The Etymology and Grammaticalization of Prefixes and Suffixes in the Kurdish Language

Abstract

This research, which is available under the title (The Etymology and Grammaticalization of Prefixes and Suffixes in the Kurdish Language), attempts to trace the origins and historical roots of Kurdish prefixes and suffixes. Its aim is to determine where Kurdish prefixes and suffixes come from and how they have undergone grammaticalization.

It investigates whether, from the very beginning, they existed solely as bound morphemes with grammatical function (prefixes and suffixes) in their current form and without lexical meaning, or whether they were originally independent lexical morphemes with their own meanings, which subsequently combined with other free morphemes and formed compound words.

Later, based on the needs of the language and over the passage of time, they gradually underwent grammaticalization and became prefixes and suffixes.

This grammaticalization process occurred in such a way that phonological changes (such as sound shifts, lenition, assimilation, etc.) and semantic changes (such as semantic narrowing, semantic bleaching, polysemy, etc.)

caused them, over time and with their distance from their original forms and meanings, to no longer be recognized in their original lexical state and to evolve from free morphemes into bound morphemes used in word formation (prefixes and suffixes).

The same phenomenon can be observed today in some free morphemes that are undergoing the same process and are becoming bound morphemes used in word formation.