Teens & Twenties

[Richard Parker]

'Overlaid' number systems and Tongan 50 - 
  Mea culpa
  Ross Clark privately pointed the way to my error, but, kindly, didn't shame me in public, so I'll do it myself:
 
(Quote): "I'm afraid this is an artefact of bad data, and not evidence of any overlay".
   
  In mitigation, Yer Honour:
- I took Eugene Chan's amazing Austronesian numbers list http://www.zompist.com/anes.htm and made a spreadsheet.
- Then I merged extra numbers (not a lot) from the ABVD
- Then I'm adding extras from other sources
   
  Somehow the Uruavan (Solomons) 50 turned up in the Tongan 50 column, and stood out like a sore thumb, so I too quickly took it as an example of 'overlay'. 
  Murphy's law :"If anything can go wrong, it will, and usually at the most inopportune moment".
   
  But that egregious mistake doesn't destroy the concept of 'overlaid' number systems:
   
  Here are 10, 20, 50 in the very few Polynesian languages where I have data:
   
  Takuu - sinafuru - matarua, rue - matarima, lima
  Vaeakau-Taumako - katoa, kharo, dumaa - gatoaelua - gatoaelima
  Futuna East - kau, agafulu - kaulua - kaulima
  Pukapuka - laugaulu - tinolua, luangaulu, laulua - tinolima, limangaulu, laulima. 
  Fijian - sagavulu, e tini na - rua-sagavulu - lima-sagavulu
  Niuean - hongofulu - tekau - lima fiha
  Tongan - hongofulu - tekau - (nimangofulu - thanks, Ross)
  Rarotongan - nga'uru - rua ngauru - rima ngauru
  Tahitian - ho'e'ahuru - piti 'ahuru, ta'au, arooato - ?
  Marquesan - 'onohu'u, 'okohu'u - tekau - ?
  Hawaiian - umi - iwakâlua - haneli
  Maori - ka-cahuru, ngahuru, tekau - rua tekau, tekau - rima tekau
  -----------------------------------------
  Most appear to be relatively 'modern' constructions:
   
  Only Rarotongan shows a regular series.
Why else should Fijian make 20= 2x1x10, 5x1x10? 
Why else does Maori turn 20 into 10, and then make up a series?
And what does fiha mean in Niuean? Or haneli in Hawaiian?
   
  regards
  Richard
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/an-lang/attachments/20071128/31e7e318/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
_______________________________________________
An-lang mailing list
An-lang at anu.edu.au
http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/an-lang