Teens & Twenties

[Waruno Mahdi]

>  The 1-4 numeral system is not so baffling when you consider
>  that virtually all numbering systems began with
>  finger-counting.
>
>  It just comes down to whether you consider the thumb part of
>  the finger-count or not.

Oh, sure, but do we _know_ for a fact that that was the origin of the
1-4 system? I mean, are there any concrete features in local tradition
or lore that indicate that that, and not anything else was the source?

In WMP languages, for example, there is another referent with numerical
connotation '4', and that is the leg of a (quadruped) animal, expressed
by the reflex of the protoform *suku. In some regions, this has become
the name of a coin that is a quarter the value of a larger coin (like a
farthing, as compared to a penny). More widespread is the semantic shift
to 'phratry' (of which there are four), or 'tribe' (in further development
from the former). In an early Malay text of the late 14th century, the
title of the provincial governor is given as _dipati barampat suku_,
lit. 'governor of the foursome tribes' (or '... phratries'). I don't
know if the division into four phratries was just as universal in Oceania,
so as to offer another possible basis for a 1-4 counting system.

In inscriptions of the late first up to mid second millenniuum, in which
the date is given following the Saka calender (S = s-acute, formerly
spelled with c-cedil), the year was often not expressed with conventional
numerals, but with symbolic replacements of these, and for the number '4',
the word _suku_ was often used.

Thanks for the interesting list of various systems of numeration.

>  Tongan may be an example:
>  10 = hongofulu
>  20 = tekau
>  50 = nai rima avuru  (why has hongofulu become avuru?)

The actual root for the 10-multiplicant is -furu (PAN *puluq),
so hongo- seems to represent unity (i.e. it's 'one ten').
In -vuru, the _v_ (if I remember correctly, but I hope specialists on
Polynesian will correct me if wrong) reflects prenasalized *-mp-,
i.e. -vuru reflects something like *-ng- + *-puluq.
I.e. it does not represent some different scale of numerals.

Aloha,  Waruno
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