Remarks on the Historical Development and Syntax of the Copula in North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic Dialects

This paper examines some aspects of the morphology and syntax of the copula in the North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic (NENA) dialects. The first part proposes a possible pathway for the diachronic development of the morphology of the copula, with particular attention to the innovative inflection of the 3rd person. It is argued that this originated in deictic constructions that were reanalysed as deictic copulas. The second part offers a functional explanation for the position of the copula before or after the predicate. It is argued that many constructions that place the copula before the predicate should be interpreted as thetic sentences, whereas those that place the copula after the predicate should be interpreted as categorical sentences. The thetic structures are likely to have developed by the replication of the pattern of copula constructions in Kurdish.