Self-quotations of solitude speech in online Estonian, Finnish, and Hungarian

Abstract This paper investigates the occurrence of solitude speech in self-quotations of speech and thought by looking at non-standard written communication online in three Uralic languages: Estonian, Finnish, and Hungarian. Four different realizations of solitude speech are found in self-quotations of three languages: (i) evaluations of verbal information, (ii) evaluations of the reporter’s action, (iii) self-guiding solitude speech, and (iv) Goffmanian ‘response cries.’ The last type is typical for situations the speaker finds problematic and may occur in the presence of other speakers, while the other types occur when interlocutors are absent. Although evaluations of written verbal material are specific to mostly cultures with a written tradition, similar evaluations, though targeted at the surrounding environment, occur among speakers from cultures with predominantly oral traditions, illustrated with material from traditional narratives of the Northern Siberian Uralic language Nganasan.