From: nancy@genie.slhs.udel.edu
Subject:  Markers for source of information

I've heard that an Andean people, the Aymara, have a language that
requires an indicator of where a person got what they're saying.

I can't remember the Aymaran list of source markers, (though I
believe it includes "I just made it up"), but I would love to
live in a society that required them.

Here's a list of possible types of source markers: 

I perceived it myself.
I heard it from a reliable source.
I heard it from an unreliable source.
I can't remember where I heard it. 
Everyone seems to think so.
It follows logically. (It's normal to ask anyone who uses this one
   what the premises are.)
I made it up.

Nancy Lebovitz


Suzette Hadin Elgin (SF writer better known for her "Gentle Art of Verbal
Self-Defense" books) invented a language with an explicit feminist slant
called La'adan that includes this very thing. At some point I'll have to type
in the La'adan markers.

Elgin's list seems pretty similar, if I remember. One not on your list that I
think she has is "I saw it in a dream or vision."

Ron Hale-Evans