THE TENSE-ASPECT SYSTEM AND EVIDENTIALITY IN THE 'HACHIJO' DIALECT

The aim of the article is to overview the 'Hachijo' dialect - which is used in the Hachijo and Aogashima Islands of the Izu Archipelago south of Tokyo. This dialect is known to have retained many grammatical features characteristic of the ancient language of Eastern Japan. Recently, however, it has been largely influenced by the language spoken in Central Japan. The two linguistic layers largely overlap, which makes its current tense and aspect system extremely complex. While the 'nomowa' (standard Jap. 'nomu') and 'nomara' (related to the classical 'nomeri