Tense and insubordination in Uilta (Orok)

The paper describes the tense category in Uilta, a critically endangered Tungusic language, from a functional and diachronic perspective. The functional analysis, based on the author's fieldwork, provides a comprehensive typological description of the Uilta tense system. Similarly to other Tungusic languages, the diachronic development of this system and its current shape and complexity are largely the result of the processes of insubordination (replacement of finite verbal forms by non-finite forms in predicative use).