GB335
Are any numerals for multiples of 20 expressed using a base-20 system (e.g. 40 = 2x20; 60 = 3x20; 80 = 4x20; 120 = 6x20, etc.)? Or are numerals in between these multiples of 20 formed as 20+1, 20+2, .., 20+11, .., 20+19; 40+1, 40+2, .., 40+11, .., 40+19, etc.? Note that a source should mention numerals higher than 29 to be able to trigger a 1 for this feature.
- If both an earlier stage and a borrowed numeral system are attested, only code the earlier stage.
- If only a clearly borrowed numeral system is attested, and nothing is known about an earlier stage, code ?.
- If in doubt whether the numeral system is borrowed or not, code it as if it were not borrowed.
- Code 1 if a source mentions that there is a vigesimal numeral system and you can verify this in the presented numerals.
- Code 1 if you find a vigesimal numeral system in the numerals presented in a grammar or a dictionary.
- Code 0 if a source mentions that there is no vigesimal numeral system or you can verify this in the presented data.
- Code 0 if a language has a minimal numeral system that does not contain numerals beyond 20.
- Code ? if the source does not contain enough data (e.g. not many numerals beyond 29) to verify whether or not there is a vigesimal numeral system.
French (ISO 639-3: fra, Glottolog: stan1290)
French has a vigesimal numeral system for 80 and 90 and a decimal system for most other multiples of 10. French is coded 1 in our data.
20 vingt twenty
30 trente tre-ante (cf. ‘three-ty’)
40 quarante quatre-ante (cf. ‘four-ty’)
50 cinquante cinque-ante (cf. ‘five-ty’)
60 soixante six-ante (cf. ‘six-ty’)
70 soixante-dix sixty-ten
80 quatre-vingt four-twenties
90 quatre-vingt-dix four-twenties-ten
Awar (ISO 639-3: aya, Glottolog: awar1249)
Awar has a quinary counting system for numerals from 6 to 9 and a vigesimal system for multiples of twenty (Levy 2002: 159-161). The numeral for 5 is derived from the noun for 'hand’ and the numeral for 10 is the plural of 'hand’. The author does not mention how other multiples of ten are formed. Awar is coded 1 in Grambank.
5 parʌmbã hand:mark
6 parʌmbut mbɨnʌ hand:side one
7 parʌmbut mbuni hand:side two
8 parʌmbut mbrɨbɨn hand:side three
9 parʌmbut pʌur hand:side four
10 pari hand:PL
...
20 mot yã mbɨnʌ man good one
40 mot yã mbuni man good two
60 mot yã mbrɨbɨn man good three
Amkoe (ISO 639-3: huc, Glottolog: hoaa1235)
Some languages have a minimal numeral system that does not include numerals higher than a certain number. Amkoe, for example, only has numerals up to three or four, depending on the variety (Collins & Gruber 2014: 133-137). Amkoe is coded 0 for this feature.
Chan, Eugene. 2020. Numeral systems of the world. https://lingweb.eva.mpg.de/channumerals/.
Comrie, Bernard. 2013. Numeral bases. In Matthew S. Dryer & Martin Haspelmath (eds), The world atlas of language structures online. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
Comrie, Bernard. n.d. Typology of numeral systems.
Hammarström, Harald. 2010. Rarities in numeral systems. In Jan Wohlgemuth & Michael Cysouw (eds), Rethinking universals: How rarities affect linguistic theory (Empirical Approaches to Language Typology 45), 11–60. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Collins, Chris & Jeff Gruber. 2014. A grammar of ǂHȍã with vocabulary, recorded utterances and oral texts. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.
Levy, Catherine. 2002. A tentative description of Awar phonology and morphology (Lower Ramu family, Papua-New Guinea). Brussels: Free University of Brussels. (Doctoral dissertation.)
The numeral system features:
- GB333 Is there a decimal numeral system?
- GB334 Is there synchronic evidence for any element of a quinary numeral system?
- GB336 Is there a body-part tallying system?
Jakob Lesage