A preliminary study of the evidential-epistemic system of Dolpo, a Tibetic language of Nepal

Abstract The goal of this article is to describe the evidential-epistemic (E-E) system of Dolpo, a Tibetic language of Nepal. The evidential and epistemic paradigms are constructed with equative, existential, and auxiliary verbs. The first two, equative and existential verbs, are also used as linking verbs, whereas auxiliary verbs form a part of verbal endings. These markers can be divided into two major types depending on what they connote: if doubt is conveyed, the verb is labelled as epistemic; if the statement is strictly based on evidence, the verb is designated as evidential. The core part of this article comprises a systematic overview of the interaction of E-E markers with differing tenses and aspects. Moreover, we demonstrate the existence of some original features of the Dolpo system, including documentation of specific inferential markers; we also discuss several semantic and cognitive differences in the E-E markers of local varieties within Dolpo. The multiterm E-E system is illustrated by examples obtained during linguistic fieldwork in Dolpo in 2022 and 2023.