Abstract This article analyses the grammaticalisation of the grammatical category of evidentiality. It explains that evidentiality is a verbal category in its own right and it does not bear any straight-forward relationship to the expression of speaker's responsibility, or attitude to the statement. Grammaticalisation of evidentials follows two general paths. Markers of evidentiality may develop out of grammaticalising a lexical item and an evidential may also evolve out of an evidentiality strategy, acquiring the status of a grammatical system in its own right. Evidentials evolve from a variety of sources, including forms from open classes and from closed classes and reinterpretation and reanalysis of evidentiality strategies.
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