Third Person Singular Verbal Ending as a Zero Morpheme in Kalhori Kurdish: A Morphophonological Analysis

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Department of English Language and Linguistics, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran

Abstract

In Kalhori Kurdish, the third‑person singular marker in the past tense is represented as a zero morpheme and has no phonetic realization. Nevertheless, evidence of a final consonant /d/ appears in some verbs in the simple past and past perfect, creating the impression that the third‑person singular marker, in addition to the zero morpheme, has an alternating form /d/ in certain verbs. The present study argues that, because such an alternation would violate the principle of economy and would be unjustified if restricted to only one agreement marker, the assumption of this alternation should be abandoned. This study, instead, explores the possibility that the consonant /d/ belongs not to the agreement marker but to the morpheme preceding it (the past‑tense suffix or a verbal clitic). The data were analyzed using a descriptive‑analytical method within the framework of Harmonic Serialism in Optimality Theory. The data were collected through 15 hours of interviews with 10 Kalhori Kurdish speakers residing in the counties of Gilan‑e Gharb and Eslamabad‑e Gharb. The analysis shows that attributing /d/ to the morpheme preceding the agreement marker is both consistent with the principle of economy and supported by external evidence. The absence of /d/ in verbs other than the third‑person singular results from the dominance relations *VndvpV,*ɪ̯e >> Onset >> Max and *VndvpV, Ocp[+high]$ >> Onset >> Max.

Keywords

References

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Journal of Linguistics & Iranian Languages
Volume 10, Issue 4
February 2026
Pages 117-132

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History

  • Receive Date: 22 May 2026
  • Revise Date: 11 July 2026
  • Accept Date: 26 June 2026

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