Arabic to Northern Kurdish: distinguish the owner from someone else in the clause
Arabic my can become a reflexive possessive in Kurmanji
Arabic noun-attached possessive suffixes can identify an owner directly. Kurmanji, or Northern Kurdish, also distinguishes whether the owner is the subject of the clause. A target form glossed as my in one phrase may therefore differ from the form used when the speaker acts on their own possession.
The reference grammar contrasts kitêba min, my book, with kitêba xwe when the book belongs to the clause’s subject. The reflexive xwe takes its interpretation from that subject; it does not always mean his or her. For an Arabic sentence about a person taking their own document, establish whether the owner and the actor are the same person. If the source instead names someone else’s document, preserve that distinction. Reusing one saved target possessive phrase in every clause can erase the difference between an actor’s own item and another person’s item.
Past transitive agents can look unlike present subjects
Arabic and Northern Kurdish do not assign participant case and agreement in identical ways. Kurmanji’s past transitive pattern can mark the agent obliquely and organise agreement around the patient. The person who acts may consequently appear in a form that would not be selected as an ordinary direct-case subject in another construction.
The grammatical example min ew dît means I saw him in its cited context. The first-person oblique form still identifies the observer. For an Arabic account of someone finding, seeing, or taking something, establish the roles before comparing individual pronouns. An oblique target form is not automatically the recipient of the event. This also matters for ownership: reflexive reference in a past transitive construction follows the logical agent. Do not decide who owns the item merely by choosing whichever noun looks most like the subject form memorised from a present-tense phrase.
Arabic-looking vocabulary does not turn Kurdish into Arabic
Kurdish has a history of contact with Arabic, and borrowed vocabulary can be recognisable to an Arabic reader. A shared-looking root does not carry over the source word’s entire plural, gender, case, or phrase structure. The target still requires the grammatical construction of Northern Kurdish.
Keep Northern Kurdish distinct from Central Kurdish, often called Sorani. Research comparing Kurdish morphology describes differences in their grammatical systems and writing practices. A translation into Sorani followed by a change of alphabet is not a substitute for the requested Northern Kurdish output. Likewise, Latin-script Kurmanji vowels and marked letters should not be removed because the Arabic source normally omits some short-vowel information. Those target letters belong to its written words. For an Arabic phrase containing a borrowed term and a personal name, retain the name’s identity while rebuilding the borrowing’s surrounding Kurdish grammar. Familiar vocabulary can help recognise the topic, but the participant and possessive relationships determine what the translated sentence actually says.
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