Paper presented at the International Conference on Tense, Aspect and Mood on organized by Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore and NEHU, Shillong 3 rd and 5 th February, 2012 Pragmatic Functions of mood in Zo verbal stem alternations Philip Thangliènma ng Túngdìm Center for Linguistics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India philipzo_64@rediffmail.com Abstract: Zo 1 is a Northern Kuki-Chin language spoken in Manipur state, India and the Sagaing sub-division and, in Chin Hills of Myanmar by about 35,000 and 75,000 respectively. It is a monosyllabic, agglutinating, nonrestricted tone language having two minimal tone pairs for most of its main verbs and adjectives, commonly referred to in Kuki-Chin literature as Stem1 and Stem2. Majority of the Zo 2 verbs undergo morphophonemic changes called Lax-Tense alternations or Tone Alternations or Morphono-tonemic process. Since, it was first noted, some useful studies have been done. I propose to add the analyses of Henderson (1965) for Tiddim 3 and King (2009). This paper describes the functions of mood (modality) within verbal stem alternations with two minimal tone pairs of Zo in particular, and attempts to throw more light on the functions of mood (modality) in verbal stem alternations in Kuki-Chin languages in general. Keywords: minimal tone pairs, stem1 and stem2, morphono-tonemic process. _______________________________________________________________________ 1 The word is variously written as Yo, Yoe, Zou, Jou, Yau, Yaw, Zome, Zomi, Kuki-Chin. 2 The terminology is used by Khoi Lam Thang (2001); Button (n.d). Here, I am using the practice followed by renowned linguists. Zo is a close cognate of Tiddim Chin. 3 Tiddim is loconym of Tedim as explained by Khoi Lam Thang (2001) is a language spoken in Tedim and other areas of the Chin Hills of Myanmar (Burma).