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2.1.2.2.

Count Nouns:

They can be inflected for number by adding either the plural suffix or a quantifier or a numeral.

/įwčlą/	'houses'
/įdõmįa/	'five houses'

Nouns,when they are modified by a numeral cannot do so directly.A morpheme always occurs before the numeral.This morpheme is called a classifier and is defined here as any morpheme that groups the nouns into various classes on the basis of the semantic specifications of the noun. It is suffixed to the noun immediately before the numeral.Combining the clssifier with the numeral.Combining the numeral rather than the noun is motivated by two observations.One is that nothing else can be interposed between the classifier and the numeral.The second is that the noun can take other modifiers or a gender suffix which will occur before the classifier.That is,the classifier can be suffixed to noun phrases as well as nouns.

/į-dõ-mįa/	'five houses'
house-cl-five

The hyphen used often in this and the following sections is only to facilitate the identification of the various constituent morphemes.It has no phonological,structural or functional significance whatsoever.

/į-dra-dõ-mįa	'five big houses
house-big-cl-five
/blg-tya-hįla/	'ten pigs'
pig-cl-ten
/blg-tapi-tya-hįla/	'ten sows'
pig-fem-cl-ten

The choice of the classifier is based on two semantic characteristics of the noun,viz.,

(1) animateness and (2) shape and size and gives rise to a nine-fold classification of the nouns.

(1)

Inanimate nouns representing objects which are small and spherical take the classifier/-bra/.

/alu-bra-hala/	'ten potatoes'
potato-cl-ten

(2)

Inanimate nouns represinting objects which are long and slender take the classifier/-bru/.

/bjyg-bru-kąprayk/	'four bananas'
banana-cl-four

(3)

Inanimate nouns representing objects which are big and spherical take the classifier/-pim/.

/manį-pim-kinyā/	'nine balls'
ball-cl-nine
/kaprā-pim-tahro/	'six pumpkins'
pumpkin-cl-six

(4)

Inanimate nouns representing objects which are flat and thin take the classifier/-na/.

/kāzm-na-ge/	'one cloth'
cloth-cl-one

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