The paper discusses some aspects of grammaticalization of the Tatar dip speech converb. The topic is interesting because a synchronic study discloses different features (essentially, stages) of desemantization of the speech verb diyü ‘to say'. Combinations of dip with verbs of different semantic classes show the main directions of development of grammaticalization - functioning as a quotative or a subordinating conjunction. Corpus data evidences that the word dip is most often related to speech and mental verbs, which results in entering corresponding sentences encoding direct and indirect speech.