On the Etymology of the Probabilitative Suffix -qxiə in the Language of the Tundra Nenets

The article proposes the etymology of the suffix -qxiə, which is part of several morphologically complex verbal grammatical markers of the Tundra Nenets language. In recent publications, most of these forms use the terms probabilitative or probabilistic. The probabilitative suffix denotes an epistemic estimate based on common knowledge. This suffix has a non-trivial morphological position in the Tundra Nenets language: it is used as the second component in compound markers, the first component of which may be a morpheme based on suffixes of the perfective or imperfective participle. Conversely, no morphemes other than personal suffixes can be used after participial suffixes in the Tundra Nenets language. Grammatical markers historically related to Tundra Nenets -qxiə are found in the Forest Enets and Nganasan languages. In the Forest Enets language, the cognate morpheme is also part of a compound affix where the preceding component goes back to a participial suffix, as in the Tundra Nenets language. In Nganasan, the cognate marker with the same meaning is a syntactically independent element that can be used either as a particle attached to any finite verb form or as an auxiliary that marks the main verb with a connegative suffix. The nontrivial morphological position of the marker in the Tundra Nenets language and its cognate in the Forest Enets language suggests that the forms under consideration in these languages also derive from auxiliary constructions. At the same time, the structure and grammatical form of the elements of these constructions have developed independently in each of the three languages.

Etymology, verbal morphology, Northern Samoyedic languages, Tundra Nenets language, Enets language, Nganasan language