|
Ordinals
are simply derived from cardinals by suffixing {-na}.
This system is so uniform that any learner can master
it in no time. |
| For
example : |
| /pàkhàt/ |
‘one’ |
/pàkhàt-ná/
|
‘first’ |
| /pàhnì/ |
‘two’ |
/pàhnì-ná/
|
‘second’ |
| /pàthúm/ |
‘three’ |
/pàthùm-ná/
|
‘third’ |
| /pàlí/ |
‘four’ |
/pli-ná/
|
‘fourth’ |
/pà á/ |
‘five’ |
/pàa-ná/
|
‘fifth’ |
| /pàrùk/ |
‘six’ |
/pàrúk-ná/
|
‘sixth’ |
| /pàsàrì/ |
‘seven’ |
/pàsíri-ná/
|
‘seventh’ |
| /pàríet/ |
‘eight’ |
/pàríet-nà/
|
‘eighth’ |
| /pàkúo/ |
‘nine’ |
/pàkúo-nà/
|
‘ninth’ |
| /sòm/ |
‘ten’ |
/sòm-ná/
|
‘tenth’ |
| /sòm-pàkhàt/
|
‘eleven’ |
/sòm
-pàkhàt ná/
|
‘eleventh’ |
|
|
|
|
|
When
they form larger constructions with nouns they generally
follow the nouns. The following examples could be seen
: |
| /náupá
pàkhàt-ná/ |
‘first child’ |
| /hàptá
pàhnì-ná/ |
‘second week’ |
| /pàthíenní
pàlì-ná/ |
‘fourth sunday’ |
|
|
|
|
Pronouns
constitute another important group of content class
of words in Hmar. Although small in number this class
of words play a very significant role in discourse.
Pronouns share a lot of characteristics of the nouns
and, therefore, they are often included in the broad
class of nouns.
From the functional point of view pronouns in Hmar could
be discussed under 3 categories. They are (i) personal
pronouns (ii) demonstrative pronouns (iii) interrogative
and relative pronouns. It may
be useful to have a brief discussion regarding each
of these categories. |
| 3.2.3.1 |
Personal
Pronouns |
|
The
personal pronouns in Hmar are very few in number. They
manifest three grammatical persons such as first person
which refers to the ego or the speaker, second person
which refers to the addressee and third person which
refers to the referee. While pronouns of first two persons
refer only to ‘human nouns’ those of the 3rd person
may be used to refer to non-human nouns including inanimate
nouns. The personal pronouns in Hmar donot distinguish
between inclusivity and exclusivity nor do they mark
any distinction between masculine and feminine. They
also do not manifest any rank distinction. |
| 3.2.3.1.1 |
Number
of Personal Pronouns |
|
All
the personal pronouns show a two-tier constrast in terms
of number-singular and plural. The plural form in each
case is related to the singular form or, is derivable
from the singular form by some morphological processes.
The personal pronouns showing the person and number
distinctions could be presented in the following table. |
| 1st
person |
/ká,
kéi/ |
‘I’ |
1.
/ká-n, kéinì/ |
‘we’ |
|
|
|
2.
/ei, eini/ |
(inclusive
of hearer’ |
| 2nd
person |
/ná,
i/ |
‘you
in any rank’ |
1.
/ná-nì/
2/in/ |
‘you’
‘you’ |
| 3rd
person |
1.
/á/
2. /ámà/ |
‘he,
she, it’
‘he, she, it’ |
1.
/á-n/
2. /á-nnì/ |
‘they’
‘they’ |
|
|
|
|
|
|
