Evidentiality in Algonquian

AbstractThis chapter surveys three representative chunks of the Algonquian family: the Cree-Innu-Naskapi continuum, Ojibwe, and Eastern Algonquian. After noting the very productive role of lexical means of expressing perception (the closest Algonquian gets to sensory evidentials), it highlights how some of the Cree-Innu-Naskapi continuum languages show affixal morphology that contrasts (Direct versus) Indirect evidentiality, Inferentiality, and the distinctive ‘dream-witnessed’ Subjective—with the remainder of the family showing essentially subsets of this range of contrasts. At the phrasal-syntactic level, it examines how the use of uninflected particles and quotative verbs pay special attention to encoding the information source. It shows that evidentiality has traditionally been overlooked due to the treatment of relevant phenomena as essentially epistemic.