Evidentiality in Uzbek and Kazakh

6.2.1.4 Tajik 
As an Indo-European language, Tajik provides the best opportunity to see whether the 
expression of evidential meaning in Central Asia is the result of areal or genetic features. As 
described in Chapter 1, Tajik and Uzbek have exhibited strong influences upon one another, and 
Tajiks have lived for some time in close proximity to speakers of other Turkic languages, such as 
Uyghur and Kyrgyz. 
Tajik is comparatively well-studied in regard to its expression of evidential meaning, 
although it is usually compared to the better-studied languages of the Middle East and Balkans 
than to Central Asian Turkic. According to Friedman (1979), Tajik exhibits a distinction 

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between a past tense marked as confirmative and a ‘perfect’ that is unmarked for confirmativity.
There does not appear to be a third, non-confirmative past tense form that functions like Uzbek 
and Kazakh -(i)b/-(I)p. Doubled perfect forms, however, do express markedly non-confirmative 
meanings of the sort expressed by ekan/eken. 
Lazard (2000) has compared Tajik and Bulgarian
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, demonstrating the remarkable 
similarities between the two systems: 
Table 33: Confirmativity in Bulgarian and Tajik 
Bulgarian 
Tajik 
“Neutral” 
(Confirmative) 
“Mediative” 
(Non-Confirmative) 
“Neutral” 
(Confirmative) 
“Mediative” 
(Non-Confirmative) 
Present 
čéte 
mekunad 
Imperfect 
četeše 
četjal 
mekard 
mekarda-ast 
Aorist 
četé 
čel 
kard 
karda-ast 
Perfect 
čel e 
karda-ast 
Pluperfect 
čel beše 
čel bil 
karda bud 
karda buda-ast 
Note that in both languages, a copular form (Bulgarian bil, Tajik buda-ast) is employed to 
indicate the non-confirmative perfect. This situation resembles the use of Uzbek ekan and 
Kazakh eken to indicate a similar range of meaning. 
Perry (2005) indicates that Tajik may employ the “non-witnessed perfect” form in 
questions to indicate that questions are prompted by inference (much as ekan/eken signals the 
same in Uzbek and Kazakh). A final enclitic marker -a may signal what Perry (2005, 295) refers 
to as “ruminative questions”, which appear to be similar to what I have described as rhetorical 
questions, but further research is necessary to determine whether Tajik employs a marker of non-
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Note, however, that Lazard’s Bulgarian data includes only those paradigms found in the 
normative description of Bulgarian. The form četjal bil also occurs, but is not found in Lazard’s 
chart. 

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confirmativity to express rhetorical questions, and whether there are as-of-yet unnoticed 
similarities between Uzbek, Kazakh, and Tajik.