Feature GB335: Is there synchronic evidence for any element of a vigesimal numeral system?

Patrons: Jakob Lesage

Description ⇫

Summary

Are any numerals for multiples of 20 expressed using a base-20 system (e.g. 40 = 2x20; 60 = 3x20; 80 = 4x20; 120 = 6x20, etc.)? Or are numerals in between these multiples of 20 formed as 20+1, 20+2, .., 20+11, .., 20+19; 40+1, 40+2, .., 40+11, .., 40+19, etc.? Note that a source should mention numerals higher than 29 to be able to trigger a 1 for this feature.

Procedure

  1. If both an earlier stage and a borrowed numeral system are attested, only code the earlier stage.
  2. If only a clearly borrowed numeral system is attested, and nothing is known about an earlier stage, code ?.
  3. If in doubt whether the numeral system is borrowed or not, code it as if it were not borrowed.
  4. Code 1 if a source mentions that there is a vigesimal numeral system and you can verify this in the presented numerals.
  5. Code 1 if you find a vigesimal numeral system in the numerals presented in a grammar or a dictionary.
  6. Code 0 if a source mentions that there is no vigesimal numeral system or you can verify this in the presented data.
  7. Code 0 if a language has a minimal numeral system that does not contain numerals beyond 20.
  8. Code ? if the source does not contain enough data (e.g. not many numerals beyond 29) to verify whether or not there is a vigesimal numeral system.

Examples

French (ISO 639-3: fra, Glottolog: stan1290)

French has a vigesimal numeral system for 80 and 90 and a decimal system for most other multiples of 10. French is coded 1 in our data.

20      vingt                  twenty
30      trente                 tre-ante (cf. ‘three-ty’)
40      quarante               quatre-ante (cf. ‘four-ty’)
50      cinquante              cinque-ante (cf. ‘five-ty’)
60      soixante               six-ante (cf. ‘six-ty’)
70      soixante-dix           sixty-ten
80      quatre-vingt           four-twenties
90      quatre-vingt-dix       four-twenties-ten

Awar (ISO 639-3: aya, Glottolog: awar1249)

Awar has a quinary counting system for numerals from 6 to 9 and a vigesimal system for multiples of twenty (Levy 2002: 159-161). The numeral for 5 is derived from the noun for 'hand’ and the numeral for 10 is the plural of 'hand’. The author does not mention how other multiples of ten are formed. Awar is coded 1 in Grambank.

5      parʌmbã                  hand:mark
6      parʌmbut mbɨnʌ           hand:side one
7      parʌmbut mbuni           hand:side two
8      parʌmbut mbrɨbɨn         hand:side three
9      parʌmbut pʌur            hand:side four
10     pari                     hand:PL
...
20     mot yã mbɨnʌ             man good one
40     mot yã mbuni             man good two
60     mot yã mbrɨbɨn           man good three

Amkoe (ISO 639-3: huc, Glottolog: hoaa1235)

Some languages have a minimal numeral system that does not include numerals higher than a certain number. Amkoe, for example, only has numerals up to three or four, depending on the variety (Collins & Gruber 2014: 133-137). Amkoe is coded 0 for this feature.

Further reading

Chan, Eugene. 2020. Numeral systems of the world. https://lingweb.eva.mpg.de/channumerals/.

Comrie, Bernard. 2013. Numeral bases. In Matthew S. Dryer & Martin Haspelmath (eds), The world atlas of language structures online. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

Comrie, Bernard. n.d. Typology of numeral systems.

Hammarström, Harald. 2010. Rarities in numeral systems. In Jan Wohlgemuth & Michael Cysouw (eds), Rethinking universals: How rarities affect linguistic theory (Empirical Approaches to Language Typology 45), 11–60. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

References

Collins, Chris & Jeff Gruber. 2014. A grammar of ǂHȍã with vocabulary, recorded utterances and oral texts. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.

Levy, Catherine. 2002. A tentative description of Awar phonology and morphology (Lower Ramu family, Papua-New Guinea). Brussels: Free University of Brussels. (Doctoral dissertation.)

The numeral system features:


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0 absent 1400
1 present 271
? Not known 461
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Map ⇫


Values ⇫

Name Glottocode Family Macroarea Contributor Value Source Comment