Conditional Patterns in the Jewish Neo-Aramaic Dialect of Zakho

Nuyts (2006, 6, emphasis mine), for example, offers the following definition: The core definition of this category is relatively noncontroversial: it concerns an indication of the estimation, typically, but not necessarily, by the speaker, of the chances that the state of affairs expressed in the clause applies in the world In other words, it expresses the degree of probability of the state of aff. [...] The only way it could be interpreted is as a conditional protasis ‘should you not….’ The negative form lak- šāqəl in the apodosis is the negative of both the forms k-šāqəl and p-šāqəl (and is thus glossed neg.npst) The relationship with the pattern marked by kan is exemplified in the following pair of examples. [...] On the other hand, when the particle šud precedes šāqəl, the pattern is positively identified as a concessive conditional Conditional Patterns in the Jewish Neo-Aramaic Dialect of Zakho 209 (Otherwise šud identifies the subjunctive form as syntactically independent.) The details of the pattern of the paratactic conditional are as follows: Table 2: Conditional Patterns Conditional Protasis Apodosis. [...] The modal particle in our case refers specifically to the relation between the protasis and the apodosis, namely, it shakes the dependency between the protasis and the apodosis, expressing doubt about this relationship. [...] Conclusions This paper provides a description, classification and discussion of the various conditional phenomena in the Jewish Neo-Aramaic dialect of Zakho 1 The different conditional types are explained and exemplified: • Ordinary conditionals, which denote different degrees of epistemic modality (these constitute the bulk of the examples); 218 Studies in the Grammar and Lexicon of Neo-Aramaic •.