Kabyle grammar is the set of structural rules and regulations included in the Kabyle language, ranging from words to phrases, to punctuation, and sentences.
CS:construct state FS:free state ANN:annexed state ABS:free state
Nouns and adjectives Gender 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: aqcic "a boy", taqcict "a girl". amɣar "an old man", tamɣart "an old woman". argaz "a man", tameṭṭut "a woman". izi "a fly", tizit "mosquito". Certain masculine nouns do not start with a vowel: laẓ "hunger", seksu "couscous", and beṭṭu "separation". These include the names of relatives: gma "my brother", mmi "my son", and baba "my father".
Certain feminine nouns do not end with a -t: tasa "liver", tili "shadow", and timess "fire".
Certain feminine nouns do not start with a t-: lexdma "work" and rradyu "radio". These include the names of relatives: weltma "my sister", yelli "my daughter", and yemma "my mother".
Loan words that end with a consonant are usually masculine: zzman "time" (from Arabic); Loan words that end with a vowel are usually feminine: qahwa "coffee".
Pluralization 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:
External or "Regular": consists in changing the initial vowel of the noun, and adding a suffix -n, amɣar "an old man" → imɣaren "old men". argaz → irgazen "men" ul → ulawen "hearts"
Internal: involves only a change in the vowels within the word: adrar → idurar "mountain" amicic "a cat" → imcac "cats"
Mixed: combines a change of vowels (within the word) with the suffix -n: igenni "sky" → igenwan "skies". izi → izan "fly" aẓar → iẓuran "root" afus → ifassen "hands
Special cases: that do not fall into any of the previous three categories Initial vowel -a does not change: tama "side" → tamiwin "sides" Initial vowel -u does not change: tuɣmest "tooth" → tuɣmas "teeth" Loan words from Arabic that keep their Arabic plural: lɛada "tradition" → leɛwayed "traditions"
Certain words exist only in the plural form and do not have a singular, such as: aman "water", medden "people", and ammiwen "eyebrows".
Certain words exist only in the singular form and do not have a plural, such as: tidet "truth", tiɣrit "correction", and tagella "food".
The plural of certain words can change the meaning of the singular: tuccanin "mercurial", plural of tuccent "female jackal"; timeddukkal "placenta", plural of tamdeddakelt "female friend".
Certain words can have different plural forms with different meanings: iri "collar" has two plural forms, iran "edge" or irawen "responsibility".
Free and annexed state 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 : amaziɣ → umaziɣ "Berber" ameqqran → umeqqran "big" adrar → udrar "mountain" 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): tamɣart → temɣart "women" tamdint → temdint "town" tamurt → tmurt "country" The third involves the addition of a semi-vowel (w or y) word-initially: asif → wasif "river" aḍu → waḍu "wind" iles → yiles "tongue" uccen → wuccen "jackal" 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: taddart → taddart "village"; feminine noun whose initial vowel is -a tuccent → tuccent "female jackal"; feminine noun whose initial vowel is -u fad → fad "thirsty"; masculine noun that does not start with a vowel weltma → weltma "sister"; feminine noun that does not start with -t Summary of the annexed state formation
In the schematic notation used below, C represents a consonant, and V represents a vowel. Initial vowel alteration General rule Free state Annexed state Example aCC- → weC- azrem wezrem "serpent" iCC- → yeC- itri yetri "star" Maintenance of the initial vowel General rule Free state Annexed state Example aCV- → waCV- aman waman "water" iCV- → yiCV- izem yizem "lion" uC- → wuC- uccen wuccen "jackal" Feminine nouns (initial ta- / ti-) General rule Free state Annexed state Example taCV- → tØCV- tamurt tmurt "country"tiCV- → tØCV-timuratmura"countries"taCC- → taCC-taggarataggara"end" tiCt → tiCt tiṭ tiṭ "eye" 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 Adjectives can be formed by deriving a verb or using elements placed before the noun.
Verb derivation
From a stative verb: izwiɣ "to be red" → azeggaɣ "red" Identical to an agent noun: ilaẓ "to be hungry" → amellẓu "hungry" By adding the suffix -an to a verb: ihiriw "to be large" → ahrawan "large" By adding the prefix u- to a verb: zmer "to be able" → uzmir "strong" or "capable"
Using elements before the noun
Adding bu "who has" (masculine singular), mu "who has" (feminine singular), at "who have" (masculine plural), sut "who have" (feminine plural) + noun in the annexed state: bu uqerru, mu uqerru "tenacious" (uqerru from aqerru "head"); sut wartiran "demonym for people from At Waritran, in this case feminine plural" Adding war "without" (masculine) or tar "without" (feminine) + noun in the free state: war sseɛd, tar sseɛd "unlucky" Adding yir "bad" + noun in the free state: yir zwaǧ "a bad marriage"
Verbs Kabyle verbs inflect for four paradigms of tense–aspect–mood, 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.
"Weak verbs" have a preterite form that is the same as their aorist. Examples of weak verbs that follow are conjugated at the first person of the singular:
Verb Preterite ad + aorist Intensive aorist If (to outdo) ifeɣ ad ifeɣ ttifeɣ Muqel (to observe) muqleɣ ad muqleɣ ttmuquleɣ Krez (to plough) kerzeɣ ad kerzeɣ kerrzeɣ
"Strong verbs" or "irregular verbs":
Verb Preterite ad + aorist Intensive aorist Aru (to write) uriɣ ad aruɣ ttaruɣ The intensive aorist can be used alone or with the following particles:
ar: to indicate an extended action: ar ileḥḥu "he walks for a long time" la: to indicate a continuous action in the present, equivalent of the present continuous in English: la yettazzal "he is running" a la: to indicate a continuous action in the past: a la yeqqar "he was saying" ad: to indicate a continuous action in the future: ad ttmerriḥeɣ "I will be taking a walk"
Conjugation 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.
+ Kabyle person-number affixes Person Singular Plural 1st — (e)ɣ n(e) — 2nd (m) t(e) — (e)ḍ t(e) — (e)m 2nd (f) t(e) — (e)ḍ t(e) — (e)mt 3rd (m) i/y(e) — — (e)n 3rd (f) t(e) — — (e)nt
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.
+ Kabyle stative preterite person-number affixes Person Singular Plural 1st — (e)ɣ — it 2nd (m) — (e)ḍ — it 2nd (f) — (e)ḍ — it 3rd (m) — — it 3rd (f) — (e)t — it
Preterite formation 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. Type Aorist Meaning Preterite Alternation Weak verbs yekrez "to plough" yekrez no change Simple vowel alternation afeg "to fly" ufeg a → u awi "to bring" wwi a → Ø / w mlil "to meet" mlal i → a mmet "to die" mmut e → u Ø alternation yezz "to bite" yezza Ø → a Two-vowel alternation inṭih "to vociferate" unṭah i-i → u-a argu "to dream" urga a-u → u-a Double alternation rnu "to add" rni / rna u → i / a Consonant tension idir "to live" dder vowel shift + gemination Intensive aorist formation 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 R′ 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. Aorist pattern Intensive pattern Example (aorist) Meaning Intensive form R e–e R′ e–i welleh "to direct" ttwellih R v–ec R′ v–vc muqel "to look" ttmuqul R v₁–v₂ R′ v₁–v₂ nadi "to search" ttnadi C₁C₂V C₁eC₂C₂V rnu "to add" rennu CCV te- + CCV ddu "to go" teddu V-initial tt- + V-stem awi "to bring" ttawi (stem-class pattern) C → CC ger "to put" ggar
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.
+ Finite conjugation of Kabyle afeg "to fly" Person Preterite Negative Preterite Aorist Intensive Aorist Imperative Intensive Imperative Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural 1st ufgeɣ nufeg ufigeɣ nufig afgeɣ nafeg ttafgeɣ nettafeg 2nd (m) tufgeḍ tufgem tufigeḍ tufigem tafgeḍ tefgem tettafgeḍ tettafgem afeg afget ttafeg ttafget 2nd (f) tufgeḍ tufgemt tufigeḍ tufigemt tafgeḍ tefgemt tettafgeḍ tettafgemt afeg afgemt ttafeg ttafgemt 3rd (m) yufeg ufgen yufig ufigen yafeg afgen yettafeg ttafgen 3rd (f) tufeg ufgent ur tufig ur ufigent ad tafeg ad afgent tettafeg ttafgent