The"number"category of personal pronouns in Miao-yao language at least distinguishes single and plural.Some languages in Miao branch have dual pronouns,but dual pronouns may not be in all three persons,which accords with the law of implicational universals about person.The formation of dual category in western and central dialect of Miao language is restricted by prosodic factors.The marking means of dual and plural includes suppletion,internal inflection and affixing.Suppletion is most found in the first person,internal inflection is most found in the second person,and affixing is most found in the third person.Internal inflection can be classified as partial suppletion,the first two belong to lexical means,while the latter is a morphological means.The lexical means in Miao branch are dominant,and the morphological means have also developed.Yao branch both has lexical and morphological means,which means is dominant depending on the local dialect.
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