More on numbers

Richard Parker richardparker01 at YAHOO.COM
Thu May 31 01:13:12 UTC 2007


Could someone please help with:
   
  1) Who is writing the (apparently) authoritative articles on Papuan 
  languages that have just begun to appear in Wikipedia?
   
  And how could I contact him/her?
   
  see:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y%C3%A9l%C3%AE_Dnye_language
  for a good example.
  
2) Could someone with access to the WALS database please help me make a 
  couple of maps of language characteristics covering the CMP/Oceanic MP 
  area?
  
and some supplementaries:
   
  The Yele Dnye language article cited above has two interesting nuggets:
   
  - Yele Dnye (Rossel Island, New Guinea - and many other Papuan languages) shares, with Austronesian, a distinction between pronouns for 'we two' and 'we'. Is this a common, or rare distinction, in world languages generally?
   
  - Yele Dnye 'paa' means 'side'.
   
  In Cebuano/Surigaonon - paa = thigh, palm (hand) is palad/payad, 
  palm-width 4 inch measure is dapal.
  In many Micronesian languages, paa = hand, and paa-pa means count 
Anuta (Samoic outlier) - paa = 4
Bunun (Formosan) - paat = 4 
  Tahiti - pae = 5
  Ainu - para = palm
   
  Is this apparent cognacy relevant, or is it just random coincidence?
   
   
   
  regards
  Richard Parker
Siargao Island, The Philippines. 
  My website at www.coconutstudio.com is about the island and its people,  
  coastal early humans, fishing, coconuts, bananas and whatever took my 
  fancy at the time.
   
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