically realized in its previous historical stages, just like other variants of Kurdish. Enjoying a comparative look, this article aims to introduce certain forms from Kalhori Kurdish which contain relicts of this prefix. In the present article, the phonetic realization of this prefix is first investigated in Sorani, Ardalani, Ilami, and Kalhori. Method: The data of this study were collected by interviewing 10 speakers of the four aforementioned dialects, and were then transcribed and compared inter-dialectally. Results: After analyzing the data, it became clear that this prefix does not make up a stressed syllable in any of these variants, and the observed diversity in the phonetic realizations of this prefix could stem from the unstressed syllable being weakened. Conclusion: By comparing Kalhori Kurdish with the three other dialects, the relicts of the prefix are identified in the present continuous forms of the verbs "to come", "to bring", and "to see" as well as the negative prefix of present continuous in Kalhori Kurdish.