Re: Re : Re: Fw: irregular conlangs

Nik Taylor wrote:
>
>wayne chevrier wrote:
> > Dioi (I am not sure where it is spoken) has 55 different noun
> > classifiers, including 3 mutually exclusive ones for books, depending on
> > number of volumes and whether or not ledgers, but not simply the number
>or
> > use.
>
>Are you sure of this?  This sounds like it might be another "Eskimo Snow
>Myth"
>
I got the information from Ethnomathematics by Marcia Ascher.
The Dioi (from Guizhao Province, China) have 55 numerical classifiers
which are listed in the book, to wit:
a)debts, credits, and accounts
b)mountains, walls, territories
c)legal processes/affairs
d)forensic/tribunal affairs
e)opium pipes, whistles etc.
f)sores, wounds, blows
g)rice fields
h)showers, storms
i)nets, mesh
j)letters, packages
k)flowers
l)debts
m)clothing, covers, bedclothes
n)pieces of cloth
o)potions, medicines
p)children, sons, etc.
q)trees, plants on the stalk
r)shavings etc.
s)pairs of things
t)feasts, rounds of drinks
u)skins, mats, carpets, peels, coatings, covers
v)books as volumes, books of one volume
w)multivolume books, account books, registers
x)books in one volume, single volumes of a book, books ,registers
y)the elderly, government men, people you respect
z)people, ghosts, spirits, men, angels, God, workers, theives
aa)girls, young women
bb)sheets of paper etc., napkins, planks, titles to property, other
writings
cc)flat stones, planks, fields, boulders, rice cakes
dd)routes, rivers, cords, carrying poles, chains
ee)aspects, features, characteristics, traits
gg)pieces of meat, bones, keys, locks, combs, brushes, dusters
hh)certain flat things, planks, beams, wood shavings, tiles, riceckes
ii)children, small pieces of money, pebbles
jj)pieces of things, roughly spherical things(heads, fists, stones,
mountains)
kk)common objects: houses, boats, furniture, firearms, abstracts, dishes,
plates
ll)living beings inc. thunder and nature spirits
mm)things in clusters
nn)natural pairs that are rarely separated:chopsticks, shoes, arms
oo)things that have handles/arms
pp)hewn stones, large beams, boards
qq)certain things in pairs or tens services of bowls,parallel inscriptions
rr)speech phrases, sentences, events, affairs
ss)long rigid things: poles, pipes
tt)covers, bedclothes, drapes, linens
uu)pieces of money
vv)swing plows, looms, harrows etc.
ww)needles, pins etc.
xx)very thin flat things, sheets of paper, large leaves, coattails
yy)grains, pills, gunshot, buttons, raindrops etc.
zz)hanks, bobbins of thread, tied handfuls of noodles,small sticks of
incense
aaa)things strung on lines or rods, fish on strings, meat on skewers
bbb)objects that present a flat surface: slice of meat, fields, clothing,
cloth, paper, ricecakes
ccc)hand, feets and thing that resemble them: gingerroot, honeycombs etc.
The ones on books are v), w) and x)

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