Conclusiones

As discussed in §4.5, all determiners and demonstratives of JZakho which start with a glottal-stop or a vowel have a special genitive allomorph, formed by re-moving the glottal stop and prefixing the genitive d- marker. These include the definite articles (see Table 4.4 on page 108), some demonstratives and the inter-rogative determiner ēma ‘which’. As mentioned there, the discovery and analysis of this phenomenon in JZakho is due to Cohen (2010), but it occurs in other di-alects as well. As the facts motivating this analysis are the clearest in JZakho, I repeat them here briefly.

First, as stated above, the d- prefix appears only before a closed set of deter-miners and demonstratives, and not before other any ʾ or vowel-initial word (compare (17) on page 119), thus excluding a simple phonological conditioning of its appearance.²¹

20Paradigmatically, it can be replaced by other complementizing particles, such as ʾənnu ‘that’ or hakan ‘whether’, attesting to its different status. See also the discussion regarding the similar Syriac examples (59)–(62) on page 68.

21Clearly, such a phonological conditioning took part in the diachronic emergence of the marker,

Second, note that the d- prefix appears after primaries with a suffixed con-struct state marker, primaries marked by apocopate concon-struct state, as well as unmarked invariable primaries:

(78) JZakho: Noun–Noun pumm-əd

mouth-cst d-aw gen-def.ms

nāša man

‘the mouth of the man’ (Cohen 2012: 107 (76)) (79) JZakho: Noun–Noun

bēs house.cst

d-aw gen-def.ms

gōra man

‘the house of the man’ (Cohen 2012: 107 (75)) (80) JZakho: Noun–Infinitival Phrase

sabab reason(inv)

[d-o gen-def

ʾīzāla go.inf

dīd-ax]

lnk-2fs

‘the reason of your going’ (Cohen 2012: 111 (87))

The first example proves that the d- prefix is distinct from the construct state marker, while the second and third examples show that it occurs also when no /d/ segment is called for by a construct state marking.

The last point can also be exemplified when the genitive marking follows an adverbial which normally do not get the -əd suffix:

(81) JZakho: Preposition–Noun mən

from d-ay gen-def

xzēna treasure

‘from the treasure’ (Cohen 2012: 108 (77))

In contrast to other dialects, the genitive marking is obligatory whenever its appearance conditions are met. The very few exceptions listed by Cohen (2012:

108, fn. 15) can probably be explained by speech lapsi (or transcription errors), rather than a systematic optionality.

As we will see below, the genitive marker is also distinct from the linking pronoun, with which it can co-occur.

but it is no longer operative. In Nerwa (texts from the 17^thcentury) one finds examples like šəmm-əd d-ʾəlāha ‘name of God’ (Sabar 2002: 38, §2).

5.5.1 Genitive marking following the linker

Since the linker stands in direct attributive relationship with its complement (the secondary), the latter is marked by genitive case whenever possible:

(82) JZakho: Noun–Noun ʾōda

room dīd lnk

d-aw

gen-def.masc gōra man

‘the room of the man’ (Cohen 2012: 106 (72))

A genitive marker following the short linker d- is also found, as in the fol-lowing example (=example (16) on page 108). In the original source it is written as a separate word, but very likely it procliticizes to the following word. Given that d- typically comes before clausal secondaries (see §5.4.3), it is possible that it appears here as a phonetic simplification of the sequence dīd d-o > d= d-o.

(83) JZakho: Noun Phrase–Noun (mən)

from [d-o

gen-dem.ms bəhna breath(ms)

rwīxa]

wide.ms d=

lnk=

[d-o

gen-dem.masc

jwanqa]

youngster

‘(from) the patience of this youngster’ (Cohen 2012: 106 (71))

5.5.2 Genitive marking of clauses

As we have seen above (§5.3.2), clauses may act as secondaries. In some cases, their secondary status is marked by the very same prefix d-. Indeed, JZakho has developed a special series of genitivally marked copulas, which consist of the nor-mal (indicative present) copula preceded by d-. While the copula is the marked element, the scope of the marking should be understood as the entire secondary clause. As Cohen (2010) notes, this innovation of JZakho is similar to an Akka-dian construction, but no direct influence can be adduced.²²

22It should be noted that the genitive marking of clauses is different from the subjunctive mood (i.e. šaqəl forms without a pre-verbal particle) which exists in JZakho and other dialects. While the subjunctive mood is frequently found with embedded clauses, it adds a semantic mood value to the utterance, in contrast to the genitive marker, which is a pure grammatical mark of secondary position. Moreover, the subjunctive form can appear in matrix clauses, as exam-ple (92) on page 140 shows.

(84) JZakho: Noun–Clause

‘at the price which they had come to you from Mosul’ (Cohen 2012: 119 (116))

‘open a chest that is placed in the left corner’ (Cohen 2012: 119 (119)) Thus, the genitive marking appears both after nouns with suffixed cst marker or in apocopate cst form. It is worthwhile noting that the d- prefix occurs even when the copula is not the first element of the attributive clause, though this must occur quite rarely, as the following example is unique in my survey:

(86) JZakho: Noun–Clause

‘(They brought me to) the castle, on which (the statue of) Virgin Mary is.²³’ (Cohen 2012: 119 (117))

The genitive marking appears also in ACs headed by adverbial conjunctions, whether they are invariable or construct state marked:

(87) JZakho: Conjunction–Clause

‘from the time she was born’ (Cohen 2012: 120 (127)) (88) JZakho: Conjunction–Clause

‘since you are close to my heart’ (Cohen 2012: 121 (130))

23If dīla is assumed to open the relative clause, it yields the quite odd interpretation “the castle of Virgin Mary, whose (statue) is on it”.

The same genitive copula is used also for clausal secondaries of the ALC, i.e.

following the linker:

(89) JZakho: Noun (subject)–Clause ō

‘the man who is in his bed’ (Cohen 2012: 119 (120)) (90) JZakho: Noun (subject)–Clause

ʾē

‘that woman who is his wife’ (Cohen 2012: 122)

In the last example the d- linker cliticizes to the d- genitive marker. This re-sulting d=d cluster is sometimes simplified to a de-geminated /d/, serving in both functions (cf. Cohen 2012: 122):

(91) JZakho: Noun (subject)–Clause ay

‘the road which is closed because of robbers and thieves’ (Cohen 2012: 121 (137))

The genitive marking of clauses, on the other hand, is possible only whenever the secondary clause uses the indicative copula. When no such copula is present, such as when a form of the verb ‘to be’ is used, no genitive marking is apparent.

This is exemplified by example (23) on page 120 and possibly also by example (109) on page 146. Similarly the existential particle (glossed ex), combined here with the preposition b- ‘in’ to denote ability, has no genitive marking:

(92) JZakho: Pronoun–Clause

‘Let’s take whatever we can hide in our pockets.’ (Cohen 2012: 96 (20))