Is Burunking: Difference between revisions

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Nouns are generally not marked for number and context is usually sufficient to show whether ''heuji'' means 'horse' or 'horses'. Numerals or adjectives can be used to qualify the noun for number, e.g. ''bade oz'' 'one dog, a dog'.

There are two collective suffixes, which may sometimes translate the English plural: ''-zoi'' is used to refer to a group of things, usually within a single place, e.g. ''gyonzoi'' 'band, group, team of people', ''heujizoi'' 'a herd of horses'; ''-bua'' is more abstract, referring to all things within a class collectively and also to the state of being an object within that class, similar in some ways to the English suffix '-hood' in a word like 'priesthood', e.g. ''gyombua'' 'everybody, humanity, humankind, population', ''binjibua'' 'mountains'. Both of these suffixes are productive, though in some cases the noun with the suffix has taken on a specialised meaning as in ''azoi'' 'council, assembly' from ''az'' 'man'. Reduplication may also be used to express a large group of something, often with an intensive meaning, e.g. ''gyongyong'' 'crowd, mass of people', ''yaiyai'' 'storm' (from ''yai'' 'wind').