Teens and Twenties

[Richard Parker]

Hi, Paul
   
  Many thanks for your email.
   
  Yes, I appear a bit sloppy on such matters. As an excuse, I now have some 1400 number-sets from 1-10, all in different orthographies, so I long ago decided to simplify as much as possible, especially because, although my spreadsheet is in Arial Unicode, I can't type in IPA (so I can't sort columns or rows using Microsoft Excel). And the nuances of pronunciation are almost irrelevant in such a mass of data.
   
  In fact, I have ŝamʔiyäh  and sam?iLæh for Saisiyat 20, and in this exceptional case, they seem to show up almost properly in an e-mail.
   
  I can understand the sensitivity about Taiwan and Formosa, and man and person, and if I ever publish anything on this, I will certainly try to be more precise.
   
  On Formosan numbers, I have (much-valued and much-read) your paper, and as a sub-project, one day, I have in mind a study of them in the context of other systems.  For example, the strange constructions of 8 can also be found in Bima-Sumba and Flores, and in certain islands off NW New Guinea. The construction of 9 as something like 'last before 10' is also fairly widespread (as in Bahasa Indonesia), but, put together, the Formosan constructions look like a purely local development.

  If you have any further information on Formosan numbers, not discussed in your paper, I would be very glad to have it.
   
  best regards
   
  Richard
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