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<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS">Richard,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS">You wrote...</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS">"Many, if not most, Polynesian languages use
'man' for 20...."</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS">This doesn't seem to be true for Samoan,
Hawaiian, Tahitian, Tongan, or Maori. In what Polynesian languages is
'man' used for '20'?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS">Ken Cook</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS"></FONT> </DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">My Austronesian numbering systems research has
hit a big blockage in knowledge (as available to me).</DIV>
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<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Numbers up to 10 are interesting if only for numbers between 5 and 10.
This tells me whether people were still counting on their fingers, one hand
after the other. I can't tell if the system carried on to 2 x 10 or 'one
man' without knowing the word for 20.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Numbers are not just individual words, but reveal (as a set) a system
of thinking. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The big division is between finger-and-toe counters to 20 (one
man) and those who 'progressed' to counting up two hands to 10, and
then created a real decimal system of 2 x 10 = 20.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>- In the Bismarcks/New Guinea/Bougainville/Solomons, there is a very
apparent break-line between the toe-counters and the decimal-users. This
division roughly follows the linguistic family groups, the distribution of
Lapita<BR>pottery, etc.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>- In Vanuatu, there is an apparent cline, from south to north. I can't
do very much with numbers from 1-10 alone. I could try to see if my clumsy
1-10 numbers cline matches with John Lynch's language family grouping, or
not. But I could refine the analysis if I knew the words for 20 in that
area.<BR> <BR>- Many, if not most, Polynesian languages use 'man' for
20 - did they set out with a decimal, or a toe-counting system? If they came
from Taiwan, then why did they switch back to a 'primitive' system that most
Taiwanese groups no longer use?</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>- In Taiwan, Saisyat had .am.iy.h (samiyah = man) as the 20 word. Is
this a founder, or a settler symptom? </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I lack a lot of information on numbers past 10 in WMP, Polynesian,
Vanuatu, Micronesian and CEMP languages, and this is a little
frustrating.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>If you can help with teens and<BR>twenties, please do.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>regards</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Richard Parker</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><BR> </DIV>>________________
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