Tense & Evidentiality Suffices
Verbs are suffixed with a tense & evidentiality marker. There are 3 tenses: non-past, recent past, and distant past. Recent and distant past make 3 evidentiality distinctions: direct, inferred, and reported.
Tense↓ Evidentiality→ | Direct [DIR] | Inferred [INF] | Reported [REP] |
---|---|---|---|
Non-Past [NP] | -∅ | ||
Recent Past [RP] | -la | -bo, -bolo | -se, -sese |
Distant Past [DP] | -te | -tote | -to, -tose |
bo
recent past tense and inferred evidentiality
bolo
recent past tense and inferred evidentiality, an extended form of bo.
la
recent past tense and direct evidentiality
se
recent past tense and reported evidentiality
sese
recent past tense and reported evidentiality, an extended form of se
te
distant past tense and direct evidentiality
to
distant past tense and reported evidentiality
tose
distant past tense and reported evidentiality, an extended form of to
tote
distant past tense and inferred evidentiality
∅
non-past tense and zero evidentiality