|
tacehe tace
|
‘half of half - ( ¼ )’
|
|
tacehekatacehekatace
|
‘ 1/8’
|
|
|
| Numeral adjectives are formed by adding
‘xe/e’ (‘xe’ is in free variation with ‘e’) to the respective numerals. |
|
mihi anye
|
two wives’
|
|
wife two
|
|
|
ali bupe he
|
‘four legs’
|
|
leg four
|
|
ude pe xekanuhe
|
‘seven houses’
|
|
house seven
|
|
|
|
| Classifiers |
| When the numerals are used
as adjectives certain forms are prefixed to the numeral base to signal
the classification of the referent in the conceptual categorization
of nouns on the basis of shape, size, class, etc. They are called
classifiers. There are two types of classifiers in Apatani. The first
group belongs to the group explained above. The second group is formed
by duplicating the final syllable of the noun and prefixing it to
the numeral base and signal a particular referent. The adjectives
-nyo ‘small’ and -ro ‘big’ also take classifiers. |
| Classifiers
that indicate the Shape, Size, Class, etc. of the Referents : |
| There are twelve classifiers
that are used to identify the shape, size, class, etc., of the referents.
The generic numerals listed in the section on numerals are used with
human nouns. The classifiers are given below alongwith examples. |
‘pyer’ - This classifer
indicate that the objects are very small in size. Hence, it occurs
with nouns like -lako ‘button’, taru ‘ant’, tami ‘fly’, taxa ‘bedbug’,
emo ‘paddy’, sase ‘ragi’, sihi ‘small
stone’, etc. |
|
tami pyere
|
‘one fly’
|
|
‘one fly’
|
|
|
emo pyernye
|
‘two grains’
|
|
grain two
|
|
|
|
‘pu’ - This classifier indicates that the objects
are globular/cylindrical. This occurs with nouns like - papu
‘egg’, yala ‘stone
which is round in shape’, putu ‘hill’, layi ‘torch’, maribil
‘marble’, motili ‘bottle’, rediyo ‘radio’, garo ‘pillow’, tero
‘chillies’ (round in shape), etc. |
|
|
papu pue
|
‘one egg’
|
|
egg one
|
|
|
maribil punye
|
‘two marbles’
|
|
marble two
|
|
|
|
|
