Teens and Twenties

[Richard Parker]

I've had a bit of stick (off-list and on) for claiming that 
  'tekau' as 20 in Marquesan, Niuean, Tokelauan, and Tongan and 
  at one time, in Maori, means 'man'. 
   
  It patently isn't the same word as 'man' or 'person' in those 
  languages, and I should have checked before I used 'man' as 
  shorthand for 'man-connected word or phrase', like:
   
  Taiof - tangau
Haku - tanoge
Solos - tanaok 
  
Tapota - oroto-i-irage
Kehelala - oloto emosi ihilage
Igora - tamori emota
Gapapaiwa - otomoa
Gitua - ongere eze
Sio - tamota taitu
Nengaya - lipu tenina kisi
Malasanga - korapta
Mangap - tomota
Waropen - nunggu natio
   
  But then, in WMP, one of the very, very few words I have at all for 20 is 
Cebuano - kawhaan 
and I haven't a clue what that's connected with.
-----------------------------------------------------------
However, a further check on whether an archaic number form 
  still persists in a language is whether 40 = 2x20 or 4x10
   
  Ta'au in Tahiti is only used now for 20 in 'traditional 
  counts' like pairs of coconuts, etc. Modern Tahitian has piti 
  'ahuru (2 tens).
   
  But David Meyer kindly provided me with a clue from the 1838 
  translation of the Bible into Tahitian:
   
  'e 'a piti ta'au a'era mahana tôtôvahia ihora 'oia e te di'abolo
"Being forty days tempted of the devil" (King James translation)
   
  piti ta'au is 2 x 20. In Modern Tahitian, that would be maha 
  'ahuru (4 x 10).
   
  Whether 'tekau' really has anything to do with 'man' or not, 
  it is an archaic word from an archaic system, clearly not derived 
  from proto-Oceanic 20 = *rua-nga-puluq
   
  regards
   
  Richard

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