98 



ON THE CLASSIFICATION 



things. 155 The employment of such numeral auxiliaries is of 

 common occurrence among the other kindred dialects. 



The preponderant use of such numeral auxiliaries is by 

 itself a sufficient evidence of the prevailing tendency towards 

 concreteness. The conception of an abstract plurality is an 

 impossibility so long as a language has recourse to similar 

 contrivances. Numeral auxiliaries exist also in abstract 

 languages, but the manner in which they are employed does 

 not in the least interfere with the formation of a real plural, 

 for they themselves are not pluralia tantum. English words 

 like pair, couple, brace, yoke, leash, head, pack, sail, and 

 many others labour respecting their application as numeral 



(155) See: G.H. Hough's " English and Bnrman Vocabulary preceded by a 

 concise Grammar/' Serampore, 1825, pages 23 and 24. The Grammar of the 

 Shan Language by the Kev. J. N. Cushing, Rangoon, 1871, gives the following 

 extensive yet incomplete list of the numeral auxiliaries in the Shan language 

 on pages 24-27 : " Kau is applied to human beings, to to animals, an to 

 inanimate things, kan (stem) to things with stems, as flowers, Tfing (branch) 

 to branches of trees and stalks of plants, kam (time) to words, ku (pair) to 

 pairs, hop to bunches of plantains, to quantities measured with both hands, 

 khep to fiat things, khuny (coil) to rings, bands, khau to words, speech, keu 

 (creeper) to creepers, kon to individual things usually existing in pairs, as one 

 eye, three sandals, nyeru (assembly) to companies of men, hszk (small split) 

 to things made of small pieces, to steps of a ladder, to the teeth, &c, hsiny 

 (string) to any thing long, as hair, hsu to deities and pagodas, ting (to carry 

 on the head) to loads of firewood, tung (field) to lowland rice-fields, hteu 

 (extended line) to rows of trees, po to highland rice-fields, pao to deities, 

 ecclesiastics, rulers and religious precepts, p%s to skeins, hpak to things cut or 

 split, as bamboo pieces, hp%ny to boards, hpeun to books, articles of clothing, 

 mats, &c, mak to knives, needles, hoes, &c, muk (company) to men and 

 animals, may (river) to bodies of water, mul (leaf) to leaves, flat dishes, lang 

 to buildings, lau to guns, lam to boats, lak to round or cubical things, as 

 mountains, fruit, cups, fans, lany (blossom) to things spread open, as flowers, 

 umbrellas, lok (places) to apartments in a rice-field, chess-board, Urn to long 

 things, as posts, wi to bunches of plantains, hem (to story up) to houses with 

 stories, hung (grain) to grains, ears of corn, huny to round, cubical things, 

 as mountains, fruits, eggs, hu (hole) to openings, as doors, hau (bundle) to 

 bundles, heu (stock or branch) to branches of plantains, fruits, &c, &c." 

 Captain James Low mentions in his Grammar of the Thai or Siamese 

 Language, Calcutta, 1828, pages 21 and 22, that the Thai terms krubak (kubak), 

 lem, no-ei, do-ung, thee, seeng and toa are used in a similar manner as 

 numeral auxiliaries. 



