Cover not available
Part of
Number – Constructions and Semantics: Case studies from Africa, Amazonia, India and Oceania
Edited by Anne Storch and Gerrit J. Dimmendaal
[Studies in Language Companion Series 151] 2014
► pp. 329–354

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.
Published online: 19 March 2014
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.151.13vri
References (28)
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 Unpublished survey and language learning notes by missionary Baas.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.Google Scholar
Boelaars, Jan. 1970. Mandobo’s tussen de Digoel en de Kao . Assen: Van Gorcum.Google Scholar
Drabbe, Petrus.1950. Twee dialecten van de Awju-taal. Bijdragen tot de Taal , Land en Volkenkunde 106: 93 147.Google Scholar
. 1957. Spraakkunst van het Aghu-dialect van de Awju-taal . The Hague: Nijhoff. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 1959. Kaeti en Wambon. Twee Awju-dialecten . The Hague: Nijhoff.Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar
Galis, Klaas Wilhelm. 1960. Telsystemen in Nederlands-Nieuw-Guinea. Nieuw-Guinea Studiën 4(2):131–50.Google Scholar
Groen, Jaap P.D. 1983. Zijn leven. In Een open plek in het oerwoud , Tjerk de Vries (ed.). Groningen: Uitgeverij De Vuurbaak.Google Scholar
Hughes, Jock. 2009. Upper Digul Survey . Dallas: SIL International.Google Scholar
Jang, Hong-Tae. 2003. Survey Report on Languages of Southeastern Foothills in Papua Merauke Regency of Papua, Indonesia . Dallas TX: SIL International.Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar
de Vries, Lourens. 1989. Studies in Wambon and Kombai. Aspects of two Papuan Languages of Irian Jaya. PhD dissertation, University of Amsterdam.
. 1993. Forms and Functions in Kombai. An Awyulanguage of Irian Jaya [Pacific Linguistics, Series B, no. 108]. Canberra: Australian National University.Google Scholar
. 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.
. 1998. Body-part counting and Bible translation in New Guinea. The Bible Translator 49(4): 409–415.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2004. A Short Grammar of Inanwatan. An Endangered Language of the Bird’s Head of Papua, Indonesia . Canberra: A.N.U.Google Scholar
. 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.Google Scholar
Wells, Margaret. 1979. Siroi Grammar [Pacific Linguistics, Series B, no.51]. Canberra: ANU.Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

de Vries, Lourens
2018. Chapter 10. The linguist as a demon and as a human. In Word Hunters [Studies in Language Companion Series, 194], ► pp. 139 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 24 july 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.