Bengali language: Difference between revisions

When counted, nouns take one of a small set of [[measure word]]s. Nouns in Bengali cannot be counted by adding the numeral directly adjacent to the noun. An appropriate measure word ('''MW'''), a [[Classifier (linguistics)|classifier]], must be used between the numeral and the noun (most languages of the [[Mainland Southeast Asia linguistic area]] are similar in this respect). Most nouns take the generic measure word {{lang|bn|-টা}} ''-ṭa'', though other measure words indicate semantic classes (e.g. {{lang|bn|-জন}} ''-jôn'' for humans). There is also the classifier ''-khana,'' and its diminutive form ''-khani'', which attach only to nouns denoting something flat, long, square, or thin. These are the least common of the classifiers.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Descriptive grammar of Bangla|last=Boyle David|first=Anne|publisher=De Gruyter|year=2015|pages=141–142}}</ref>