When referring to a number of items in Lahu you are required to use classifiers. These are not used in English but could be likened to saying ‘three pairs of trousers’. The word ‘pairs’ could be termed a classifier for this example.

[Common Classifiers]{}

for people

gerneral classifier

for sections

for animals

for books

for days

for plants

for round things e.g. fruit

for places

for groups

for pieces of things e.g. land

for ‘types’ of things

In Lahu (and Thai) there are many different classifiers that all have specific uses. For example, there is a classifier for fruit, a classifier for people, a classifier for ‘sections’ of things and so on. There is also a general classifier for objects that either do not have a specific classifier already or for instances where the classifier is not known at the time.

Some examples of classifiers in phrases:

[ex:classifier] shehˆ k’oˆ (n) (number) (clf) bible three (clf) ‘Three bibles’

li teˇ k’oˆ book one (clf) ‘one book’

teˇ g’aˇ person one (clf) ‘one person’

[ex:section] teˇ tawn bible in section one (clf) ‘one scripture’

In example [ex:section] above the classifier tawn is used for sections of things. A scripture is considered a section or passage in the bible and so the appropriate classifier needs to be used. Also note in example [ex:classifier] the order in which classifiers need to be used.

While you may think the number of classifiers would be large in actual fact you will find yourself using just a small subset for most situations.

See also section [sec:distributive] on distributive adjectives for describing more general and indefinite amounts of nouns.