[Lingtyp] Language without direct speech or reported speech?

[Jocelyn Aznar]

Hi everyone,

Working on reporting speech at the moment, and more precisly on direct
speech, I was wondering whether it has been once reported that a speech
community wouldn't practice reported speech or direct speech. I'd be
also interested by any report or examples from corpus of direct speech
that cannot be identified using morphological or syntactical clues.

I know of course that indirect speech, or other forms of reported speech
else than direct speech, are not so common, but has it been reported
that a particular speech community wouldn't practice at all reported
speech ? or have you read about a speech community which didn't produce
direct speech?

Having sent the email with the wrong address first, Daniel Ross had the
opportunity to tell me about the word of Daniel Everett on Pirahã. I
will take a look at Everett's decriptions and the documentary Grammar of
Happiness where there should be an interested occurrence of direct speech.

Best,
Jocelyn Aznar,
postdoc at ZAS,
Berlin