Semantics of classifiers in some Indian Languages

In the present paper, we present a detailed description of the classifier systems of five Indian languages-- Mizo, Galo, Tagin (all belongs to the Tibeto-Burman family), Assamese (Indo-Aryan) and Malto (Dravidian). It is observed that the classifiers are a predominant feature in the Tibeto-Burman and we observe an extensive classifier system in these languages. There is no equivalent classifier system in other language families. However in the languages belonging to Eastern India, irrespective of the family, there is some sort of classifier system. Thus classifiers seem to be an areal feature in most of the Eastern and whole of the North-Eastern India. The purpose of the paper is to study if there is some semantic similarity among the classifier systems across language families in this area and thus to see if it is indeed an areal feature. It is just a preliminary description of an ongoing research in which we intend to study many more languages and include languages from the Austro-Asiatic family (such as Khasi and Munda languages spoken in Jharkhand) as well.