Kabyle grammar is the set of structural rules and regulations included in the Kabyle language, ranging from words to phrases, to punctuation, and sentences.
<section begin="list-of-glossing-abbreviations"/><div style="display:none;"> CS:construct state FS:free state ANN:annexed state ABS:free state </div><section end="list-of-glossing-abbreviations"/>
As an Afro-Asiatic language, Kabyle has only two genders, masculine and feminine. Like most Berber languages, masculine nouns and adjectives generally start with a vowel (a-, i-, u-), while the feminine nouns generally start with t- and end with a -t (there are some exceptions, however). Note that most feminine nouns are in fact feminized versions of masculine nouns.
Examples:
Certain masculine nouns do not start with a vowel: <span lang="kab" dir="ltr">laáºÂ</span> "hunger", <span lang="kab" dir="ltr">seksu</span> "couscous", and <span lang="kab" dir="ltr">beá¹Âá¹Âu</span> "separation". These include the names of relatives: <span lang="kab" dir="ltr">gma</span> "my brother", <span lang="kab" dir="ltr">mmi</span> "my son", and <span lang="kab" dir="ltr">baba</span> "my father".
Certain feminine nouns do not end with a -t: <span lang="kab" dir="ltr">tasa</span> "liver", <span lang="kab" dir="ltr">tili</span> "shadow", and <span lang="kab" dir="ltr">timess</span> "fire".
Certain feminine nouns do start wi a t-: <span lang="kab" dir="ltr">lexdma</span> "work" and <span lang="kab" dir="ltr">rradyu</span> "radio". These include the names of relatives: <span lang="kab" dir="ltr">weltma</span> "my sister", <span lang="kab" dir="ltr">yelli</span> "my daughter", and <span lang="kab" dir="ltr">yemma</span> "my mother".
Loan words that end with a consonant are usually masculine: <span lang="kab" dir="ltr">zzman</span> "time" (from Arabic); Loan words that end with a vowel are usually feminine: <span lang="kab" dir="ltr">qahwa</span> "coffee".
Singular nouns generally start with an a-, and do not have a suffix. Plural nouns generally start with an i- and often have a suffix such as -en. There are three types of plural : External, Internal, Mixed:
Certain words exist only in the plural form and do not have a singular, such as: <span lang="kab" dir="ltr">aman</span> "water", <span lang="kab" dir="ltr">medden</span> "people", and <span lang="kab" dir="ltr">ammewan</span> "eyebrows".
Certain words exist only in the singular form and do not have a plural, such as: <span lang="kab" dir="ltr">tidet</span> "truth", <span lang="kab" dir="ltr">tiãrit</span> "correction", and <span lang="kab" dir="ltr">tagella</span> "food".
The plural of certain words can change the meaning of the singular: <span lang="kab" dir="ltr">tuccanin</span> "mercurial", plural of <span lang="kab" dir="ltr">tuccent</span> "female jackal"; <span lang="kab" dir="ltr">timeddukkal</span> "placenta", plural of <span lang="kab" dir="ltr">tamdeddakelt</span> "female friend".
Certain words can have different plural forms with different meanings: <span lang="kab" dir="ltr">iri</span> "collar" has two plural forms, <span lang="kab" dir="ltr">iran</span> "edge" or <span lang="kab" dir="ltr">irawen</span> "responsibility".
As in all Berber languages, Kabyle has two types of states or cases of the noun: one is unmarked (and can be glossed as or ), while the other serves as a post-verbal subject of a transitive verb and the object of a preposition, among other contexts, and may be glossed as , or . The former is often called free state, the latter construct state. The construct state of the noun derives from the free state through one of the following rules:
The first involves a vowel alternation, whereby the vowel a become u :
The second involves the loss of the initial vowel in the case of some feminine nouns (the sound represented by the letter 'e' is not considered a true vowel):
The third involves the addition of a semi-vowel (w or y) word-initially:
Finally, some nouns do not change for free state. These include masculine nouns that do not start with a vowel, feminine nouns that do not start with -t, and feminine nouns whose initial vowel is -a or -u:
Summary of the annexed state formation
In the schematic notation used below, C represents a consonant, and V represents a vowel.
Depending on the role of the noun in the sentence, it takes either its free or annexed state.
When located after a verb, the direct object of the verb takes the free state, while the subject is in the annexed state.
When the direct object is indicated on the verb by a direct object affix, the direct object's identity may be restated in the annexed state.
When a noun is moved in front of the verb to establish it as the sentence topic, it remains in its free state.
After a preposition (at the exception of "ar" and "s"), all nouns take their annexed state. Hence the free-state noun aman (water), annexed state waman, can form kas n waman, (a glass of water), with the preposition n "of" triggering the construct state's appearance.
Adjectives can be formed by deriving a verb or using elements placed before the noun.
Kabyle verbs inflect for four paradigms of tenseâÂÂaspectâÂÂmood, three of them conventionally labelled the preterite (expressing perfective aspect), intensive aorist (expressing imperfective aspect) and aorist (essentially functioning like an irrealis or subjunctive mood). Unlike other Berber languages, where it is used to express the present, the aorist alone is rarely used in Kabyle, instead often appearing with an accompanying particle. The preterite also has an accompanying negative paradigm which may or may not differ from that of the non-negative preterite depending on the verb.
The intensive aorist can be used alone or with the following particles:
Conjugation in Kabyle is done by adding affixes (prefixes, suffixes or both). These affixes are static and identical for all finite stems, with only the theme changing. Kabyle is a pro-drop language, where the affixes are sufficient to indicate the subject pronouns, without the need to include the pronouns separately.
A group of stative/resultative verbs (such as "to be/become big or old") use a different set of person-number endings in their preterites, which contains only suffixes.
In weak verbs, the aorist and preterite stems are identical. In strong verbs, however, the preterite differs from the aorist, typically through vowel alternation and, in some cases, consonant gemination or tension. The table below summarizes common patterns described in the literature.
The intensive aorist is a verbal form derived from the basic aorist stem. Stem structures are often represented using the symbols C (consonant) and V (vowel); R denotes the initial consonant or consonant cluster of the aorist stem, and Râ² the corresponding intensive prefix. The intensive aorist is typically formed by prefixing tt- (or tte-), frequently accompanied by vowel alternation or consonant gemination depending on the stem type. The table below summarizes common formation patterns described in the literature.
As an example, the full finite conjugation of the verb afeg "to fly" exhibiting its four themes (preterite ufeg, negative preterite ufig, aorist afeg, and intensive aorist ttafeg) is given below. For Kabyle verbs, the citation form of a verb is the second-person singular imperative.
The participles in Kabyle are used as a means of expressing relative phrases in which the preceding noun is the participle's subject. In the following proverb, ur nxeddem "who doesn't work" modifies argaz "man".
Each Kabyle verb has five participles, all formed by attaching various affixes onto a corresponding finite stem.
Kabyle is a satellite-framed based language, Kabyle verbs use two particles to show the path of motion:
Examples:
Kabyle usually expresses negation in two parts, with the particle ur attached to the verb, and one or more negative words that modify the verb or one of its arguments. For example, simple verbal negation is expressed by ë ur û before the verb and the particle ë ara û after the verb:
Other negative words (acemma ... etc.) are used in combination with ur to express more complex types of negation.
Negation of the verbs in the subjunctive mood is achieved by the form a wer + verb
Negation of the verbs in the imperative mood is achieved by the form ur + intensive imperative + ara
ili + verb is employed to express the following aspects:
Examples
aã in its general meaning "to take" can be used in complex verb construction in its preterite form yuã, or intensive aorist form yettaã. Its use is equivalent to the use of the verb ili.
Examples
Verb derivation is done by adding affixes. There are three types of derivation forms : Causative, reflexive and Passive.
Two prefixes can cancel each other:
Every verb has a corresponding agent noun. In English it could be translated into verb+er. It is obtained by prefixing the verb with ë am- û or with ë an- û if the first letter is b / f / m / w (there are exceptions however).
Every verb has a corresponding action noun, which in English it could be translated into verb+ing:
There are 6 regular stems of forming action nouns, and the 7th is for quality verbs : (C for consonant, V for vowel)
The predicative particle "d" is an indispensable tool in speaking Kabyle, "d" is equivalent to both "it is + adjective" and "to be + adjective", but cannot be replaced by the verb "ili" (to be). It is always followed by a noun (free state).
Examples:
The predicative particle "d" should not be confused with the particle of coordination "d"; indeed, the latter is followed by a noun at its annexed state while the first is always followed by a noun at its free state.
Example : ë Ula d nekk. û â "Me too."
There are three types of possessive pronouns: isolated, suffixes, and those of names of relatives.
1-Isolated (or independent):
Isolated possessive pronouns can be placed before or after the possessed noun:
2-Suffix: it comes after the possessed noun, and it is linked to it by a hyphen.
Example : ë Axxam-nneã. û â "Our house." (House-our)
3-Possessive pronouns of the names of relatives:
When the name of the relative does not have a possessive pronoun, it means by default "my", for example: â baba "my father"; whereas baba-s means "his father" or "her father".
Example : ë Yuã-it. û â "He bought it." (He.bought-it)
There are three demonstratives, near-deictic ('this, these'), far-deictic ('that, those') and absence:
Only the first two numbers are Berber; for higher numbers, Arabic is used. They are yiwen (f. yiwet) "one", sin (f. snat) "two". The noun being counted follows it in the genitive: sin n yirgazen "two men".
"First" and "last" are respectively amezwaru and aneggaru (regular adjectives). Other ordinals are formed with the prefix wis (f. tis): wis sin "second (m.)", tis tlata "third (f.)", etc.
Prepositions precede their objects: ë i medden û "to the people", ë si temdint û "from the town". All words preceded by a preposition (at the exception of ë s û and ë ar û, "towards", "until" ) take their annexed state.
Some prepositions have two forms : one is used with pronominal suffixes and the other form is used in all other contexts.
Also some of these prepositions have a corresponding relative pronoun (or interrogative), example:
Conjunctions precede the verb: mi yiwweḠ"when he arrived", muqel ma yusa-d "see if he came".