The future tenses in the Tibetic languages

In this paper, I will present the various types of futures in the Tibetic languages and their relationship to other tenses, aspects and modalities. Tibetic languages constitute a compact family of languages derived from Old Tibetan spoken in six countries (China, India, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan and Myanmar). These languages usually have a wide range of “future tenses”. There is generally a distinction between Realis and Irrealis types of futures as well as a pervasive distinction between Intentional and non-Intentional Futures. Tibetic languages have a rich inventory of forms expressing various epistemic and evidential values in the context of future. Finally, I will examine a number of specific types of futures such as Benefactive, Warning or Autolalic futures which are found in some Tibetic languages.