200 Chapter 7 Nominals and noun phrases
occur in full or clitic form, as in (82).
(82) settong roma or saroma ‘one house’
dhuwa' buku or dhu buku ‘two books’
tello' guru or tello guru ‘three teachers’
empa' mored or pa' mored ‘four students’
lema buku or lema buku ‘five books’
ennem sorat or nem sorat ‘six letters’
petto' toronan or pettong toronan ‘seven generations’
ballu' liter or ballung liter ‘eight liters’
sanga' bulan or sangang bulan ‘nine months’
The numbers 1, 2, 4, and 6 have truncated clitic forms. And only the number 4
retains its final glottal stop as a clitic. The final glottal stop is dropped in all of
the other numbers that have it. The final glottal stop in the citation forms and
the abbreviated forms is what Stevens (1968) refers to as an ‘extension’, a mi-
nor morphological category of limited membership, which in this case has no
effect on meaning but may be phonologically motivated. (See Chapter 4 section
3 for a discussion of extensions.) Unlike the numbers 3 and 5, the clitics of the
numbers 7-9 include a velar nasal ligature. This ligature does not occur in other
positions. While using either the full or clitic form prenominally is fully accept-
able, speakers generally use the clitic forms, particularly with 1 and 2.
Numbers can also follow the noun they modify, although this possibility
varies among speakers. For some speakers, the number can follow the quanti-
fied noun without any modification. As in the examples in (83-85).
(83) Deni a-berri' buku lema' ka Tina.
Deni AV-give book five to Tina
‘Deni gave five books to Tina.’
(84) Bu’ Atin melle po'lot petto'.
Mrs Atin AV.buy pencil seven
‘Bu Atin bought seven pencils.’
(85) Mored sagome' badha e kellas sateya.
student twenty-five exist at class now
‘Twenty-five students were in class today.’
Other speakers prefer for postnominal numbers to occur in reduplicated Ca
form or with ka-. Thus, pairs such as the following are considered acceptable.