4.23–4.24 "There is" and "to have" (very high value)
4 · Verbs — how the system works · a plain-language guide to Assyrian (Sureth) grammar
Assyrian has no verb "to have." Instead it uses an existence word plus an ending — extremely common in speech.
"There is / there are": one little word, and it doesn't change for singular vs. plural — et covers both "there is" and "there are."
| present | past | |
|---|---|---|
| positive | et (also etten) — there is/are | etva — there was/were |
| negative | let — there isn't/aren't | letva — there wasn't/weren't |
See it in action (drop any noun in after the word):
| Assyrian | English |
|---|---|
| et miyya | there is water |
| et lakhma | there is bread |
| et nashe | there are people |
| let miyya | there's no water |
| etva lakhma | there was bread |
| letva miyya | there was no water |
And a real one from the texts, showing let with a subject: bakhtukh liten — "your wife isn't here / is missing" (literally "your-wife there-isn't"). On its own, lit means "there's none / it's not to be found."
"to have" = "there is … to me": attach the -l endings to et / let:
| Assyrian | English |
|---|---|
| etli | I have |
| etlukh / etlakh | you have (m. / f.) |
| etle | he has |
| etla | she has |
| etlan | we have |
| etlokhun | you (pl.) have |
| etlun | they have |
And the negatives/pasts fall right out: letli "I don't have," etvale "he had," letvale "he didn't have." A few in context:
| Assyrian | English |
|---|---|
| etli tre yale | I have two kids |
| letli zuyze | I don't have money |
| etvale beta gu Urmi | he had a house in Urmia |
| vilalan khamsha yale | we had five children (a real corpus line) |
| etvale eshti dane bakhtate | he had sixty wives (a real corpus line) |
| yale letvale | he had no children (a real corpus line) |
This is one of the highest-frequency structures in everyday conversation — worth memorizing cold.
Go deeper
| Assyrian | English | from |
|---|---|---|
| kulle mendi etli | I have everything | A 3:86 |
| etli tre khabre katukh tanen | I have a couple of things to tell you | A 2:25 |
| letle khela | he does not have the strength | A 37:15 |
| ina yale letvale | but he did not have children | A 3:2 |
"Nobody", "there is no one who…":
| Assyrian | English | from |
|---|---|---|
| letten kha-nasha akh-diyyukh | there is nobody like you | A 3:14 |
| nasha let kat-a-mendi avedle | there is nobody who can do this | A 3:45 |
"Not here" uses the same word. For a known person or thing, let means "isn't here":
| Assyrian | English | from |
|---|---|---|
| a-nasha let hala | this man still isn't here | A 21:3 |
| ina letten | but he wasn't there | A 10:8 |
etli and letten both appear above: Khan finds the short forms (et, let) and the long ones (etten, letten) in free variation.
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