ရေး

Inherited from Old Burmese ရိယ်း (riy), from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *b-rəj (“to draw, mark; boundary”). Cognates include Tibetan འབྲི ('bri), Khumi Chin tärüte, Old Chinese 理 (OC *rɯʔ, “to cut jade, put in order, manage”) (STEDT).

och-l

numerical classifier for counting stretches of sleep


လား

numerical classifier for counting races in a contest consisting of a series of cart or boat races


ဦး

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *tV-pu (“head”) (STEDT).

numerical classifier used with counting people


ကလေး

to lighten the depth, to be polite, a word that helps to make a pleasant impression (boo boo baby, stubborn boy, he is a child, a child of fire).


ပျစ်

cog

Tibetan རྦད་རྦོད (rbad rbod, “thick, dense”)

numerical classifier for counting mats of thatching


ပါး

→ Shan: ပႃး (páa)

(Buddhism, nobility, honorific) numeral classifier for sacred objects or persons


တုတ်

my-cls

တုတ် • (tut)

numerical classifier for counting carcasses of hares


တောင်

my-noun

တောင် • (taung) (classifier လုံး or တောင်)

taung (romanization)
လုံး (classifier)
တောင် (classifier)

From Proto-Tibeto-Burman *m/r-duŋ (“mountain, hillock”), and cognate with Old Chinese 冢 (OC *toŋʔ, “mound, peak; great”) (STEDT).


တောင်

From Proto-Tibeto-Burman *dwaŋ (“cubit”) (STEDT: ʔə toŋ "cubit"), a semantic extension of Proto-Tibeto-Burman *dwaŋ (“wing, hand”) (whence the first syllable of တောင်ပံ (taungpam, “wing”)). Cognate with Mizo tong (“cubit”).

cog

ပိတ် နှစ်တောင်


လက်

Inherited from Old Burmese လက် (lak), ultimately from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *tV-lak (“hand”). Cognate with Tibetan ལག (lag, “hand, arm”) and Nuosu ꇇ (lot, “hand”) (STEDT).

numerical classifier for counting turns in the game of dice

numerical classifier for counting certain elongated things


မှုတ်

my-cls

မှုတ် • (hmut)

numerical classifier for counting a number of scoops with a dipper or ladle


ရိုက်

head

ရိုက် • (ruik)

numerical classifier for counting lengths measured with a bamboo pole


ချိုး

From Proto-Lolo-Burmese *k(r/y)aw ~ *kh(r/y)aw ~ *k(h)ləw (“to break, snap (a stick)”), though STEDT does not link the root to any Burmese entries and adduces no further cognates, nor is it mentioned by Luce 1981.

inh

numerical classifier used in counting components of a ratio


သုတ်

head

သုတ် • (sut)

From Proto-Lolo-Burmese *sutᴴ ~ sitᴴ (“to wipe, sweep”), from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *s(u/i)t (“to wipe, sweep, rub, scrub”) (STEDT). Cognate with Tibetan བཤུད (bshud, “to wipe”), Old Chinese 刷 (OC *sroːd, *srod, “to rub; brush”) (though STEDT mistakenly puts down 恤 (OC *sqʰʷiɡ, “to sympathize, compensate”) for the Chinese character instead).

och-l

numerical classifier for counting movements in groups or operations in shifts


စီး

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *gyi ~ *dzyi (“to ride, sit astride, sit (on a horse)”), a Wanderwort in the E/SE sprachbund (STEDT). Compare Old Chinese 騎 (OC *ɡral, *ɡrals), Khmer ជិះ (cih), Nuosu ꋩ (zzy, “to ride; to bear (a rider)”), ꊪ (zy, “to cause to ride”), Thai ขี่ (kìi), Lao ຂີ່ (khī), Zhuang gwih, White Hmong caij, Vietnamese cưỡi, Proto-Austronesian *sakay (“catch a ride, join a group, ride on something”).

cog

ကား နှစ်စီး ရှိတယ်။

2006, Gene Mesher, Burmese for Beginners, page 114:

numerical classifier for vehicles and transport animals


စင်း

numerical classifier used in counting certain things which have a long shape such as arrows, boats


လုံး

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *m-lu(ŋ/m) (“heart; round”). Cognate with Drung tvleum (“round”), Jingpho lum (“round”) and Tibetan ཟླུམ (zlum, “round; spherical”).

inh

numerical classifier used in counting round, globular things


ချပ်

ကော်ဇော နှစ်ချပ်

စက္ကူ သုံးချပ်


ဆူ

From Proto-Tibeto-Burman *tsu (“spirit of dead”); cognate with Jingpho [script needed] (tsù, “spirit”) (STEDT). Note also similarities to Old Chinese 座 (OC *zoːls, “classifier for buildings”).

och-l

ဘုရား နှစ်ဆူ

(Buddhism) numerical classifier for pagodas, images of the Buddha, and other sacred objects


ပြန်

→ Lü: ᦔᦊᦱᧃᧈ (ṗẏaan¹, “to translate”)

Inherited from Old Burmese ပ္လန်, Proto-Sino-Tibetan *bran (“to convalesce, recover, return”). Cognate with Old Chinese 般 (OC *praːn, *paːn, *baːn, “to rotate, go back and forth”) (STEDT).

och-l

numerical classifier indicating number of times


ချောင်း

ဘောပင်တစ်ချောင်း

numerical classifier for long, thin objects like pens, pencils, sticks, etc.


ယောက်

my-cls

ယောက် • (yauk)


ထည်

och-l

袗 (OC *kljɯnʔ, *kljɯns, “plain unlined garment”)

numeral classifier for articles of clothing


ရန်

ဖိနပ်တစ်ရန်

numerical classifier for pairs of things, e.g. shoes


လုပ်

my-verb

လုပ် • (lup)

Perhaps related to Old Chinese 徭 (OC *lew, “forced labor”).

to act as, to assume the character of, take the role of


လုပ်

head

လုပ် • (lup)

ထမင်း နှစ်လုပ်


ခက်

The "difficult" sense is from Proto-Tibeto-Burman *kak (“difficult; hardship”), and cognate with Tibetan ཁག་པོ (khag po, “difficult”).
The "offshoot from a branch" sense, reflected in အခက် (a.hkak, “idem”) and ခက်ရင်း (hkak-rang:, “fork”), is, despite MED's grouping, from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *s-ka(ː)k (“fork, branch, crotch”), and cognate with Mizo [Term?] (kaak, “fork of tree”) and Old Chinese 支 (OC *kje, “branch”); see the Chinese for more (STEDT).

inh

numerical classifier used in counting branches, sprays of flowers, twigs, etc.: hard flower


ပုံ

numerical classifier for piles of material


ပတ်

From Proto-Tibeto-Burman *bat (“to wind around”); cognate with Jingpho bàt (“idem”) (STEDT: pat "wind around, encircle").

numerical classifier used in counting weeks


ဝါး

According to STEDT, a clipping of ဖဝါး (hpa.wa:, “palm”), which STEDT derives from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *p(l)a-n ~ *p(w)a-n (“palm, sole”). Cognate with the second syllable of Mizo *ke-phaʔ (“sole (foot)”), Old Chinese 扶 (OC *pa, *ba), 蹯 (OC *ban, “paw”); Luce additionally adduces 巴 (OC *praː, “palm”) (as in modern Sinitic 巴掌 (bāzhang, “palm”)), 步 (OC *baːs, “a step”).

numerical classifier used in counting handsbreadth


ထပ်

→ Mon: ထပ်

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *g/l-t(y)ap (“to fold, repeat, layer, pile up”). Cognate with Old Chinese 疊 (OC *l'ɯːb, “to fold, double, accumulate”) (STEDT thap "place one on another, add to; repeat, do again").
The "again" sense is an adverbialization of the "stack" sense, and the "classifier" sense a semantic extension of the "stack" sense.

och-l

numerical classifier used in counting layers: strata, storeys of buildings, etc.


ခင်

numerical classifier used in counting skeins of wool or cotton


စည်း

穧 (OC *ʔsleds, *ʔsliːls, *zliːls, “sheaf”)

numerical classifier used in counting bundles


ပိုင်း

နှစ်ပိုင်းတစ်ပိုင်း

numerical classifier indicating part or division of something


ကောင်

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *guŋ (“body; back”) (STEDT).

မျောက် နှစ်ကောင်

မြင်း သုံးကောင်


ခု

箇 (OC *kaːls, “unit, generic classifier”)

မျက်မှန် တစ်ခု

စကားပုံ နှစ်ခု

ကုလားထိုင် သုံးခု

လက်မှတ် လေးခု

generic classifier used to count nouns; unit


ခွန်း

喊 (OC *qʰaːmʔ, *qʰrɯːmʔ, *ɡrɯːmʔ, “to shout, cry”)

စကား တစ်ခွန်း

numerical classifier used to count nouns referring to spoken words or utterances


ချက်

From Proto-Lolo-Burmese *ʔ-kyakᴴ (“rope, cord, navel”), from Proto-Tibeto-Burman *kyak (“navel, umbilical cord, rope”), mainly attested in Lolo-Burmese and Qiangic; cognate with Akha [script needed] (tjaq, “rope”). The Tibeto-Burman root is possibly cognate with Old Chinese 弋 (OC *lɯɡ, “to shoot arrow (with string attached)”) and/or 繳 (OC *kleːwʔ, *kljewɢ, *ɡreːɡ, “string attached to arrow”), with the latter more phonologically likely; however, the reconstruction of the former makes a connection unlikely, and the latter's reconstruction is uncertain due to internal inconsistencies in the Middle Chinese readings (STEDT).

och-l

numerical classifier used in counting strokes, blows, hits, points, articles enumerated, etc.


ကွင်း

From Sino-Tibetan; compare Naxi kho²¹ (“fence (bamboo or twig)”) (STEDT). Note also strong phonetic similarities to Old Chinese 廣 (OC *kʷaːŋʔ, “wide, broad”).


ကွင်း

လက်စွပ် နှစ်ကွင်း

လက်ကောက် သုံးကွင်း

used for counting circular piece of jewelry like rings, bangles, bracelets, etc.


ယှဉ်း

နွား နှစ်ယှဉ်း


စောင်

From Proto-Tibeto-Burman *dzawŋ (“to wait, watch for”); cognate with Mizo [Term?] (tsoŋ, “to wait for, watch for”) (STEDT).
The "blanket, rug" and "document classifier" senses are grouped together with the "keep in reserve, wait and watch with hostility" senses by MED, though this is probably incorrect. In either case, these senses are not given etymology by STEDT (coŋ "blanket", ə-coŋ "( num. aux. for writings and books )"), and not mentioned by Luce 1981.

cog

numerical classifier used in counting literary pieces, documents, letters, etc.


လှိုင်း

Uncertain, though given the -uing final, possibly a loan from Proto-Mon-Khmer *luŋh ~ *luuŋh ~ *ləŋh (“to hollow, excavate, bore”), whence Khmer លុង (lung, “to dig a hole”) and Vietnamese trũng (“concave”). See also Mizo lawng (“to take out the heart of a wild platain tree”) (Sidwell, 2006; Schuessler, 2007).
MED groups all senses of the word together etymologically, which is possible, though the semantic links are not particularly trivial.

cog

numerical classifier for counting sheaves of paddy


လီ

numerical classifier for counting multiples, frequencies


ပုဒ်

my-cls

ပုဒ် • (pud)

Borrowed from Pali pada (“footstep”). Doublet of ပိုဒ် (puid) and ပဒ (pa.da.).

numerical classifier for counting pieces of writing such as articles, verses, songs, etc.


ဆောင်

Not given etymology by STEDT (choŋ "building"), and Luce does not adduce any cognates. Schuessler (2007) compares Old Chinese 宗 (OC *ʔsuːŋ, “ancestral temple; to revere”).

och-l

numerical classifier for houses, monasteries and royal buildings


ပိုဒ်

head

ပိုဒ် • (puid)

From Pali pada, from Sanskrit पद (pada, “footstep”). Doublet of ပုဒ် (pud) and ပဒ (pa.da.).

numerical classifier for counting paragraphs


ခြည်

Probably from Proto-Tibeto-Burman *kriŋ (“hair on the head; thread; sinew, tendon”), assuming an original sense of "long thin thread-like object", as in ဆံခြည် (hcamhkrany, “strand of hair”). Compare Akha kháŋ (“hair”) (STEDT); note also similarities to Old Chinese 腱 (OC *kan, *ɡans, “tendon”), which appears to be compared by STEDT, though the finals do not seem to match.

inh

numerical classifier used in counting rings, bangles


ထောက်

cog

Tibetan དོགས (dogs, “to attach, subjoin”)

numerical classifier for counting stages of a journey, width of a point or tip of something


ပွဲ

Uncertain; has been suggested by Benedict to be a Pali borrowing (STEDT), though no source word appears to be given (pwâi "feast, festival ( < Pali ? )"). ဖွဲ (hpwai:) is a variant form.

numerical classifier for counting dishes

numerical classifier for counting offertories


ဆိုင်း

numerical classifier used in counting work shifts, work gangs, packets of gold foil


ယာ

From Proto-Tibeto-Burman *wal ~ *m-jal (“to chew (cud, betel)”); cognate with Jingpho [script needed] (məyá, “to chew”) (STEDT).

cog

numerical classifier for counting betel quids


ခေါက်

numerical classifier used in counting number of trips


ယှက်

numerical classifier used in counting thin slices of food such as pancakes, waffles, etc.


ထမ်း

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *tam (“to carry on shoulder”), which appears to be an areal word. Cognate with Old Chinese 擔 (OC *taːm, *taːms, “idem”) (STEDT).

inh

numerical classifier for counting loads carried with a shoulder pole (yoke)


ပင်

Possibly from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *(b/p)ul (“root; stump; tree”). Cognate with Old Chinese 本 (OC *pɯːnʔ, “source; root”). Luce tentatively gives 萌 (OC *mreːŋ, “sprout”) as a cognate.

numerical classifier used in counting tall upright things (trees, plants, poles, etc.) and long strands (hair, thread, etc.)


တန်

numerical classifier used in counting different legs of a journey, component parts of abstract concepts


အုပ်

From Proto-Tibeto-Burman *ʔup (“to cover, incubate, hatch”). Cognate with Mizo [Term?] (up, “shelter”). The Tibeto-Burman root is likely allofamic with Proto-Sino-Tibetan *(g/k)wap (“to hatch, incubate, cover”), the latter whence Old Chinese 蓋 (OC *kaːbs, *kaːb, *ɡaːb, “to cover”) (STEDT).

cog

(slang) to harass the other side (with hard words, etc.), to attack


အုပ်

an insert with a cover made of diapers, etc.


ကွ

a word used at the end of a sentence when talking to peers and younger people.


ထုပ်

Inherited from Proto-Lolo-Burmese *tup ~ tip ~ tum (“to wrap up and tie”), from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *tip ~ *tu(p/m) (“to wrap up”). Cognates include Mizo tuam (“to wrap”), Old Chinese 蠶 (OC *zluːm, “silkworm”) (STEDT).
Whether the "crossbeam" meaning is related is uncertain; MED appears to consider it related, while STEDT does not (htup "beam").

inh

numerical classifier for packages and bundles


ပေါက်

my-cls

ပေါက် • (pauk)

och-l

剽 (OC *pʰews, *bew, “to attack, pierce”)

cog

Tibetan བྱུང (byung, “to appear, emerge”)

Tibetan ཕྲུག (phrug, “young (of animals)”)

och-l

扑 (OC *pʰoːɡ, “to beat, strike against”)

numerical classifier used in counting dots or drops


ထုံး

numerical classifier used in counting knots; coils, etc.


ခွေ

Inherited from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *koj (“bend; curved; lap; bosom”); compare perhaps Old Chinese 跪 (OC *kʰrolʔ, *ɡrolʔ, “to kneel”) (STEDT). See also ကွေ့ (kwe., “to turn, veer”).

inh+

particle used as a numerical classifier for rings or coils


ရွက်

From Proto-Tibeto-Burman *rwak (“leaf, leaflike part”). Cognate with the second syllable of Japhug [Term?] (tɐ jwɐk, “leaf”) (STEDT); an older theory by Luce also connects the word to Old Chinese 喬 (OC *krew, *ɡrew, “section on the shaft of a spear near the spearhead for hanging a feather; panache-hanger”), though this seems outdated.
The "carry on the head" sense is considered identical to the "leaf" sense by MED, but separate by STEDT (which doesn't assign etymology: rwak "carry on head") and Luce, the latter who compares Old Chinese 頍 (OC *kʰʷeʔ, “to raise one's head”).

och-l

numerical classifier used in counting sheets


ရစ်

From Proto-Lolo-Burmese *r-sik ~ *s-yik (“to twist”), from Proto-Tibeto-Burman *sik (“to pinch, twist”); cognate with Mizo [Term?] (sìk-I, sìh-II, “to pinch or nip (with the finger nails), to pluck”) (STEDT).

cog

numerical classifier for counting installments, stages, chevrons, stripes, etc.


လော

och-l

與 (OC *la, *laʔ, *las, “exclamation indicating doubt”)

numerical classifier for counting the number of times


လွှာ

瀡 (OC *slolʔ, *slols, “slippery, smooth”)

numerical classifier for counting layers, strata, etc.


ပိုင်

numerical classifier used in referring to a monk's robe or to a piece of silk used as headdress


ချီ

For the "lift, carry" sense, from Proto-Lolo-Burmese *kyi¹˜² (“to lift, raise”), from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *kyi (“to lift, raise, awake”). Cognate with Akha [script needed] (tjhì, “to lift”), Old Chinese 起 (OC *kʰɯʔ, “to rise, raise”) (STEDT).
It is unclear if the particle and classifier senses are etymologically connected, though MED groups them together.

inh

numerical classifier used in counting number of performances or shows


ကုံး

numerical classifier used in counting garlands, necklaces, etc.


သွယ်

numerical classifier for counting long, sinuous things such as strands of pearls, garlands of flowers and hence paths, ways, methods, means, etc.


တွဲ

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *n(d)oj (“to hang from, cling to; creeper”); cognate with Jingpho [script needed] (nói, “to suspend, hang”), Old Chinese 垂 (OC *djol, “to suspend, hang”) (STEDT, Hill 2019). See also တွယ် (twai, “to stick to, cling”), ဆွဲ (hcwai:, “to hang, drag, pull”), နွယ် (nwai, “creeper, vine”).

cog

numerical classifier for things in pairs, bunches, or clusters


မျက်

inh

Proto-Sino-Tibetan *s-mjak ~ s-mik (“eye”)

numerical classifier used in counting bundles of loops in a skein of cotton


ခိုင်

The "stalk" sense is, despite the -uing final, connected by STEDT to Proto-Tibeto-Burman *kuːŋ (“tree, branch, stem”) (whence also ကိုင်း (kuing:, “to bend over”)), which may be an areal word; see Old Chinese 弓 (OC *kʷɯŋ, “bow (weapon)”) for more.
The "durable" senses aren't given etymology by STEDT (khuiŋ "firm, strong, durable"), though a relation to the "stalk" sense appears feasible.

numerical classifier used in counting bunches of flowers, fruits


နပ်

och-l

茹 (OC *nja, *njaʔ, *njas, “to eat; to bear; vegetables”)


မြွှာ

numerical classifier for counting segments of fruit, cloves of garlic, and parts of a multiparous birth


လုတ်

my-cls

လုတ် • (lut)

numerical classifier used in counting mouthfuls of food


ရှဉ်း

နွားတစ်ရှဉ်း

(possibly archaic) numerical classifier used in counting pairs of draught cattle