ASSEB HSLC First Language Mizo flashcards
ASSEB HSLC First Language Mizo · Build recall with a focused review session.
32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.
- Mizo Zirtir Bu
- The first book printed in the Mizo language: a reading primer prepared by the pioneer missionaries J.H. Lorrain and F.W. Savidge in the 1890s, after they reduced spoken Mizo to Roman letters.
- Mizo Chanchin Lâi
- The first Mizo-language periodical, begun in 1898 by missionaries; a small news sheet that trained Mizo readers in prose and is treated as the start of Mizo journalism.
- Hawilopari
- A novel by L. Biakliana, widely taken as the first Mizo novel; a tragic love story that marks the beginning of modern written Mizo fiction.
- Thufing
- A Mizo proverb: a short inherited saying carrying folk wisdom, used in essays and speeches to sum up an argument in a single memorable line.
- Lorrain and Savidge
- The two pioneer Baptist missionaries who reached Aizawl in 1894, learned the language, fixed the romanised Mizo alphabet and produced its first printed texts; 1894 opens modern Mizo literature.
- Thawnthu
- The Mizo word for a story or narrative; prose questions normally ask for the thawnthu tlangpui (outline), the theme and the qualities of the characters.
- Hlado
- An old Mizo hunter's chant, shouted in triumph when a hunter returns with game; short exclamatory lines and one of the oldest surviving forms of Mizo oral poetry.
- Chai hla
- A song sung to accompany the Chai festival dance; communal in tone and built on call-and-response lines, unlike the personal lyric of modern written poetry.
- Châng
- A stanza or verse of a Mizo song or poem; hymn and poem structure is described in châng, so a question asking how many châng means how many stanzas.
- Refrain
- A line or stanza repeated at the end of successive stanzas; in Mizo lyrics the refrain usually carries the emotional key of the whole song.
- Personification
- A figure in which a non-living thing - a hill, river, flower or the wind - is addressed or described as if it were alive, common in Mizo nature lyrics.
- Rokunga
- Twentieth-century Mizo poet-composer (1914–1969), remembered for patriotic and exhortatory songs and for shaping the diction of modern written Mizo poetry.
- Mizo alphabet
- Twenty-five letters in Roman script: a, aw, b, ch, d, e, f, g, ng, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, ṭ, u, v, z; aw, ch, ng and ṭ each count as one letter.
- SOV word order
- Mizo clauses run subject, object, verb, with the verb last: "Chhang ka ei" means "I eat rice". Time words usually come before the subject.
- Future marker -ang
- The particle ang closes an affirmative future clause, and vang closes a negative future: "Ka kal ang" I will go; "Ka kal lo vang" I will not go.
- Negative lo
- lo placed after the verb negates a statement, as in "Ka kal lo" (I did not go); prohibition instead uses suh after the verb, as in "Kal suh" (don't go).
- Question particle em
- Yes/no questions add em at the end of the clause without changing word order: "I kal em?" did you go? and "A ṭha em?" is it good?
- Agentive suffix -tu
- A suffix added to a verb to name the doer: zir (learn) gives zirtu (learner), siam (make) gives siamtu (maker), thawk (work) gives thawktu (worker).
- Main idea
- The single point that covers the whole passage rather than one paragraph's detail; a correct main-idea option must be wide enough to include every paragraph.
- Inference
- A conclusion the passage implies without stating it; the answer must be traceable to the wording of the text and cannot rest on general knowledge.
- Pronoun a
- Mizo a means he, she or it; in a passage it normally points back to the last suitable noun, so check gender, number and sense before choosing a referent.
- Writer's purpose
- Why the passage was written: to inform, persuade, entertain or instruct. Tone, choice of examples and the final sentence are the usual signals.
- Formal letter order
- Sender's address, date, receiver's name and designation, subject line, salutation, body, subscription, signature; Mizo formal letters address the receiver as Pu or Pi.
- Précis length
- A précis is roughly one-third of the original; it keeps every main point in the original order and drops examples, repetitions and illustrations.
- Précis bans
- No personal opinion, no quoted phrases and no addressing the reader; a précis is written in the third person, in one paragraph, in the candidate's own words.
- Paragraph unity
- One central idea per paragraph; every supporting sentence must relate to the topic sentence, and any new idea starts a fresh paragraph.
- Subscription
- The courteous closing of a letter, placed above the signature; formal Mizo letters use a short formula such as "I ta" (yours), followed by the writer's name.
- Mizo antonym pairs
- lian/tê (big/small), sang/hniam (high/low), hnai/hla (near/far), ṭha/chhia (good/bad), vâr/thim (bright/dark), hlui/thar (old/new).
- Numerals 1–10
- pakhat, pahnih, pathum, pali, panga, paruk, pasarih, pariat, pakua, sawm; tens are sawmhnih (20), sawmthum (30), and the pattern continues with sawm.
- Days of the week
- Pathianni (Sunday), Thawhtanni (Monday), Thawhlehni (Tuesday), Nilaini (Wednesday), Ningani (Thursday), Zirtawpni (Friday), Inrinni (Saturday).
- Zâ and sâng
- zâ means one hundred and sâng one thousand; multiples follow the numeral, so 200 is zâ pahnih and 2000 is sâng pahnih.
- Reduplication
- Repeating a word intensifies or distributes its meaning: ṭhaṭha means very good, tê tê very small, and a repeated verb can mark continuing action.