Evidentiality in Rgyalthang Tibetan

Abstract

This article analyses the evidential system in Rgyalthang, a Kham Tibetan dialect spoken in Shangri-la (Zhongdian) County, Diqin Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, China. Like Central Tibetan, evidentiality in this dialect is marked by two types of verbs: copulas and auxiliaries. These verbs also function as markers of tense-aspect and participant perspective. Rgyalthang Tibetan shows a system of four-way evidentiality contrasts, namely visual, non-visual, reported and quotative. Generally, the non-visual evidential is used as the unmarked form indicating assumed knowledge. There is no special inferred evidential in this dialect. To indicate inferred evidence, speakers resort to modality as one of the evidential strategies. Like many other Kham Tibetan dialects, Rgyalthang marks mirativity by means of a special existential verb, which is not attested in Central Tibetan. The article also discusses data from Rgyalthang narratives, which are mainly evidentiality free. In addition, it examines some evidential contrasts in other Kham Tibetan dialects, particularly Bathang Tibetan. The paper concludes with a discussion of the development of evidentials and miratives in various dialects of Tibetan.