Evidentiality in Uzbek and Kazakh

Uning uch qizi bo’lib, hammasi chiroyli, ayniqsa, kenjasi go’zallikda tengi yo’q ekan. 
Ota o’z qizlarini juda yaxshi ko’rar ekan. Eng kichigini esa kattalaridan ham ko’proq 
yaxshi ko’rar, qiz ham otasiga nihoyatda mehribon ekan. 
Kunlardan bir kuni savdogar uzoq safarga, dengiz ortiga jo’naydigan bo’libdi va 
qizlarini chaqirib shunday debdi:… 
‘Once upon a time, long, long ago, there lived a wealthy merchant. He had three 
daughters - all beautiful - the youngest, in particular, was unrivaled in beauty. The 
father dearly loved his daughters. The youngest one he loved even more than the older 
ones; she was extremely kind to her father. 
One day, the merchant happened to be preparing for a long journey beyond the sea, and 
summoning his girls he said: …’ 
(Aksakov 2007, 1) 
Equivalents of this Uzbek formula are found in many other languages (such as Turkish bir 
varmış, bir yokmuş), but the Kazakh equivalent bar eken, žoq eken is quite rare. More 
frequently, stories in Kazakh are introduced by the formula burïnğï ötken zamanda ‘a long time 
ago’. It is also rare for Kazakh eken to occur within stories. Nevertheless, stories in Kazakh are 
also often told using the converbial past. 
(91) Burïnğï ötken zamanda Žaqsïlïq, Žamandïq attï eki adam bolïptï. Bir küni Žamandïq 
žayaw žürip kele žatsa, artïnan bir attï kisi žetipti. Ekeyi žön surasïp, qayda bara 
žatqanïn bilisipti. 
 
 
‘A long time ago there were two men named Goodness and Badness. One day, as 
Badness was out travelling on foot, a person came up from behind him. The two, having 
asked about what they were doing, told each other where they were going.’ 
(Asqar 2009, 13) 

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In written stories, the entire discourse (minus, of course, quoted speech), is likely to continue to 
employ the converbial past throughout. Oral stories, however, may switch to the perfect, or even 
the simple past; this appears to be an instance of the storyteller reinforcing the suspension of 
disbelief.
A related phenomenon pertains to the use of the evidential marker in discourses about 
non-witnessed events. In the following passage from the Uzbek translation of Joyce’s A Portrait 
of the Artist as a Young Man, the participants in the discourse begin by employing the evidential 
marker ekan, after which point the source of information is explicitly stated. Once the source has 
been made explicit, the participants switch first to the converbial past, then to the perfect. 
(92) 
Ular aravada ketayotgan ekan. 
O‘sha bola tag‘in qo‘shib qo‘ydi: 
— Menga buni yuqori sinfdagi bir 
bola aytdi. 
Fleming so‘radi: 
— Ular nega qochibdi? 
— Sababini men bilaman, — dedi 
Sesil Sander. — Ular rektorning 
xonasidan pul o‘marishgan. 
— Kim o‘g‘irlagan? 
— Kikemning akasi. Keyin