Speaker: Alexandre Ryzhkov-Shukumine Title: Epistemic authority in Okinawan

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Abstract

All finite verbs in the Shuri dialect of Okinawan, an endangered Japonic language, end with an obligatory mood suffix (table 1).

prs	pst
-n -see -sa	-tan -tasee -tasa	speaker authority addressee authority  no authority	declarative sphere
-ra -mi -ga	-tara -tii -taga	suggestive question polar question  wh-question	interrogative sphere
-i -ee -a		command request invitation (1sg or 1pl)	imperative sphere

Table 1: Mood markers in present and past tenses

Moods in Okinawan can be broadly classified into a declarative sphere, an interrogative sphere and an imperative sphere, with at least three moods in each. While the functions of the interrogative and imperative moods are relatively easy to describe with established typological concepts, the three declarative moods seem to exhibit a rare organisation that can be called epistemic authority. A similar phenomenon has previously been described for some languages of South America (Landaburu 2007, Bergqvist 2016, Grzech 2017).

In essence, Okinawan epistemic authority marks three possibilities:

1. speaker expects addressee to agree, on the speaker’s authority
2. speaker expects addressee to find evidence and then agree, on the addressee’s authority
3. speaker does not necessarily expect addressee to agree.

Absent from Japanese, the dominant language on Okinawa today, this fascinating system is rapidly eroding. We will explore its workings hands-on with the help of a collection of natural dialogues (National Language Research Institute 1982–1987), classifying all attestations according to their function in discourse. Time permitting, we can discuss alternative explanations for the data and the place of epistemic authority in grammatical typology.

References

Bergqvist, Henrik 2016. Complex epistemic perspective in Kogi (Arwako) // International Journal of American Linguistics 82(1), 1–34.

Grzech, Karolina 2017. “Autoridad epistémica y atenuación en Tena Kichwa: análisis de enclítico =cha basado en el corpus”. Normas 7(2), 48–71.

Landaburu, Jon 2007. “La modalisation du savoir en langue andoke (Amazonie colombienne)”. In: Z. Guentchéva & J. Landaburu (eds), Lʼénonciationmédiatisée II. Peeters.

National Language Research Institute = 国立国語研究所 1982–1987『方言談話資料（6～10）』国立国語研究所.