Language name and locationː Belhariya, Kosi province, Nepal [Refer to Ethnologue]

语言名称和分布地区: 贝拉里雅语, 尼泊尔东部戈斯省

 

1. i

2. siC *

3. sum

 

Linguist providing data and dateː Prof. Balthasar Bickel, Department of General Linguistics, University of Zurich, Switzerland, February 25, 2013.

提供资料的语言学家: Prof. Balthasar Bickel, 2013 年 2 月 25 日.

 

Other comments: Belhariya only retained three traditional numerals, all numerals higher than three are expressed by Nepali loans, expect that I never observed any mixing anywhere. The three native numerals that survive are i- '1', siC '2' (underspecified stop consonant) and sum- '3'. They *never* occur without numeral classifiers, not even when doing calculations or when counting. The basic two classifiers are -kira (neutral) vs. -baŋ (human), so we get (with regular phonology applied):

igira, ibaŋ, sikkira, sippaŋ, sumɡira, sumbaŋ. Note that C is an unspecified stop consonant. It shows up as -k before -kira and as -p before -pa?. I SUSPECT it derives from a proto-Eastern Kiranti form *sit, but THIS IS SPECULATION!.

 

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