Doesn't ～ニン（人）as a suffix imply that it is a counter of people


I was looking to some examples of the use of 人 and I found this one in
Jisho.org

[http://jisho.org/search/人](http://jisho.org/search/%E4%BA%BA)

> ２００人{にん}の人{ひと}が昨年コレラで死んだ。  
>  Two hundred people died of cholera last year.

With furigana for the first case にん and for the second ひと. So I was trying to
guess why is the kanji repeated and I thought that probably it was due to the
need to indicate what were you counting. But then, wasn't supposed that ～ニン
implies that you are counting people?




Yes, 人【にん】 is a counter "agrees" with _person_ , but no, it cannot play the
role of a noun. Counters only makes a number able to modify a noun, but
grammar prohibits it from having noun meaning. Thus, if you want to tell "two
hundred people" you always have to say 200人【にん】の人【ひと】. It however doesn't mean
the noun is not omissible.

> 村には **500人の人** が住んでいたが、 **200人** が昨年コレラで死んだ。  
>  _There had been **five hundred people** in the village, but **two hundred**
> died of cholera last year._

This basically explains the nuance of using counter phrase alone.

PS  
Analogy in English...

> (??) I'd like to live a happy one.  
>  I'd like to live a happy life.  
>  If I could choose how my life would be, I'd like to live a happy one.

