Chapter 13. Numerals in Papuan languages of the Greater Awyu family
Numeral systems of the Greater Awyu family of Papuan languages are the topic of this paper. Extended body-part systems that employ the fingers, parts of the arm and head are used by most languages in this family. Body-part based numeral systems of this type are only found in parts of New Guinea and Australia and are therefore of great interest for the typology of numeral systems. They are closed systems, with 23, 25 or 27 as highest number in the languages of the Greater Awyu family. They are also interesting because of the role of conventional gestures to distinguish the primary body-part meaning from the secondary numeral meaning. The extended body-part systems are used in combination withelementary numerals for 1 to 4 that are not derived from body-parts. One subgroup of the Greater Awyu family, the Awyu subgroup, uses a hands-and-feet system which they borrowed from their neighbours. Such systems differ radically from extended body-part systems: they distinguish base and derived numbers, they are in principle open-ended (without a highest number) and they are not restricted to New Guinea. The paper describes the cultural contexts in which thenumeral systems of the Greater Awyu family function and pays attention to the interaction with borrowed Indonesian numerals.
References
Baas, Peter
1981 Tsakwambo Taalstudie. Unpublished survey and language learning notes by missionary Baas.
van Baal, Jan
1984 The dialectics of sex in Marind-anim culture.
Ritualized Homosexuality in Melanesia
,
Gilbert Herdt (ed), 128–166. Berkeley CA: University of California Press.
Boelaars, Jan
1970
Mandobo’s tussen de Digoel en de Kao
. Assen: Van Gorcum.
Drabbe, Petrus
1950 Twee dialecten van de Awju-taal.
Bijdragen tot de Taal , Land en Volkenkunde
106: 93 147.
Drabbe, Petrus
1957
Spraakkunst van het Aghu-dialect van de Awju-taal
. The Hague: Nijhoff.
Drabbe, Petrus
1959.
Kaeti en Wambon. Twee Awju-dialecten
. The Hague: Nijhoff.
Van Enk, Gerrit J. & de Vries, Lourens
The Korowai of Irian Jaya. Their Language in its Cultural Context
. Oxford: OUP.
Franklin, Karl & Franklin, Joice
1961 The Kewa counting systems.
Workshop papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, New Guinea Branch,
11–15. Ukarumpa: SIL.
Galis, Klaas Wilhelm.
1960 Telsystemen in Nederlands-Nieuw-Guinea.
Nieuw-Guinea Studiën
4(2):131–50.
Groen, Jaap P.D.
1983 Zijn leven. In
Een open plek in het oerwoud
,
Tjerk de Vries (ed.). Groningen: Uitgeverij De Vuurbaak.
Hughes, Jock
2009
Upper Digul Survey
. Dallas: SIL International.
Jang, Hong-Tae.
2003
Survey Report on Languages of Southeastern Foothills in Papua Merauke Regency of Papua, Indonesia
. Dallas TX: SIL International.
Jang, Hong-Tae.
2008
Morphology and Syntax of Wambon. A Grammar Sketch. First Draft
. SIL International Indonesia Branch.
Laycock, Don C.
1975 Observations on number systems and semantics. In
New Guinea Area Languages and Language Study,
Vol.1:
Papuan languages and the New Guinea Linguistic Scene
[Pacific Linguistics Series C., no. 38],
Stephen Wurm (ed.), 219–233. Canberra: Australian National University.
Lean, Glendon
1992 Counting Systems of Papua New Guinea and Oceania. PhD thesis, University of Technology, Papua New Guinea.
Schoorl, Johan W.
1957
Kultuur en kultuurveranderingen in het Muju-gebied
. Den Haag: Voorhoeve.
Stasch, Rupert
2001 Figures of Alterity among Korowai of Irian Jaya: Kinship, Mourning and Festivity in a Dispersed Society. PhD dissertation, University of Chicago.
Venema, Henk
1990 Sagogrub festival.
Irian, Bulletin of IrianJaya
XVII: 38–63.
Voorhoeve, Clemens L.
1971 Miscellaneous notes on languages in West Irian, New Guinea. In
Papers in New Guinea Linguistics
14,
Thomas Dutton et al.. (eds), 47–114. Canberra: ANU.
de Vries, Lourens
1989 Studies in Wambon and Kombai. Aspects of two Papuan Languages of Irian Jaya. PhD dissertation, University of Amsterdam.
de Vries, Lourens
1993
Forms and Functions in Kombai. An Awyulanguage of Irian Jaya
[Pacific Linguistics, Series B, no. 108]. Canberra: Australian National University.
de Vries, Lourens
1995 Numeral systems of the Awyu language family of Irian Jaya.
Journal of the Royal Institute of Linguistics and Anthropology
BKI 150–III: 540–567.
de Vries, Lourens
1998 Body-part counting and Bible translation in New Guinea.
The Bible Translator
49(4): 409–415.
de Vries, Lourens
2004
A Short Grammar of Inanwatan. An Endangered Language of the Bird’s Head of Papua, Indonesia
. Canberra: A.N.U.
de Vries, Lourens
2012 Some notes on the Tsaukambo language of West Papua. To appear In
Language and Linguistics in Melanesia
.
de Vries, Lourens, Wester, Ruth & van den Heuvel, Wilco
2012 The Greater Awyu family of West Papua. Paper presented at the International Conference on the History and Classification of Papuan languages, VU University, Amsterdam,
January 2012 To appear In
Language and Linguistics in Melanesia
.
de Vries, Lourens & Wiersma, Robinia
1992
The Morphology of Wambon of the Irian Jaya Upper-Digul area
[Verhandeling 151 van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal , Land en Volkenkunde]. Leiden: KITLV Press.
Wells, Margaret
1979
Siroi Grammar
[Pacific Linguistics, Series B, no.51]. Canberra: ANU.
Cited by
Cited by 1 other publications
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 19 march 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.