Two plant-based numeral classifiers in Nuristani languages: grain and branch

This study demonstrates that – contrary to common belief – classifiers occur in Nuristani languages even if their use is not obligatory. The detailed description of two numeral classifiers ( and ) shows that Nuristani languages conform to the general pattern of grammaticalizing nouns referring to plants or their parts as classifiers. The Nuristani system of nominal number marking in the direct case appears to be in harmony with the tendency that overt number marking on nouns is not obligatory in languages that use numeral classifiers. The two cases examined here are both shape-based sortal classifiers: the classifier occurs with items conceived of as small, round objects, while is used with items or phenomena that involve the perceptual schema of splitting, diverging. The lexical origin of these classifiers is transparent, and the emergence of the classifier function appears to be an innovation native to Nuristani.