On the Category of Clusivity in the Udmurt Language
On the Category of Clusivity in the Udmurt Language

Summary/Abstract: The paper demonstrates the existence of an inclusive-exclusive distinction in the pronominal forms of the Udmurt language, which exhibits two forms of first person plural — ми and асьмеос. The pronoun ми ’we’ is exclusive as it is used when the addressee or addressees are excluded from the set of ­referents which also contains the speaker, in other words, ми ’we’ = ’I + he/she/they’, i.e. ’speaker and other(s)’. The pronoun асьмеос ’we’ is inclusive, as it is used when the addressee or addressees are included in the group of the speaker, i.e. асьмеос ’we’ = ’I + youSG/youPL’. The Udmurt language seems to be the only language spoken in Europe that has the opposition of ’we’ inclusive and ’we’ exclusive. It is noteworthy that an inclusive form has appeared in the Yiddish idiom spoken in Udmurtia under the influence of the Udmurt language.

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