Towards the origin of evidentiality in nakh-daghestanian languages: structural and areal perspectives

This article deals with the grammatical expression of the source of information by means of past tense forms of the verb (so-called “past unwitnessed” forms) in the East Caucasian (Nakh-Dagestanian) languages. These languages are spoken in a relatively small territory in the Northeast Caucasus and p...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Samira Verhees
Format: Article
Language:Russian
Published: St. Tikhon's Orthodox University 2018-12-01
Series:Вестник Православного Свято-Тихоновского гуманитарного университета: Сериа III. Филология
Subjects:
Online Access:http://periodical.pstgu.ru/ru/pdf/article/6766
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1849306831682273280
author Samira Verhees
author_facet Samira Verhees
author_sort Samira Verhees
collection DOAJ
description This article deals with the grammatical expression of the source of information by means of past tense forms of the verb (so-called “past unwitnessed” forms) in the East Caucasian (Nakh-Dagestanian) languages. These languages are spoken in a relatively small territory in the Northeast Caucasus and partly in Transcaucasia. It is part of a larger area ranging from the Balkans to Central Asia (including the Caucasus), where similar verb forms are found. It is considered probable that these forms arose among diff erent languages spoken in this area as a result of language contact with Turkic languages. For some languages of this area (e.g. Armenian and Georgian), this hypothesis has been confi rmed. For the East Caucasian languages, this question has not been studied yet. This article is the fi rst attempt to make preliminary assessment of the probability of this hypothesis. First of all, the formal characteristics of these forms in the East Caucasian languages are discussed, as well as their genetic and areal distribution among the languages of the family. It is claimed that this distribution is not trivial. Three distinct zones can be distinguished in the East Caucasian area: more grammaticalised forms are common in the northwest, less grammaticalised expressions are characteristic of the central zone, while they are almost absent in the southern part of the region. It remains unclear which specifi c Turkic language from this region could have acted as a source language, and it is not possible at this point to establish the exact ways in which the feature in question was spread through the East Caucasian family. The specifi c distribution outlined in this paper does, however, indicate that Turkic languages have played a role in the distribution of this feature.
format Article
id doaj-art-1e8f5eab63224d93aab534c8cc3ac892
institution Kabale University
issn 1991-6485
2409-4897
language Russian
publishDate 2018-12-01
publisher St. Tikhon's Orthodox University
record_format Article
series Вестник Православного Свято-Тихоновского гуманитарного университета: Сериа III. Филология
spelling doaj-art-1e8f5eab63224d93aab534c8cc3ac8922025-08-20T03:54:57ZrusSt. Tikhon's Orthodox UniversityВестник Православного Свято-Тихоновского гуманитарного университета: Сериа III. Филология1991-64852409-48972018-12-015757110123http://dx.doi.org/10.15382/sturIII201857.110-1237Towards the origin of evidentiality in nakh-daghestanian languages: structural and areal perspectivesSamira Verhees0National Research University Higher School of Economics; 21/4 Staraia Basmannaya, 105066, Moscow, Russian FederationThis article deals with the grammatical expression of the source of information by means of past tense forms of the verb (so-called “past unwitnessed” forms) in the East Caucasian (Nakh-Dagestanian) languages. These languages are spoken in a relatively small territory in the Northeast Caucasus and partly in Transcaucasia. It is part of a larger area ranging from the Balkans to Central Asia (including the Caucasus), where similar verb forms are found. It is considered probable that these forms arose among diff erent languages spoken in this area as a result of language contact with Turkic languages. For some languages of this area (e.g. Armenian and Georgian), this hypothesis has been confi rmed. For the East Caucasian languages, this question has not been studied yet. This article is the fi rst attempt to make preliminary assessment of the probability of this hypothesis. First of all, the formal characteristics of these forms in the East Caucasian languages are discussed, as well as their genetic and areal distribution among the languages of the family. It is claimed that this distribution is not trivial. Three distinct zones can be distinguished in the East Caucasian area: more grammaticalised forms are common in the northwest, less grammaticalised expressions are characteristic of the central zone, while they are almost absent in the southern part of the region. It remains unclear which specifi c Turkic language from this region could have acted as a source language, and it is not possible at this point to establish the exact ways in which the feature in question was spread through the East Caucasian family. The specifi c distribution outlined in this paper does, however, indicate that Turkic languages have played a role in the distribution of this feature.http://periodical.pstgu.ru/ru/pdf/article/6766эвиденциальность нахско-дагестанские языки языковой контакт морфология тюркские языки глагольная морфология грамматикализация кавказские языки перфект ареальная типология
spellingShingle Samira Verhees
Towards the origin of evidentiality in nakh-daghestanian languages: structural and areal perspectives
Вестник Православного Свято-Тихоновского гуманитарного университета: Сериа III. Филология
эвиденциальность
нахско-дагестанские языки
языковой контакт
морфология
тюркские языки
глагольная морфология
грамматикализация
кавказские языки
перфект
ареальная типология
title Towards the origin of evidentiality in nakh-daghestanian languages: structural and areal perspectives
title_full Towards the origin of evidentiality in nakh-daghestanian languages: structural and areal perspectives
title_fullStr Towards the origin of evidentiality in nakh-daghestanian languages: structural and areal perspectives
title_full_unstemmed Towards the origin of evidentiality in nakh-daghestanian languages: structural and areal perspectives
title_short Towards the origin of evidentiality in nakh-daghestanian languages: structural and areal perspectives
title_sort towards the origin of evidentiality in nakh daghestanian languages structural and areal perspectives
topic эвиденциальность
нахско-дагестанские языки
языковой контакт
морфология
тюркские языки
глагольная морфология
грамматикализация
кавказские языки
перфект
ареальная типология
url http://periodical.pstgu.ru/ru/pdf/article/6766
work_keys_str_mv AT samiraverhees towardstheoriginofevidentialityinnakhdaghestanianlanguagesstructuralandarealperspectives