8.6 Connectives, conjunctions & the little words
8 · Particles — the little connecting words · a plain-language guide to Assyrian (Sureth) grammar
This is the grab-bag of joining words and flavor words. Most are borrowed and unchanging — pure vocabulary. Grouped by job:
Joining words (conjunctions):
Every example in these three tables is a sentence Khan recorded, cited the way Chapter 9B cites them: A 4:12 is folktale 4, paragraph 12; B 1:25 an account of village life; dict. p.272 an example from his dictionary. Where he gives no short example, the cell is left empty rather than filled with one made up.
| Assyrian | English | example |
|---|---|---|
| u | and | ta-jalde, u-bakhtukh metla "come quickly, (for) your wife is dead" (A 4:12) |
| ya, yan | or | bayyet por-rang yan kam-rang? "do you want it strong or weak?" (of tea; dict. p.127) |
| bas, ba | but, however; so, then | etle shemma, bas-shemma ukhcha munshitun "he has a name, but I've simply forgotten the name" (dict. p.95) |
| ina | but; look! (also points something out) | ina aynukh oya al-mendiyyi "but keep an eye on my things" (dict. p.92) |
| amma, baram | but | — |
| akhchi | only; but | akhchi kha bauta etli mennokhun "I have only one request to ask of you" (dict. p.108) |
| chunket | because | chunket ana khliten "because I have made a mistake" (A 4:15) |
| sabab, sab | because | majbur vile paletva sab letva gu-Urmi shulane "he had to leave, because there were no jobs in Urmi" (dict. p.272) |
| ita, itar | then, so, therefore | tamretli, ita azet "bury me, then go" (A 2:34) |
| yanet, yan | that, in order that | — |
| yukhsa | otherwise | yukhsa khurrak le yavvi katokhun akhlitun "otherwise they won't give you food to eat" (A 35:10) |
"If": three of them:
| Assyrian | English | example |
|---|---|---|
| en | if | en kal-gekhka shmilukh, khush "if you hear the sound of laughter, go" (A 2:30) |
| agar | if | agar alaha la rkhemle, mu gari odakh akhnan? "if God is not merciful, what should we do?" (A 35:2) |
| anga | if | anga khoshokhun t-atya, peshitun "if you are happy, stay" (dict. p.77) |
All three mean "if"; en and agar are the common ones (agar is borrowed from Persian, and anga is heard in Armenia). Any of them opens a condition, as in "if you come…". Which verb form goes in each half is set out in "If", in full (Chapter 9B).
Also / too / even / more:
| Assyrian | English | example |
|---|---|---|
| up | also, too | up ka-kenyane jammiva gella "for their cattle, too, they would gather grass" (B 1:25) |
| -da, -ze | also, too (tags onto the end of a word) | at-da khush-tamma "you go over there too" (A 1:31) |
| hatta | even | hatta kipe rappuyela b-rish da-nasha "she even throws stones at the man" (A 40:2) |
| bush | more (comparative) | men-diyyi-da bush-shapirena "they are more beautiful even than me" (A 39:14) |
| zoda, bush-zoda | more (in amount) | ana khachcha bush-zoda mennukh khiyyen "I have lived a little longer than you" (A 2:16) |
| medre | again, still | kudme bitayele medre "the next day he comes again" (dict. p.184) |
Flavor / stance words:
| Assyrian | English | example |
|---|---|---|
| hi | yes | hi — yes |
| bale | yes (answering a call) | bale? — yes? (to a summons) |
| la | no, not | la — no |
| balket | perhaps, maybe | balket lakhkhele — maybe he's here |
| halbat, halbatta | of course, surely | halbat — of course |
| hatman | absolutely, for sure | hatman — for sure |
| aslan | never; (with a negative) at all | aslan la — not at all |
| aghallan | at least | aghallan — at least |
| masalan | for example | masalan — for example |
| yane | that is, meaning… | yane… — that is, i.e.… |
| har | just, exactly; certainly | har atkha — exactly like that |
| khu | surely (usually with a negative) | khu la? — surely not? |
8.6.2 The "also / too" tags (enclitics)
An enclitic is a particle so small it can't stand alone — it leans on the end of the word before it, like the 's in "it's." Assyrian has two that mean "also / too," -da and -ze, tacked onto the word they add to — the equivalent of English "…too" or "…as well." You'll hear them constantly; just recognize that a little -da or -ze riding on the end of a word is adding "…too."
The joiners in use
These little words sit between your clauses exactly where "and / but / if" sit in English. Here they are in sentences Khan recorded:
| Assyrian | English | from |
|---|---|---|
| ta-jalde, u-bakhtukh metla | come quickly, (for) your wife is dead | A 4:12 |
| bayyet por-rang yan kam-rang? | do you want it (your tea) strong or weak? | dict. p.127 |
| etle shemma, bas-shemma ukhcha munshitun | he has a name, but I've simply forgotten the name | dict. p.95 |
| en kal-gekhka shmilukh, khush | if you hear the sound of laughter, go | A 2:30 |
| majbur vile paletva sab letva gu-Urmi shulane | he had to leave, because there were no jobs in Urmi | dict. p.272 |
| akhchi kha bauta etli mennokhun | I have only one request to ask of you | dict. p.108 |
| at-da khush-tamma | you go over there too | A 1:31 |
Notice the pattern: the joiner drops into the seam between two things you can already say. Speakers also leave the joiner out far more often than English does. That, and the words that carry a story from one sentence to the next (ita "then", khina, ina "but, look!"), are the subject of Chapter 9B, "Linking sentences".
8.6.3 The linker d- / -et — "that, which, so that"
One tiny element does an enormous amount of clause-joining work — the linker that English splits into that, which, who, and so that. It shows up in two shapes:
- attached as -et onto a word that ends in a vowel: adatte "customs" → adattet… "the customs that…";
- standalone as d- (or, very commonly in spoken Urmi, kat) before an independent word.
It pulls triple duty, glued right where English would put its linking word:
| function | Assyrian | English (literal) |
|---|---|---|
| which / that (relative) | adattet akhnan etlan | the customs that we have (customs-that we have-them) |
| that (reporting/complement) | ktevtela … kat aten … azetta | it's written … that you … would go |
| so that / in order that (purpose) | … kat aha yala avile | … so that he'd have a child |
So "the man that came," "I know that he came," "come so that we talk" all hang on this one linker — kat / d- / attached -et. It's the single most useful clause-connector in the language.
This is really a syntax topic — relative clauses, reported speech, and purpose clauses each have more to them — so the full treatment lives in the Syntax chapter (Ch. 9). Here, just recognize the linker and what it's doing: wherever English would say that / which / who / so that, Assyrian reaches for kat / d- / -et.
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