Dubitative mood

For the unrelated verb form in Eskimo languages, see Dubitative mood (Eskimo).

Dubitative mood (abbreviated DUB) is an epistemic grammatical mood found in some languages, that indicates that the statement is dubious, doubtful, or uncertain.^[1] It may subsist as a separate morphological category, as in Bulgarian, or else as a category of use of another form, as of the conditional mood of Italian.

An example can be taken from Ojibwe, an Algonquian language of North America. Verbs in Ojibwe can be marked with a dubitative suffix, indicating that the speaker is doubtful or uncertain about what they are saying. So aakozi means "he is sick," while aakozidog can be translated as something like "he must be sick; I guess he's sick; maybe he's sick; he might be sick."^[2]

References

↑ Loos, Eugene E.; Anderson, Susan; Day, Dwight H. Jr.; Jordan, Paul C.; Wingate, J. Douglas. "What is dubitative mood?". Glossary of linguistic terms. SIL International. Retrieved 2009-12-28.
↑ Native Languages: Ojibwe and Cree (PDF). The Ontario Curriculum. Ontario Ministry of Education. ISBN 0-7794-3384-X.

Linguistic modalities and grammatical moods

Realis
(what is)

Irrealis

Deontic (what should be)	Benedictive Commissive (promises, threats) Directive (commands, requests, requirements) Deliberative Hortative (+ subtypes) Imperative Jussive Necessitative Permissive Precative Prohibitive Propositive Volitive (hopes, wishes, fears) Desiderative Imprecative Optative

Epistemic (what may be)	(inferences, possibilities, questions, etc.) Alethic Assumptive Deductive Dubitative Hypothetical Inferential/renarrative/oblique Interrogative Potential Speculative Subjunctive

Dependent circumstances (what would be)	Conditional Eventive

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