Classifiers in Dimasa and (in-)definite marking


Dimasa (ISO 639–3) is a Bodo-Garo language within the Tibeto-Burman family of languages. Like other Tibeto-Burman languages of Northeast India, it has a system of numeral classifiers which occur prefixed to their respective numerals. Across the dozen or so languages of Bodo-Garo, it has been noted that the classifier-numeral word can be placed either before or after the counted noun. The existence of numeral classifiers, as well as the clf-num order may have arisen in this area due to contact with Tai languages during the Ahom kingdom period from the 1200’s to 1800’s. In the Tai languages, classifiers precede the number “one”. By comparing occurrences of classifiers in Dimasa texts, it can be seen that the order N clf-num corresponds to definite nouns, while the order clf-num n marks indefinites. In addition to classifier placement, Dimasa definiteness is also marked by demonstratives, case marking, topic marking, and/or combinations of these strategies.