Demonstratives in Võro and Estonian oral narratives

Abstract

The paper discusses the nature of Estonian and Võro demonstrative systems used by nine bilingual respondents when narrating an emotional past story in both languages. The main interests were whether the Võro three-way person-oriented demonstrative system has disintegrated, what systems are used instead and how the Võro and Estonian demonstrative systems interact with each other in the same respondent. It was found that the Võro three-way person-oriented demonstrative system has almost disappeared and three main types of demonstrative systems are used in its place. The respondents combine Võro and Estonian demonstrative systems differently and no clear patterns can be established.