Dengbêj Gazîn: Songs of a Kurdish Woman

Transcriptions

The Kurdish transcriptions in this edition follow the conventions for Kurmancî attributed to the Bedirxan family and the Hawar magazine they published, which are widely accepted as a standard. These conventions were chosen because they are used in most written, audio, and visual Kurdish publications today. Compared to the more detailed notation systems used in some academic editions, the transcriptions here do not differentiate between aspirated and unaspirated ç, k, p, and t consonants and voiced and voiceless x, or indicate the eyn sound derived from Arabic. In the transcriptions, I have tried to reflect as closely as possible how words are pronounced and heard in the recordings. I have strictly avoided replacing words with their »standard« versions or substituting non-Kurdish words with others considered more properly Kurdish; practices which can be found in some other publications.

The linguistic and cultural environment that Gazîn grew up in is reflected in the Kurdish she used. Although her Kurdish is typical of the Wan-Serhed region where she was from, influences from the Botan dialect can also be seen. Since Gazîn was a dengbêj and performed works she had heard from other dengbêjs and performers from different regions, the recordings in this edition also reflect a number of additional Kurdish dialects. These dialectal differences are not marked explicitly in the transcriptions, but readers familiar with Kurdish dialects will be able to notice them. To help with readability, I have added the standard Kurmancî spellings of certain words in clickable notes attached to the corresponding word(s) where necessary.

Recurring features that readers should be aware of:

• Gazîn sometimes pronounced the present tense prefix di- as t. These words have been written as they are pronounced, e.g., tive (dive), tikim (dikim), tixazim (dixwazim).
• Gazîn would pronounce xw sounds as x, e.g., tixazim (dixwazim, »I want«), xar (xwar, »crooked, below«).
• In the non-metric genre known as kilam, Gazîn often did not clearly pronounce the exclamations wey/way at the end of lines. In some cases, these sound like vowel changes typical at the end of kilam lines. I chose not to show these ambiguous wey/way sounds in the transcriptions.
• The letter y can often be heard at the end of various interjections that are part of the performance but have no semantic meaning, such as loy and lêy. This sound frequently appears in elongated syllables. Additionally, y sound overlaps significantly with the î sound. For these reasons, I chose not to show these y sounds in the transcriptions.
• The exclamations lo (masculine address) and la (a form of »law«, meaning »boy«, with a dropped w) sound very similar in Gazîn’s pronunciation, making it difficult to distinguish between them. The same applies to the exclamations ha and ho. Similarly, the conjunction û (»and«) sometimes sounded like o or a in some pieces. I have attempted to transcribe these as they sound.
• In some cases i can sound like e (e.g., nakim/nakem). Since these sounds are already close to each other, deciding which letter to use in writing was difficult, and there may be some inconsistencies in the transcriptions.
• In Gazîn’s dialect, the sounds e and ê at the end of words are not sharply distinguished. Although there is sometimes a slight difference in sound, in other cases, two sounds end up blending. This may have caused inconsistencies in the writing.
• I used parentheses to indicate letters where I was unsure whether they had been articulated in the pronunciation, e.g., gir(t), mi(n), kulî(l)k.
• I tried to mark line and stanza breaks in accordance with the pause points in the performances. It is important to note that some of these choices are entirely mine, and they could have been made differently.
• I have avoided using commas in the transcriptions.

Below is an explanation of the symbols used in the transcription and their usage: