numeral system and mensurations in the zo language
TRANSCRIPT
Numeral system and Mensurations in the Zo language
Philip Thanglienmang Ph.D (JNU)
Abstract: Zo1 is a Northern Kuki-Chin language spoken in Manipur state, India and the Sagaing
sub-division and, in Chin Hills of Myanmar respectively. It is a monosyllabic, agglutinating, non-
restricted tone language having two minimal tone pairs for most of its main verbs and adjectives,
commonly referred to in Kuki-Chin literature as Stem1 and Stem2. Majority of the Zo2 verbs
undergo morphophonemic changes called Lax-Tense alternations or Tone Alternations or
Morphono-tonemic process. Since, it was first noted, some useful studies have been done. This
paper describes the Numeral system and Mensurations. Structurally and distributional grounds,
they can be sub-classed into Core, Peripheral and Derived numerals. The mensurations are close
approximation of the physical things seen around the environment, though few measurements are
close to its quantity such as an arm’s length, length of fully stretched hands, palmspan etc. The
distance is measured in terms of the number of hills that can be crossed in a day or the number of
days taken to reach a particular place.
Keywords: Core,Peripheral and Derived numerals, arm's length, Palmspan, Number of hills,
Number of days.
1. Numeral system: They can be divided into six types: Cardinals, Ordinals, Aggregatives,
Fractionals, Distributive, Approximatives, Measurements and Counting of age.
Structurally and distributional grounds, they can be sub-classed into Core, Peripheral and
Derived numerals. The Cardinal numerals (1-10) are core numerals and the numerals larger
than 10 are Derived numerals (> 10) sets except for core terms zà: ‘hundred’, tù:l
‘thousand’, nuòi ‘lac’, thè:n ‘100 lacs’. The numeral greater than 10 (ten) is derived by
adding the simple cardinal to 10 (ten) as in 10+1=11, 10+2=12 and so on. Like other Kuki-
Chin languages Zo follows the decimal system of counting the numbers, i.e to say it follows
10+1, 10+2, 10+3 and so on system of numeral formation.
1.1 Cardinals are the counting numbers as khàt ‘one’; nì: ‘two’; thum ‘three’; ….sò:m ‘ten’.
The Zero is known as Bé:m. Cardinal numerals are subdivided into simple (1-10) and
derived (> 10) sets. The cardinal numeral greater than 10 (ten) is derived by adding the
simple cardinal to 10 (ten) as in 10+1=11, 10+2=12 and so on. The cardinal number twenty
is multiple of two tens ‘sò:m nì:’ and thirty is multiple of three tens ‘sò:m thum’ and so on.
One hundred is zà:, the cardinal numeral two hundred is multiple of two hundreds ‘zanì:’,
and so on. One thousand is tù:l, ‘two thousand is multiple of two thousands ‘tù:lnì:’. Some
cardinal numerals qualify adverbs to give compound pronouns; nì:gè:l ‘two of them’ or
‘both’; khattá ‘one piece’ or ‘alone’; a sò:m a zà: ‘numerous’; nìthum ‘two or three’.
1 khàt
2 nì:
3 thum
4 li:
5 a:
6 gù
7 sagí
8 giét
9 kuó
10 sò:m
11 sò:m le khàt
12 sò:m lenì:
13 sò:m le thum
14 sò:m le li
15 sò:m lea:
16 sò:m le gù
17 sò:m le sagì:
18 sò:m le giét
19 sò:m lekuó
20 sò:mnì:
21 sò:mnì: lekhàt
22 sò:mnì: lenì:
23 sò:mnì: le thum
24 sò:mnì: leli
25 sò:mnì: lea:
26 sò:mnì: le gù
27 sò:mnì: lesagì:
28 sò:mnì: le giet
29 sò:mnì: le kuó
30 sò:mthum
31 sò:mthum le khàt
32 sò:mthum lenì:
33 sò:mthum lehum
34 sò:mthum le li:
35 sò:mthum lea:
36 sò:mthum le gù
37 sò:mthum le sagì:
38 sò:mthum le giét
39 sò:mthum le kuó
40 sò:mli:
41 sò:mli: le khàt
42 sò:mli: le nì:
43 sò:mli: le thum
44 sò:mli: le li:
45 sò:mli: lea:
46 sò:mli: le gù
47 sò:mli: le sagì:
48 sò:mli: legiét
49 sò:mli: le kuó
50 sò:ma:
51 sò:m a: le khàt
52 sò:ma: le nì:
53 sò:ma: le thum
54 sò:ma: le li
55 sò:ma: lea:
56 sò:ma: le gù
57 sò:ma: le sagì:
58 sò:ma: le giét
59 sò:ma: lekuó
60 sò:mgù
61 sò:mgù lekhàt
62 sò:mgù lenì:
63 sò:mgù le thum
64 sò:mgù le li:
65 sò:mg lea:
66 sò:mgù le gù
67 sò:mgù lesagì:
68 sò:mgù le giét
69 sò:mgù lekuó
70 sò:msagì:
71 sò:msagì:lekhàt
72 sò:msagì:le nì:
73 sò:msagì:lethum
74 sò:msagì:le li:
75 sò:msagì:lea:
76 sò:msagì:legù
77 sò:msagì:lesagì:
78 sò:msagì: le giét
79 sò:msagì:le kuó
80 sò:mgiét
81 sò:mgiét le khàt
82 sò:mgiét lenì:
83 sò:mgiét lethum
84 sò:mgiét leli
85 sò:mgiét lea:
86 sò:mgiét legù
87 sò:mgiét lesagì:
88 sò:mgiét le giét
89 sò:mgiét le kuó
90 sò:mkuó
91 sò:mkuó lekhàt
92 sò:mkuó lenì:
93 sò:mkuó lethum
94 sò:mkuó leli:
95 sò:mkuó lea:
96 sò:mkuó legù
97 sò:mkuó lesagì:
98 sò:mkuó legiét
99 sò:mkuó lekuó
100 zà:, zəkhàt
1000 tù:l, tù:lkhàt, sá: khàt
1,00,000 nuòi, tù:lzà:
1,000,000 nuòisò:m; sá: tù:l
2. Mensurations
All the Zo mensurations are close approximation of the physical things seen around the
environment, though few measurements are close to its quantity such as an arm’s length, length of
fully stretched hands, palmspan etc,. The distance is measured in terms of the number of hills that
can be crossed in a day or the number of days taken to reach a particular place. The animals and
birds are presumed to be in rectangular shape and size. The size or length or width of entities are
measured as compared to the size of body parts, house parts, personal belongings, animals, birds,
insects, kitchen-garden, grains, musical instruments, trees, plants and vegetables, and, height of
hills and mountains, distance of mountain ranges, time taken to travel in a day. The Zo
measurement terms are; du /dung/ ‘length’; vái: /vai/ ‘breadth’ or ‘width’; ciè ‘size’ or
‘magnitude’; lám/lá ‘side’; gó:m /gáwm/ ‘add’; gò:m/ gàwm/ ‘addition’; hò:m /hàwm/ ‘division’;
khèn ‘part’ or ‘section’; tè:/te/ ‘measure’; pu ‘multiply’; pài: /pa i/ ‘subtract’; pài ‘subtraction’;
tàn ‘length’; pikhàt ‘one foot’; me:l khàt ‘one mile’; təi khàt ‘one kilometre’.
Thus, we find the following Zo measurement terms; khá:p ‘one palmspan’; ba:n ‘arm-
length’; kal ‘one stride or step’; khutpí: ciè ‘a thumbsize’; lukhu ciè ‘hatsize’; la:m khàt ‘two arm
length’; potə khàt ‘one small basket quantity’; seu:khat ‘one conical basket full’; ínndím
‘housefull’; tuongdím ‘full floor’; léituol dím ‘full courtyard’; muoldím ‘full hill’; tòsù or tò khàt
‘about a foot length’; sielkà:n ‘an adult mithun’s height’; ínnkhùmvùm ‘full height of the house’etc.
2.1 Measurement of Length and Distance: Linear measurements are approximated distance
as compared with the length or distance of hands and feet, hills and mountains, number of
hills and mountains crossable in a days time or the time taken to travel in a day. The length
of a path is often measured in number of footsteps taken by a person to reach a particular
place like a field or a hilltop.
2.2 Measurement of Heights: The heights are measured approximately with respect to the
height of various personal belongings, body parts, animal height, height of plants, house
and its parts etc. The measurement against each one are close approximation of the actual
height. The distance of a place or an entity is measured in terms of time taken to travel
from day-break to breakfast time, a day’s travel/journey time is taken as a unit of distance
for long distances.
Table 2: Length and distance in Zo.
du /dung/ ‘length’
vái: /vai/ ‘width’ or ‘breadth’
ədu ə vái: /a du a vai/ ‘length and breadth’
ba:n /bân/ ‘length of hand measure from shoulder crest
to the elbow’
khá:p /khap/ ‘palmspan; length of out tip of the thumb to
tip of the middle finger.’
tòkhàt / tòngkhàt / ‘a cubit; one arm length measure from the
elbow to the tip of the middle finger’
tòsù: /tòngsù:/ ‘one and half feet’
kəl ‘one stride’ or ‘footstep’ or ‘a yard length’
kəl khàt ‘one yard’
la:m /lâm/ ‘length of both the arms’
la:m khàt /lâm khàt/ ‘about 5’ 6” to 5’ 9” ’
la:m sò:m /lâm sàwm/ ‘about 55 feet’
muolkhàt ‘a distance about 3 hours’
muolkuó ‘far distance; 10 days journey by foot’
muolsò:m /muolsàwm/ ‘far off distance; 7 days journey by foot’
muolzà: ‘a very far distance a month’s journey’
zi:-án delpha:na: tàn ‘a short distance about 10km’
zi: án dèlpháhna tàn /zîng-án/ ‘a short distance about 10km’
ni khàt lám ‘a distance of about 60 Km’
ni thum lám ‘a distance of about 200 Km’
zi: án dèlpháhna: tàn /zîng-án/ ‘a short distance about 10km’
Table 3: Heights in Zo.
bobuòl kú tàn /bohbuòl kúng tàn/ ‘one foot’
khúp tàn ‘two and half feet’
ko:tàn /kawng tàn / ‘three feet’
seu: tàn /sêu tàn/ ‘three feet’
zube:l khau:vò: tàn /zubêl khâuvàw tàn/ ‘three and half feet’
kó: tàn /káwng tàn/ ‘four and half feet’
lai: tàn /lâi tàn/ ‘five feet’
dìn tàn ‘six feet’
siel kà:n tàn /siel ka n tàn/ ‘ten feet’
kòt tàn ‘eleven feet’
íncí: tàn ‘twelve feet’
gopi tàn ‘fifteen feet’
ínkhùm tàn ‘twenty to thirty feet’
ta:sítàntâsíng tàn/ ‘eighty to ninety feet’
2.3 Rectangular measurements: The physical quantities of entities are measured by
comparing the size of birds, field, house, finger, worms, ants, animals etc. The physical
concepts as shown in the table below are rectangular concepts of measurements in Zo.
Table 4: Size: Rectangular measurements
a:ka ciè /â’kâng chiè/ ‘white chicken size; 8 inches x 6inches’
a:pí: ciè /â’pí chiè/ ‘hen’s size 10 inches x 6 inches’
a:lui:tá /âlûitáng chiè/ ‘rooster size; 15inches x 7 inches’
huòn ciè ‘garden size; 20ft x 15ft’
ínn ciè ‘house size; 30 ft x 20 ft’
khùtmè ciè ‘little finger about 1/2” x 1”’
khùtpí: ciè ‘about one inch’
khùtpha:ciè /khùtphâng chiè/ ‘palm size;10 inches x 3 inches’
khutto: ciè /khùttawng chiè/ ‘wrist size; 2 1/2 inches’
khùttum ciè ‘fist size; 3 1/2 inches x 2 inches’
lu ciè /lung chiè/ ‘caterpillar size about 1/2 inch or less’
lume ciè /lungme chiè/ ‘minute size; ‘tiny size’
mè:si ciè ‘ant-size’; ‘minute’; ‘tiny’
àltá ciè /ngàltáng chiè/ ‘wild boar size; 5 ft x 4 ft’
sai:pí: ciè /sâipí chiè/ ‘elephant size;15 ft x 10 ft’
khi ciè / sakhi chiè/ ‘deer size’ 6 ft by 4 ft’
zu ciè /sazuh chiè/ ‘antelope size; 10 ft x 6 ft’
siel ciè ‘mithun size; 10 ft x 6 ft’
tn ciè ‘legcalf size; 6 inches x 3 inches’
tkuo ciè /tangkuong chie ‘size of fieldbed; 9 ft x 10 ft’
thàn ciè ‘maggot size; 1/2 inch or less’
úipí ciè ‘bitch size; 5ft x3 ft’
vgi ciè /vagih chiè/ ‘pheasant size; 10 inches x 6 inches’
vompí ciè ‘bear size’ 9ft x7 feet’
zo:ciè /zawng chiè/ ‘monkey size; 3ftx5ft’
2.4 Circular and Spherical measurements: The physical measurements of entities are
measured by comparison of sizes with egg, seeds, size of baskets, hats, vegetables, fists,
hair, grains, utensils, birds etc.
Table 5: Circular and spherical measurements
a:tui: ciè /âtui chiè/ ‘egg size; diameter of about 4 inches’
bè:mto: ciè /be mtawng chiè/ ‘bamboo bin dia; 6 feet’
betá ciè /betáng chiè/ ‘beanseed size; about 150 micron’
gatá ciè /gatáng chiè/ ‘big variety bean size; about 2 inches’
goda:l ciè /godâl chiè/ ‘circle of dia. 3 1/2 to 4 feet’
lò:pí: ciè /làwpí chiè/ ‘circle of dia. 2 to 2 1/2 feet’
lukhu ciè ‘hatsize; dia. 15 inches’
lutá ciè /lutáng chiè/ ‘headsize; dia. 15 inches’
mai:puo ciè /mâipuong chiè/ ‘whitepumpkin size;10inches x 6inches’
mi:mtá ciè /mîmtáng chiè/ ‘barley grain size;dia.100 micron’
mìttá ciè /mìttáng chiè ‘eyeball size; dia. 3 inches’
pot ciè ’circle of dia. 6 to 7 inches’
sámzam ciè ‘minute/tiny size about a micron’
ta:tá ciè /tângtáng chiè/ ‘grain size’
tau:be:l ciè /tâubêl chiè/ ‘circle of dia. 3 feet to 4 feet’
tú: khàt /tuh khàt/ ‘length of two fists with the thumb stretched
out end to end used for measuring animal
girth behind the front leg especially pig it is
roughly one foot’
tú: thum ciè /tuh thum chiè / ‘a circumference of about 3 ft’
vkhutui: ciè ‘dove’s egg size; dia; 1 inch’
zà:mpí: ciè /zampí chiè / ‘circle of dia. 3 1/2 to 4 feet’
zùnbû ciè ‘circle of dia. 5 to 6 inches’
Note: The words within the slanting brackets / / are orthographic words.
2.5 Arithmetic numerals There are four core terms for denoting arithematic operations; gò:m
‘adddition’, pài ‘throw away’, ‘minus’, hop ‘separation’, ‘division’, pùn ‘multiplication’.
2.5.1 Addition ‘gò:m’ (gó:m ‘add’): Addition in Zo, involves putting together two numeral
entities to make an increased entity. The concept of addition was known to them. The
conjunctive particle is employed between two numerals denoting the entities to be
added followed by the addition term, to get the desired result.
(1) khàt le nì: gò:m thum phá:
one and two plus three becomes
‘one plus two becomes three.’
2.5.2 Subtraction ‘pài’ (pài: ‘throw’): Subtraction in Zo denotes the act of throwing or
discarding a certain number from a given number.
(2) sò:m la a khàt pài: in
ten LOC. one throw IMP.
‘subtract one from ten.’
(3) sò:m la a khàt pài
ten amidst LOC. one throw/discard
‘subtraction of one from ten.’ [lit. throw out one from amongst the ten of them]
2.5.3 Multiplication: Multiplicative formatives used are mùn ‘number of place’ and, vèi
‘number of occurence’ a locative and frequency marker to indicate the number of times
a certain number has to be placed/met or increased to get the resultant product.
Multiplication process in Zo is not so rich as compared to other arithmatic operations.
When an iterative marker ‘vèi’ is employed then, the numeral semantic changes as an
iterative numeral placed in a certain number of places becomes the resultant product as
shown below:
(4) nì: mùn li: giét phá:/ci
two LOC. four eight becomes
‘two times four becomes eight.’
(5) sò:m nì: mùn li: sò:m giét phá:/ci
ten two LOC. four ten eight becomes
‘twenty placed in fours becomes eight tens(eighty).’
(6) sò:m vèi mùn li: sò:m li: phá:/ci
ten ITER. LOC. four ten four becomes
‘ten times placed in fours becomes four tens(forty).’
2.5.4 Division: Division in Zo denotes the act of distribution of sharing an entity in a certain
situation. On occasions of feasts or festival and on completion of a annual or private
hunting expeditions the animals killed by the host is distributed according to traditional
meat-division methods. The meat-division custom and ceremonies is an age-old
tradition among these people. This concept of sharing/division is known to them
because of its ethos and norms existing amongst them. An entity or an object is shared
or divided into a number of places or parts equal to the number of recipients.
(7) sá: mùn sò:m nì: in ho:m vài:
meat place ten two LOC. divide HORT.
‘let us divide the meat into twenty parts/places..’
(8) sá: mùn sò:m nì: a hop a hì:
meat place ten two LOC. divide.2 PROA AUX. PERF.
‘the meat was divided into twenty parts/places..’
2.5.5 Counting of age: Counting of age means counting of years of a person or an event. In
Zo, there is no term for age only a term for year exist which is known as kùm. The years
were used to be calculated with reference to life cycle event or annual cultivations of
jhum fields. Months are calculated according to lunar cycles. A year ‘kùm’ is about 12
months as well counting from the yearly sowing of the seeds in the hill fields. It is an
agricultural calendar. So, kùm khàt means ‘one cylce of jhuming’ i.e ‘one year’; Behie
kùm /Behieng kùm/ means ‘a circle of three years of jhuming’; te: /têh/ ‘old’ or
‘aged’. A human life cycle can be divided into nau:pànlai: ‘childhood’, ‘khadò:nlai:or
á:nùt-távà:llai ‘adolscent/teenage or youthful times’, upàt ‘middle age period’ and,
tè: or vuòi [~hún]‘old age’. A person is considered to be old person at the age of 70
years and above.
_____________________________________________________________________________
1 The word is variously written as Yo, Yoe, Zou, Jou, Yau, Yaw, Zome, Zomi, Kuki-Chin.
2 The terminology is used by Khoi Lam Thang (2001); Button (n.d). Here, I am using the practice
followed by renowned linguists. Zo is a close cognate of Tiddim Chin. In India, Zou is used for
the same language.
[ Paper to be presented for the 37th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF LINGUISTIC SOCIETY OF INDIA
(ICOLSI-37) 15-17, October, 2015 CENTRE FOR LINGUISTICS JAWAHARLAL NEHRU UNIVERSITY, NEW
DELHI in association with Central Institute of Indian Languages, Ministry of HRD, Department of Higher Education,
Govt of India, Hunsur Road, Mysore.]