Teens & Twenties

[Richard Parker]

"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?"
   
  Well, I did give a very clear reference:
http://www.uog.ac.pg/PUB08-Oct-03/franklin1.htm
  It's a scanned document, so I couldn't copy extracts. I counted on 
anyone who was genuinely interested to click it open and check out 
'The Four Base System' and its specific usage of fingers.
-------------------------------------------------------
Thanks for the interesting tale about 14thC Malay 'suku' representing 4. 
  In Cebuano and Tagalog, 'suko' means 'surrender', and 'angry' but I 
  don't know what this signifies.
   
  There are current number-related coinages just as relevant 
to the evolution of prehistoric counting systems:
 
namba foa (number four) “one-legged” (also “wansait” [one side])
namba sikstin (number sixteen) “a young woman”
sikispela lek (six legs) “man with two wives”
ten toea (ten coins/shells) “unmarried person”
twenti toea (twenty coins/shells) “married person”
tu kina meri/bus (two kina woman/bush) “a prostitute”
  Some Tok Pisin Idioms - Karl J. Franklin and Steven Kambi Thomas
http://www.sil.org/silewp/2006/silewp2006-004.pdf
--------------------------------------------------------
The detailed phonological explanation of how Tongan '(honga)-fulu' 
differs from Tongan '(nai ri rima-a)-vuru', while interesting, doesn't explain how 
two different forms of the same morpheme and two different constructions of 
compound words are present in the same context in the same language.
---------------------------------------------------------
Elsewhere, on your 1,2,3,4,5,6,7
theory, you might find something interesting in:
  Core systems of number
Lisa Feigenson, Stanislas Dehaene and Elizabeth Spelke
http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/~karin/feigenson2004.pdf
  
regards
  Richard
  
 
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