Minhast: Difference between revisions

Some languages with evidential verbal affixes require their appearance, but in Minhast the evidential affixes are optional.  Moreover, they have corresponding particles that may appear in their place.  If the evidential affixes appear at the end of the verb complex, the Irrealis marker ''-š-'' cannot appear with the any of the Hearsay or Inferential evidentials, simply because the ''-š-'' has already fused with the base morpheme.  The Visual evidentials, if accompanied by ''-š-'', convey the meaning, "It appears to be..."; without it, they convey the meaning, "I know this because you (and I) have witnessed this."  If the Scriptive appears with ''-š-'', it either indicates that the speaker does not believe what was written, or that what was written turned out to be incorrect; thus it becomes a sort of counterfactual marker.  The counterfactual meaning can be reinforced if the Scriptive is followed by the Unexpected marker ''-kil-'' + ''-š-'', e.g. ''Ušnaruškattekiš << *ušn-ar-u-škatte-kil-š'' (hit-PST-TRANS-SCRIP-UNEXP-IRREAL) "It was reported (in the newspaper) that he hit him...''(but) instead''...," or "Had he hit him, as was reported in the newspaper..."

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