A Comparison of Classifiers in Standard-Thai & Tai-Phake

Abstract

Tai-Phake is a minority language spoken in ten villages – Nam-Phake, Tipam-Phake, Bor-Phake, Muanglang, Ningkam, Phaneng, Manmo, Nonglai, Long and Lungkung- in Assam, India. The Indian Census Report of 1971 gives 1,800 as the number of speakers of this language. The main data from this andlysis have been collected from the native speakers of both language. The analysis of Tai-Phake presented here is based on the data collected in two field-trips – one in April 1990 and the other in October 1990 – in which I contacted twenty informants of different sexs, age, and education background in Nam-Phake and Tipam-Phake. After the first draf of my analysis I managed to bring two informants from Nam-Phake in March 1991 and had extensive interviews and talks with them.