Modality in Tharu, A Comparative Perspective

This paper examines the morphosyntactic structures characterizing the notion of modality in two different Tharu languages: Dangaura and Chitoniya, from a comparative perspective. Being the members of the same language family, both of these languages share the vector verbs sʌk used to express the notions of possibility, ability and permission, and pʌr expressing that of necessity and obligation, though there are other verbs like chai/cahĩ to indicate necessity and pa for the notion of permission. However, they exhibit completely different system in the selection and distribution of devices to express the secondhand knowledge about which the speaker is not sure. Besides, they have a distinct agreement system of their own.