ИСТИНА

This study concerns two indefinite pronoun series performing the free choice function (in terms of Haspelmath 1997, Giannakidou 2001) in Hill Mari (< Finno-Ugric), with indefiniteness markers šon and popaza. Both of them have a verbal origin. Our data revealed that they show different strategies of morphological marking, which follows from the different degree of their grammaticalization. In (Haspelmath 1997: 129–192) there is no detailed case study of a system where the inventory of free choice pronouns is formed in a similar way. Previous descriptions of Hill Mari contain little information about these pronouns. Thus, Savatkova (2002:168 - 170) just briefly mentions the šon-series.