エヴェンキ語の不定對格とその能格的特徵

Abstract

Evenki is a language belonging to the Tungus language family and prevailing through East Siberia widely. In this paper, I argue that the suffix -yA in Evenki has an ergativelike feature. This suffix generally appears in next two situations: one is as what is usually called ‘indefinite accusative’, and the other is with nouns before the negative noun āčin. In earlier literatures some treated this suffix as an identical suffix, and others as two different suffixes. There is no common view. I selected up all the examples including the suffix -yA from some texts, and found a peculiar distribution. It appears as next two roles: the one is as an object of transitive verbs, and the other as a subject in the sentences expressing non-existence especially with āčin. In addition it appears as an object more often in the negative sentences with indefinite pronouns. From this distribution I redefine the suffix -yA as the case marker expressing objects not existing before a speaker, or indefinite objects existing before a speaker. It is able to say that the suffix -yA in Evenki, which is typically an accusative language, plays a role as a subsidiary ergative system to express indefiniteness or non-existence. In conclusion the suffix -yA should be treated as an identical suffix.