Why is the word "Zhang" used to define a car and a car in Yunnan dialect?

There are some interesting differences in the use of quantifiers between Yunnan dialect and Mandarin. There will be a lot of discomfort and some jokes when you first come to Yunnan Province. For example, Yunnan dialect: a car (a car), a person (a person), a lump of cotton (a mass of cotton), how many times (a few punches).

As a quantifier, "Zhang" is widely and specially used in Yunnan dialect, including "a car", "a leaf" and "a plow". Zhang: quantifier. One of a kind or a class. For example: n cars; N beds; N tables. Note: N car is the inheritance of ancient quantifiers, and "Zhang" means "flat" and "spread". Ancient cars were mostly flat, so they were called "Zhang".

Chinese quantifier

The quantifier in Chinese is a very strange thing. Quantifiers also exist in English, such as a dozen apples, a pair of shoes and a piece of paper. Correspondingly, there are "a pair of shoes" and "a piece of paper" in Chinese, but there is no corresponding word "da".

It's just that these are not the same concept as quantifiers in Chinese, such as a person, a car and a sheep in Chinese. Quantifiers such as "ge", "che" and "only", which do not seem to exist and do not affect the expression of meaning, can not be found in English, and can be easily solved in the form of simple "number+name" in English.