Numeral classifiers

[Frances Karttunen]

We're looking for numeral classifiers that combine with numbers and other
quantifiers.  The set in use in the 16th century included -tetl for
lump-shaped things (tamales, eggs, beans, jicamas, melons, squashes, etc.
It was extended to Spanish chickens when they were introduced.  Still
survives in "cente" and "onte."); -pantli for things arranged in rows
(fences, furrows in a field, people in a line); -tlamantli for things that
can be folded or stacked (shoes, papers, plates, etc.); -ipilli for counting
tortillas, woven pieces of cloth, sheets of amate paper, etc., by 20s; and
-olotl for counting things arranged like kernels of maize on a cob.

We're looking for modern uses of -pantli, -tlamantli, -ipilli, and -olotl
(not as nouns but attached to numbers or other quantifiers).

Thanks for your thought about -can.  I think Chicomecan, despite the number
as the first element, is a place name, not a way of counting something else.

Fran

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>From: Mark David Morris <mdmorris at indiana.edu>
>To: nahuat-l at server2.umt.edu
>Subject: Re: Numeral classifiers
>Date: Wed, Apr 4, 2001, 3:28 PM
>

> Fran,
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> If I understand your queston correctly, I would offer -can as a classifier
> (tangible, intangible) and chicomecan in a list of tribute townsin the
> Relato sobre la nobleza de San Juan Teotihuacan in the Paso and Troncoso
> collection of the Museo de Antropologia e Historia as an example.
> Otherwise, I am not sure exactly what form of classifiers would be helpful
> for Mr. Stoltz.
>
> sincerely,
> Mark D. Morris
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> La muerte tiene permiso a todo
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> MDM, PhD Candidate
> Dept. of History, Indiana Univ.
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