Spectral classification of the cool components of symbiotic stars

We have made near infrared spectroscopic observations of 10 symbiotic and 2 7 K-M comparison stars. For stars later than M3, we found the band depth of the triple-headed TiO absorption band to be sensitive to temperature and i nsensitive to gravity. We fitted the spectral type to the band depth with a standard error of 0.22 of a subtype and derived the spectral types for 6 s ymbiotic stars. We measured the EW of a large number of lines including the Ca II lines (very sensitive to luminosity), the Fe I and TiO lines (modera tely sensitive) and the Na I lines (not sensitive). The EW of these lines v ary with the spectral type, particularly for stars later than M3, both spec tral type and luminosity effects must be considered. We give the luminosity classes for 10 of the brighter symbiotic stars, they are all giant stars, showing no features of bright giants or supergiants.