Burmese numerical classifiers
In Burmese, classifiers or measure words, in the form of particles, are used when counting or measuring nouns. They immediately follow the number, unless the number is a round number (ends in a zero), in which case, the measure word precedes the number. Nouns to which the classifiers refer to can be omitted if the context allows, because many classifiers have implicit meanings.
The only exceptions to this rule are measurements of time or age (minutes, hours, days, years, etc.), where a preceding noun is not required, as the time measurement acts as a measure word.
Classifiers
[edit]See IPA/Burmese for an explanation of the phonetic symbols used in this section.
| Burmese | IPA | Transliteration | Main usage |
|---|---|---|---|
| People and animals | |||
| ‹See Tfd›ကောင် | [kàuɰ̃] | kaung | animals |
| ‹See Tfd›ပါး | [pá] | pa | sacred persons (such as Buddhist monks and nuns) |
| ‹See Tfd›ယောက် | [jauʔ] | yauk | persons (general classifier) |
| ‹See Tfd›ရှဉ်း | [ʃíɰ̃] | shin | pairs of draught cattle |
| ‹See Tfd›ဦး | [ʔú] | u | people, monks and nuns |
| Other measure words | |||
| ‹See Tfd›ကုံး | [kóuɰ̃] | koun | garlands, necklaces, stringed items |
| ‹See Tfd›ကျိုက် | [tɕaiʔ] | kyaik | draughts gulped down |
| ‹See Tfd›ကျိပ် | [tɕeiʔ] | kyeik | items in 'tens' |
| ‹See Tfd›ခါ | [kʰà] | kha | number of times |
| ‹See Tfd›ခု | [kʰṵ] | khu | items (general classifier) |
| ‹See Tfd›ခက် | [kʰɛʔ] | khet | branches, sprays of flowers |
| ‹See Tfd›ခင် | [kʰìɰ̃] | khin | skeins of wool or cotton |
| ‹See Tfd›ခေါင်း | [kʰáuɰ̃] | khaung | skeins of yarn |
| ‹See Tfd›ခိုင် | [kʰàiɰ̃] | khaing | bunches of flowers, fruits |
| ‹See Tfd›ခေါက် | [kʰauʔ] | khauk | trips |
| ‹See Tfd›ခွေ | [kʰwè] | khway | rings, coils |
| ‹See Tfd›ခွန်း | [kʰúɰ̃] | khun | words |
| ‹See Tfd›ချီ | [tɕʰì] | chi | performances or shows |
| ‹See Tfd›ချိုး | [dʑó] | cho | components of a ratio |
| ‹See Tfd›ချက် | [tɕʰɛʔ] | chet | strokes, blows, hits, points strokes of clocks, drums, gongs, etc. |
| ‹See Tfd›ချောင်း | [tɕʰáuɰ̃] | chaung | thin, long items (like pencils, sticks) |
| ‹See Tfd›ချပ် | [tɕʰaʔ] | chat | flat items (like tables) |
| ‹See Tfd›ခြည် | [tɕʰì] | chi | rings, bangles |
| ‹See Tfd›စီး | [sí] | si | vehicles and transport animals |
| ‹See Tfd›စည်း | [sí] | si | bundles |
| ‹See Tfd›စင်း | [síɰ̃] | sin | long-shaped items (like arrows, boats, cars) |
| ‹See Tfd›စောင် | [sàuɰ̃] | saung | literary pieces, documents, letters, etc. |
| ‹See Tfd›စုံ | [sòuɰ̃] | soun | sets or pairs |
| ‹See Tfd›ဆ | [sʰa̰] | hsa | number of times per equal amount |
| ‹See Tfd›ဆူ | [sʰù] | hsu | sacred objects and parabaik (Pali manuscripts) |
| ‹See Tfd›ဆောင် | [sʰàuɰ̃] | hsaung | buildings (like houses, monasteries and royal buildings) |
| ‹See Tfd›ဆိုင်း | [sʰáiɰ̃] | hsaing | work shifts, work teams, packets of gold foil |
| ‹See Tfd›တန် | [tàɰ̃] | tan | different legs of a journey, component parts of abstract concepts |
| ‹See Tfd›တန့် | [ta̰ɰ̃] | tan | bars, stripes, etc. |
| ‹See Tfd›တုတ် | [touʔ] | touk | carcasses of hares |
| ‹See Tfd›တွဲ | [twɛ́] | twe | items in pairs, bunches or clusters |
| ‹See Tfd›တွက် | [twɛʔ] | twet | snapping of fingers |
| ‹See Tfd›ထပ် | [tʰaʔ] | htat | layers, strata, storeys of buildings, etc. |
| ‹See Tfd›ထမ်း | [tʰáɰ̃] | htan | loads carried with a shoulder pole (yoke) |
| ‹See Tfd›ထောက် | [tʰauʔ] | htauk | stages of a journey, width of a point or tip of something |
| ‹See Tfd›ထည် | [tʰɛ̀] | hte | articles of clothing |
| ‹See Tfd›ထုပ် | [tʰouʔ] | htout | packages |
| ‹See Tfd›ထုံး | [tʰóuɰ̃] | htoun | knots, coils, etc. |
| ‹See Tfd›ထွာ | [tʰwà] | htwa | number of hand spans |
| ‹See Tfd›ထွေ | [tʰwè] | htwei | varied items; melds of playing cards |
| ‹See Tfd›နပ် | [naʔ] | nat | meals |
| ‹See Tfd›ပါး | [pá] | pa | sacred persons or objects (such as Buddhist monks) |
| ‹See Tfd›ပေါ | [pɔ́] | paw | bundles of seedlings |
| ‹See Tfd›ပေါက် | [pauʔ] | pauk | dots or drops |
| ‹See Tfd›ပိုင် | [pàiɰ̃] | paing | monk's robe; piece of silk used as headdress |
| ‹See Tfd›ပိုင်း | [páiɰ̃] | paing | part or division of something |
| ‹See Tfd›ပတ် | [paʔ] | pat | weeks |
| ‹See Tfd›ပင် | [pìɰ̃] | pin | tall upright things (trees, plants, poles, etc.); long strands (hair, thread, etc.). |
| ‹See Tfd›ပိုဒ် | [paiʔ] | paik | paragraphs |
| ‹See Tfd›ပုဒ် | [pouʔ] | poud | pieces of writing (such as articles,verse, songs, etc.) |
| ‹See Tfd›ပုံ | [pòuɰ̃] | poun | piles of material |
| ‹See Tfd›ပျစ် | [pjiʔ] | pyit | mats of palm thatching |
| ‹See Tfd›ပြူး | [pjú] | pyu | items in twos or pairs. |
| ‹See Tfd›ပြိုက် | [pjaiʔ] | pyaik | frequency of rain and snow |
| ‹See Tfd›ပြင် | [pjìɰ̃] | pyin | doctrines, concepts, dictums, etc. |
| ‹See Tfd›ပြာ | [pjàɰ̃] | pyan | number of times |
| ‹See Tfd›ပွဲ | [pwɛ́] | pwe | dishes; offertories |
| ‹See Tfd›ဖီး | [pʰí] | hpi | hands of bananas or plantains |
| ‹See Tfd›ဖောင် | [pʰàuɰ̃] | hpaung | height or depth equal to the height of a person standing with upraised hands (i.e. from the soles of his feet to the tips of his upraised hands) |
| ‹See Tfd›ဖုံ | [pʰòuɰ̃] | hpoun | things in heaps, batches or packs |
| ‹See Tfd›ဖန် | [pʰàɰ̃] | hpan | denotes frequency |
| ‹See Tfd›ဖြာ | [pʰjà] | hpya | denotes variety, diversity |
| ‹See Tfd›ဖွာ | [pʰwà] | hpwa | number of puffs (from cigarettes, etc.) |
| ‹See Tfd›မည် | [mjì] | myi | ingredients of a drug; kinds of dishes served |
| ‹See Tfd›မြူ | [mjù] | myu | pots of toddy wine |
| ‹See Tfd›မျက် | [mjeʔ] | myet | bundles of loops in a skein of cotton |
| ‹See Tfd›မှုတ် | [m̥ouʔ] | hmout | number of scoops with a dipper or ladle |
| ‹See Tfd›မြွှာ | [m̥wà] | hmwa | segments of fruit (such as cloves of garlic); parts of a multiparous birth (such as twins) |
| ‹See Tfd›မြှောင့် | [m̥ja̰uɰ̃] | hmyaung | longitudinally divided segments (such as cloves of garlic) |
| ‹See Tfd›ယာ | [jà] | ya | betel quids |
| ‹See Tfd›ယှက် | [ʃɛʔ] | shek | thin slices of food (such as pancake, waffle, etc.) |
| ‹See Tfd›ရန် | [jàɰ̃] | yan | objects in pairs |
| ‹See Tfd›ရပ် | [jaʔ] | yat | itemisation; expressing things in terms of a man's height |
| ‹See Tfd›ရေး | [jé] | yei | periods of sleep |
| ရေစီး | [jè zí] | yei zi | leaves in a parabaik (Pali manuscripts) |
| ‹See Tfd›ရိုက် | [jaiʔ] | yaik | lengths measured with a bamboo pole |
| ‹See Tfd›ရစ် | [jiʔ] | yit | instalments, stages, chevrons, stripes, etc. |
| ‹See Tfd›ရွက် | [jwɛʔ] | ywet | counting sheets |
| ‹See Tfd›လား | [lá] | la | races in a contest consisting of a series of cart or boat races |
| ‹See Tfd›လီ | [lì] | li | multiples, frequencies |
| ‹See Tfd›လေး | [lé] | lei | used in connection with multiples or in replicate, parts of a ratio |
| ‹See Tfd›လော | [lɔ́] | law | number of times |
| ‹See Tfd›လက် | [lɛʔ] | lek | elongated items; turns in the game of dice |
| ‹See Tfd›လုတ် | [louʔ] | lout | mouthfuls of food |
| ‹See Tfd›လုံး | [lóuɰ̃] | loun | round, globular items |
| ‹See Tfd›လှိုင်း | [l̥áiɰ̃] | hlaing | sheaves of paddy |
| ‹See Tfd›လွှာ | [l̥wà] | hlwa | layers, strata, etc. |
| ‹See Tfd›ဝါး | [wá] | wa | handsbreadth |
| ‹See Tfd›သား | [θá] | tha | number of ticals or fractions of a tical or viss |
| ‹See Tfd›သုတ် | [θouʔ] | thouk | movements in groups or operations in shifts |
| ‹See Tfd›သွယ် | [θwɛ̀] | thwe | long, sinuous things (such as strands of pearls, garlands of flowers); paths, ways, methods, means, etc. |
See also
[edit]
For a list of words relating to Burmese numerical classifiers, see the Burmese classifiers category of words in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.