The Ezafe as an Aspectual Marker in Copular Constructions of the Kobani Variety: Stage-Level vs. Individual-Level Predicates

This work investigates the use of tense ezafe (î for masculine singular, e for feminine singular/plural) in copula constructions of Kobani, a Southwestern Kurmanji variety spoken in Rojava. Aligning with other Western Kurmanji dialects like Maraş, Kobani’s tense ezafe encodes stage-level predicates and subject agreement. Unlike standard Kurmanji, which lacks tense ezafe or some dialects like Afrini, where ezafe reportedly marks verbal predicates (e.g., ez-î derim ‘I am going’), Kobani restricts this to copular phrases, contributing to our understanding of morphosyntactic diversity within Kurmanji dialects.