Grambank - Feature GB336: Is there a body-part tallying system?

Feature GB336: Is there a body-part tallying system?

Patrons: Jakob Lesage

Description ⇫

Summary

Body-part tallying systems are counting systems that use body parts other than hands, feet, fingers or toes. Counting starts from one hand, tallying parts of the body along the arm, up to the head and then continuing with symmetric tally points down the other side of the body. Body-part tallying systems are usually only used in some social situations, such as traditional bride price negotiations. Some languages with decimal, quinary or vigesimal systems use words for head or body to represent 10 or 20, the word for hand to mean 5 or the word for eye to mean 1. These do not count as body-part tallying systems in the absence of a sequence of other body-part tally points.

Procedure

If both an earlier stage and a borrowed counting system are attested, only code the earlier stage.
If only a clearly borrowed counting system is attested, and nothing is known about an earlier stage, code ?.
If in doubt whether a counting system is borrowed or not, code it as if it were not borrowed. Note that a language can have different counting systems existing in parallel.
Code 1 if a source mentions that there is a body-part tallying system and you can verify this in the presented numerals.
Code 1 if you find a body-part tallying system in the numerals presented in a grammar or a dictionary.
Code 0 if a source mentions that there is no body-part tallying system or you can verify this in the presented data.
Code 0 if a language has a minimal counting system (e.g. if there are no numerals beyond 4 or 5).
Code ? if the source does not contain enough data (e.g. not enough numerals) to verify whether or not there is a body-part tallying system.

Examples

Kobon (ISO 639-3: kpw, Glottolog: kobo1249)

Kobon has a body-part tallying system (Comrie n.d.). Counting in Kobon starts on the left little finger and runs on to the right middle finger, after which counting continues back in the direction of the left side of the body. In this system, the same terms are used for the left and right body parts, which means that their meaning can be ambiguous out of context (e.g. wañɨg nöbö ‘little finger’ may mean ‘1’ or ‘24’). Kobon would be coded 1.

1       left little finger              wañɨg nöbö
2       left ring finger                igwo        
3       left middle finger              igwo aŋ nöbö
4       left forefinger (index finger)  igwo mɨlö
5       left thumb                      mamɨd
6       left wrist                      kagoƚ
7       left forearm                    mudun
8       left inside of elbow            raleb
9       left biceps                     ajɨp
10      left shoulder                   siduŋ
11      left collarbone                 agɨp
12      left hole above breastbone      mögan
13      right hole above breastbone     mögan
14      right collarbone                agɨp        
15      right shoulder                  siduŋ
16      right biceps                    ajɨp
17      right inside of elbow           raleb
18      right forearm                   mudun
19      right wrist                     kagoƚ
20      right thumb                     mamɨd
21      right forefinger (index finger) igwo mɨlö
22      right middle finger             igwo aŋ nöbö
23      right ring finger               igwo
24      right little finger             wañɨg nöbö

References

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

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0	absent	1650
1	present	44
?	Not known	436

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Map ⇫

Values ⇫

Name	Glottocode	Family	Macroarea	Contributor	Value	Source	Comment