Dialectal Variation of Udmurt Discourse Clitics

Abstract

Udmurt has numerous discourse clitics. Often multiple clitics attach to the same host word, forming clusters. Clitic clusters in European languages have been successfully modeled with clitic templates. In this paper, I am considering ordering of discourse clitics across Udmurt dialects. I demonstrate that there is significant variation between dialects in this respect, as well as some free variation within ­varieties. While the template approach, with certain caveats, can be applied to each individual Udmurt variety, it cannot be used to model the entire language. I show that the order in clitic clusters is mostly idiosyncratic. In particular, it does not depend on the semantics of the particles or the order of their appearance in the language. Apart from that, I touch upon the peculiar situation whereby certain discourse functions are expressed by particles of completely different origin in different Udmurt dialects. I argue that this is due to a Jespersen’s cycle-style transformation, when an existing particle is gradually replaced by a new one through an intermediate stage, when both are used simultaneously.

Keywords

• udmurt; discouse particles; clitics; grammaticalization; dialectal variation