¹ My work on the Thai language is being carried on at the University of Michigan, for the Committee on the National School of Modern Oriental Languages and Civilizations of the American Council of Learned Societies.

I also wish to express my indebtedness to my Thai friends at the University of Michigan, particularly to Dr. Malai Huvanandana, Mr. Heng Subhanka, Miss Ubol Guvanasen, and Miss Poonsapaya Graiyong.

² Numeral classifiers or numeratives are often referred to by a number of other names, such as ‘Numeralwörter’ (F. J. Wershoven, Lehr- und Lesebuch der Siamesischen Sprache 65–8 [Wien, Pest, Leipzig, 1892]), ‘Zählwörter’ (Walther Trittel, Einführung in das Siamesische 72 [Berlin and Leipzig, 1930], ‘numeral designations’ (D. J. B. Pallegoix, Dictionnaire Siamois Français Anglais, revu par J. L. Vey 32 [Bangkok, 1896]), and ‘descriptive words’ (O. Frankfurter, Elements of Siamese Grammar 49–55 [Bangkok, 1900]).

In this paper they are introduced as numeral classifiers and thereafter referred to simply as classifiers. This latter term is to be preferred to most of the others, since it is better to avoid emphasis on the use of these words with numerals. While it is true that they are required when numerals are used, they also have many other uses, as shown in this paper.

³ One of the most complete lists of classifiers to be found in published works is that given by Frankfurter, loc. cit. It is of little use to the general reader, however, since the terms and illustrations are written in the Thai alphabet.

⁴ A brief explanation of the Thai phonemic symbols used in this paper may be given here. The consonants are as follows: three voiced stops, b, d, and -g (-g occurring only in syllabic final position); glottal stop, ˀ; four voiceless unaspirated stops, p, t, c [č], and k; four corresponding voiceless aspirated stops, ph, th, ch, and kh; three voiceless spirants, f, s, and h; seven voiced sonorants, w, j, m, n, ŋ, l, and r. There are nine vowels: i, e, ∊ [æ], y [ï], ə [ë], a, u, o, and ɔ. These may occur both short and long, thus: i and i·, e and e·, etc. The long vowels, however, are probably to be considered double vowels on the phonemic level, since they configurate in all respects with the heterophonous vowel clusters ia, ya [ïa], and ua. The vowel a is always nasalized when it follows ˀ or h, and all vowels are nasalized when preceded or followed by nasal consonants. There are five tones: even or middle (left unmarked), low (ˋ), falling (ˆ), high (´), and rising (̌). In the case of vowel clusters the tonal markers are placed, for orthographic convenience, over the first vowel, e.g. hǔa ‘head’. The falling and the high tones induce a final glottal stop if the syllable ends in a vowel or a sonorant (e.g. nâ·ˀ ‘face’; chá·ˀ ‘slowly’; wîŋ·ˀ ‘to run’; nánˀ 'that') but not if it ends in another stop consonant (e.g. mî·d 'knife'). All final glottal stops, however, may be dropped under certain conditions of sandhi.

⁵ The hyphen in this example and others to follow indicates internal open juncture.