Siouan evidentiality

Rankin, Robert L rankin at ku.edu
Tue Mar 17 19:26:56 UTC 2009


See that article on Siouan positionals and their various grammaticalizations in S.T.U.F. for treatment of Dhegiha.  The evidentials part of the paper was based on work done by John Koontz.
 
Bob

________________________________

From: owner-siouan at lists.Colorado.EDU on behalf of David Kaufman
Sent: Tue 3/17/2009 1:16 PM
To: Siouan List
Subject: Siouan evidentiality


Hi all,
 
I'm planning on writing a paper to present at this year's conference on Biloxi evidentiality.  It's my understanding that this topic hasn't been much researched in Siouan, but if you have any examples from your respective languages or any other thoughts on it, please let me know.  The long and short of it is that Biloxi seems to have at least 2 evidentiality particles, kane and naxo.  The first indicates 'hearsay' or 'not experienced' whereas the second indicates that it was 'directly experienced' or 'first-hand knowledge.'  
 
Not sure about other Siouan languages, but Cherokee apparently has a similar system.  If anyone knows of any other Native American languages that have similar systems, please let me know.  I am aware, of course, that evidentiality is hot in Central Asia, and I may give an example or two from SW Monguor, a Mongolic language I worked on as a graduate research assistant last year.
 
And, oh yes, there is the possibility that use of evidentials in Biloxi may be a male vs. female speech pattern (evidentials may be used only by men according to one of Dorsey's notes).  If anyone has any thoughts on male-female speech patterns in Siouan or other languages, please let me know.
 
Cheers,
 
Dave



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