Abstract

The chapter discusses selected types of modality and mood in Chadic languages, the largest and typologically most diverse family within the Afroasiatic phylum. It first describes the formal means deployed in Chadic languages in the coding of modality and mood, and then offers a survey of various types of moods and modalities, where the main criterion is their place within illocutionary acts. This includes the distinction between indicative mood and the mood of obligation, categories relating to the domain of epistemic modality, mirative modality, deontic modality and related moods, and the realis versus irrealis distinction.