8.
|
The numeral at ‘eight’ has
three positional variants, viz., at, ata- and s-. The distribution of
these are stated below.
|
| |
| (i) |
at is a
free form occurring in the slots of both a noun and an
adjective. It also occurs before -oy ‘two’ when the numeral has
the structure of A + (A X B), as in :
|
| |
at pora
‘from eight’
at suali ‘eight girls’
atoys ‘twenty eight’
|
| (ii) |
ata-is a
bound form occurring before -ro ‘ten’ when the numeral has the
structure of A + B1, as in :
|
| |
ataro
‘eighteen’
|
| (iii) |
s = is
another bound form which occurs before =i ‘ten’ when the numeral
has the structure or A X B, as in :
|
| |
 si ‘eighty’ |
| |
|
|
9
|
The numeral nw
‘nine’ is a free form and does not have any positional variants, e.g.,
|
| |
nw
suali ‘nine girls’
|
10.
|
The numeral dos ‘ten’ has
seven positional variants;
viz., dos, -do, -lo, -ro, -i, -r, and -s
|
| |
| (i) |
dos is a
free form, as in :
|
| |
dos suali
‘ten girls’
|
| (ii) |
-do-, -10
and -ro are bound forms occurring respectively after cw
‘four’, hut- ‘six’ and the numerals for 1 ot 3 viz., ega- ‘one’,
ba- ‘two’, te ‘three’ when the numerals have the structure of
A+B, as in:
|
| |
cwdo
‘fourteen’
hullo ‘sixteen’
egaro ‘eleven’
baro ‘twelve’
tero ‘thirteen’
|
| |
The
numeral ataro ‘eighteen’ could have been segmented as at-
‘eight’ and aro- ‘ten’, thereby reducting a positional variant
of of at-. This however, has not been done, as that would, in
addition to leading to an increase in the positional variant of
dos ‘ten’, have disturbed the distributional patter of -ro, a
positional variant of dos ‘ten’.
|
| (iii) |
-i and -r
are two other bound forms. -i occurs after the numerals for
‘six’ and ‘eight’ viz., hath - and
s- and -r occurs after the numeral for ‘seven’, viz., hotu, when
the numerals concerned have the structure of A X B, as in :
|
| |
hathii
‘sixty’
si
‘eighty’
hotur ‘seventy’
|
| (iv) |
-s, yet
another bound form occurs, after the numeral for ‘three’ and
‘five’ viz., tri- ponc-, when the structure of the numeral is A
x B, -s also occurs as the third constituent after
numerals for two viz., i, or when the numerals have the
structure of either : -A+(AxB), as in :
|
| |
=A + (A X
B) onnoys ‘nineteen’
A + (A X B) teis
‘twenty three’
|
| |
The
structure of the grammatical classes falling within the nominal
were discussed. A discussion of the grammatical categories
occurring with each of these classes follows.
|
|
| 3.2.4. |
The grammatical
categories of the nominals:
|
number, gender and case are
the three grammatical categories that occur with the nominal in this
language. Of these, the category of gender occur only with a very few
nouns, therefore, its functional yield of opposition is negligible.
The category of number occurs with different sub-classes of nouns
excepting noun inanimate being class and with the pronouns. The
category of case occurs with the nouns and pronouns and to a limited
degree with the numerals. A brief discussion of each of these
grammatical follows:
|
Number:
|
The number in this language
shows a two-way opposition viz., singular and plural. While the
singular is unmarked, the plural is marked by the morpheme khan.
The nouns were earlier (3.2.1) sub-divided into three main
sub-classes, viz., nouns human being class (NH), nouns animate
non-human being class (Nanh) and nouns inanimate being class (Nina).
Of these only the former two overtly mark the plurality1
as in :
|
| |
suali ‘girl’
sualikhan ‘girls’
kukur ‘dog’
kikurkhan ‘dogs’
gas ‘tree/trees’ etc.
|
| Please see Appendix 2, item
2.1.1. for justification. |
|
|
