156 Vahaa
-hi -mun-quiha xuni -vo vo -ni
-xo -hnu.
make.visits -INF-FO -REPORT old.folk-PL go.PL -REM.PAST -3PAST.PFTV -DECL ‘It is said that the old folks went to make visits.’
157 a. Vahaa -hi
vo -xon -mun-quiha
jato -vu make.visits-INF go.PL -SS.SQ.TR-FO -REPORT them-with
xuni -vaun
jato vuchi -ni -xoh -qui.
old.folks -ERG.PL them meet -REM.PAST -3PAST -DECL ‘It is said that when they the old folks made visits, those like them the old folks of the village
receivedwelcomed them.’ b. Jato vuchi -xon
-quiha jato canon
jato -qui -tzin vahaa -hi
them receive-SQ.SS.TR-REPORT them nowthen them-LOC-next make.visit-INF vo -xahin -non
jato yohi -vahin go.PL -FUT -PROSP them say -move.away.SQ.VAL2
vo -nii -vaun
jajaa -hi -mun -quiha:
go -REM.PAST -ERG.PL like.that-SS.NONSQ.ITR-FO -REPORT ‘Receiving them, they the visitors then told them the hosts that it would be their turn to visit
them next time; and a long time after they the visitors have left, they the former hosts are said to say to each other like this:’
c. —Canon -co -mun nocun-tza
yovaa-vo -qui vahaa -non
now -EMPH.IMP-FO our -other great -PL -LOC make.visit -PURP
vo -xanh -can -pu mai, xon
yohi -yohi-hi -quiha
go.PL -IMP.PL-PL -M.VOC hey SQ.SS.TR say -say -NON.SQ.SS.ITR-REPORT vo -can -ni
-xo -hqui.
go.PL -they-REM.PAST-3PAST-DECL ‘“Hey, now let’s go to make visits to our big brothers,” saying like this, it is said, they went.’
A further use of -quiha by Amahuaca speakers is to get the attention of someone, i.e. if A wants to talk to B, and B does not pay attention, C exclaims: “quiha quiha”, thus directing B’s attention to A.
5.3 Conjecture
There are three evidential markers for conjecture. They are best classified according to the degree of certaintyuncertainty the speaker has about the situation: 1 -ra encodes questionable knowledge
example 158 which is based on a good guess; 2 -cara example 159 encodes inferential knowledge that is based on indirect evidence i.e. feeling, suspicion, intuition; and 3 -mura example 160
encodes assumed knowledge which is based on direct evidence external cues, preceding events. Despite the speculative nature of knowledge through conjecture, the evidential markers are employed in
indicative sentence constructions with the declarative marker -nu-qui. They are suffixed to verbs, nouns, pronouns, or adverbs.
Questionable knowledge and questions share the same marker: -ra ‘interrogative’. The formal difference between the two is that the latter displays interrogative and the former indicative
morphology. Nevertheless, it is likely that the use of -ra as an evidential marker is a semantic extension of the interrogative marker.
158 Nocu doctor-on
yora hiin -xon -non hizin-mahiz -ra
non-hqui. us
doctor-ERG body see -BENEF.DS.TR-PURP pain -without-QUEST we -DECL ‘The doctor examined us lit.: our bodies to see whether we might not be sick.’
159 Moha -mun -cara
jan ca-xo -hqui.
now -FO -INFER he go-3PAST.PFTV -DECL ‘By now he possibly left. Immediate context: The person is not present, and it is late, i.e. the sun
has gone down. 160
Huhu -mun-i -hqui -nu.
Ruvoqui-mura hovi hi -cax
5
-qui. rise -FO -PRES-ACT -DECL upriver -ASSUM rain do -PAST.PF -DECL
‘The river is rising. It has probably rained upriver.’ The inferred knowledge clitics -cara and -mura appear to be frozen forms that are composed of two
morphemes, the second of which is the question marker -ra. While the origin of -ca in -cara remains a puzzle to me, there is reason to believe that -mura is a fusion of -mun ‘focus’ with the loss of the final
nasal plus -ra ‘question’. Compare example 161 with 162–164. 161
¿Hizin -ya -ra jan?
pain -with-QUEST he ‘Does he hurt?’’Is he sick?’ lit:Is he with pain?
162 Tzaha,
hizin -ya -ra jan-hnu.
not.know pain -with -QUEST.KNOWL he -DECL ‘I don’t know. He could be hurting.’
163 Hizin -ya -cara -mun jan -hnu.
pain -with-INFER -FO he -DECL
‘It is likely that he is hurting.’ ‘He seems to have pain.’ ‘to be sick.’ 164
Jaan-mun jan muox-nico -hnu. Hizin-ya -mura
jan -hqui. he -FO he pale -endearment -DECL pain -with-ASSUM he -DECL
‘He someone dear to the speaker is pale. It is very likely that he is hurting.’
5.4 Mirativity
