9B.1 "And", and why you usually don't say it
9B · Linking sentences — how one thing leads to the next · a plain-language guide to Assyrian (Sureth) grammar
The word for "and" is u-, glued to the front of the next word. The first thing to learn about it, though, is how rarely it is needed. Most of the time Assyrian strings clauses together with no "and" at all. A clause is one verb with its partners ("he eats", "I saw her"), and speakers list them one after another:
| Assyrian | English | from |
|---|---|---|
| bikhalele, beshtayele, bezmarele, berkadele, beshvarele | he eats, he drinks, he sings, he dances, he leaps around | A 3:38 |
| khul, shti, khup | eat, drink and wash! | A 3:53 |
When u- does appear in a story, Khan's finding is that it usually goes before the last event of a chain, like the "and" before the last item in an English list:
| Assyrian | English | from |
|---|---|---|
| b-lablatlun, b-khallatlun, tammezatlun u bashlatlun | you should take them, wash them, clean them, and cook them | A 5:7 |
It can also attach a reason, where English would say "for" or "because":
| Assyrian | English | from |
|---|---|---|
| ta-jalde, u-bakhtukh metla | come quickly, (for) your wife is dead | A 4:12 |
Two verbs, one action. When two verbs make up one event ("go and see", "take them and sell them"), they sit side by side with no u-, and a pronoun ending goes only on the last verb:
| Assyrian | English | from |
|---|---|---|
| azakh khazakh | let's go and see | A 2:4 |
| kheshli mtili khut kha-tuyra | I went and arrived under a mountain | A 2:30 |
| label zabennun | take them away and sell them | A 1:9 |
| simun machkhun memunle | go and find him and bring him | A 10:11 |
Speaking tip: this is the most useful thing in the section. "Go and get", "come and see", "take it and put it": say the two verbs back to back and put the "it/them" on the second one only. It sounds native straight away.
Go deeper
Three verbs in a row work the same way, with the object ending on the last one:
| Assyrian | English | from |
|---|---|---|
| ku-shkul bashellun | get up, take them and cook them | A 36:8 |
| ku-ta-vur chay shti | get up, come, enter and drink tea | B 6:6 |
One "not" covers both verbs. A negative before the first verb carries over to the second:
| Assyrian | English | from |
|---|---|---|
| khina la khush gu-alulane zabennun anne | do not go and sell them in the streets | A 34:5 |
va is the Persian word for "and". Some speakers use it in place of u-:
| Assyrian | English | from |
|---|---|---|
| raba basima k-ave, va tamana k-ave | it is very delicious, and it is more tasty | B 14:4 |
Opening a new scene. Khan notes that storytellers also use u- the other way round: to open a new stretch (etva kha-dana malka. u-yuvvelle khabra ka-vazzer "there was once a king. And he gave an order to the vizier", A 2:1). If an u- seems to start a sentence for no reason, that is what it is doing: a new scene begins.
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