This question concerns whether some cardinal numerals obligatorily occur with a marker that varies depending on the modified noun. This marker should not be the same as a marker of a noun class/gender system used also on noun modifiers other than cardinal numerals (e.g. demonstratives) or on predicates. The nouns in question should be of high countability, such as people, animals and objects, rather than of low countability, such as water, sand and smoke.
Central Okinawan (ISO 639-3: ryu, Glottolog: cent2126)
Coded 1. "The numeral morphs combine with various enumerator morphs, indicating either things being counted (units of measure -- as people, trees, days, handfuls) or the class of things being counted (flat things, rod-shaped things, winged creatures). Most of the basic enumerators may be considered as bound forms of free alternants." (Loveless 1963: 109)
-fáni = classifier for 'fowls'
túyi mi-fáni koóta ŋ bought three-CL chicken 2SG ‘He bought three chickens.’ (Loveless 1963: 110)
-kúu = classifier for 'round objects'
tamagu tu-kúu kwiree give ten-CL eggs ‘Give me ten eggs.’ (Loveless 1963: 110)
Jehai (ISO 639-3: jhi, Glottolog: jeha1242)
Coded 0. Classifiers are not obligatory. When they are used, they are usually pragmatically motivated rather than syntactically obligatory. They "seldom form a phrasal unit with the noun they refer to" (Burenhult 2005: 80–82, 87–88).
jɛʔ bʔbɔʔ tomɛn, duwaʔ k<nʔ>mɔʔ 1SG to.carry.on.back snakehead two CL<UNIT> ‘I carried snakeheads. Two of them.’ (Burenhult 2005: 81)
Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y. 2003. Classifiers: A typology of noun categorization devices. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y. & Elena I. Mihas (eds). 2019. Genders and classifiers: A cross-linguistic typology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Burenhult, Niclas. 2005. A grammar of Jahai. (Pacific Linguistics, 566.) Canberra: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University.
Loveless, Robert. 1963. The Okinawan language. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan. (Doctoral dissertation.)
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| 0 | absent | 1655 | |
| 1 | present | 520 | |
| ? | Not known | 260 |
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