The Morphology of the Verb in Modern Syriac (Christian Colloquial of Urmi)

Abstract

This is the morphological description of the verbal system of a modern Semitic dialect spoken in Iran. A sketch of the phonemic system is first presented, with detailed stressrules. Then, the verbal forms are described. The verb has two tenses, three aspects and five moods. A morphophonemic treatment of the verbs leads the establishment of five Stems, six sets of Subject suffixes and three sets of pronominal Object suffixes. Rules how combine Stems, Subject suffixes and eventual Object suffixes obtain actual verbal words are given. Tables show all the possible combinations of verbal words in the two terms of Real Conditional or Temporal and Unreal Conditional constructions. Finally, verb classes defined by the shape of their five Stem forms are enumerated, accompanied with verb lists. An Appendix presents the forms of two defective verbs: to be and to have 0.1 Modern Syriac is a Semitic dialect cluster, a survival of East Aramaic, spoken by Christians and Jews in the north-eastern part of Iraq, the adjacent parts of Iran and in scattered communities elsewhere (Turkey, Georgian SSR and also in the