From: Harald Hammarström
Message: 34216
Date: 2004-09-19
> > Two basic types:What? Yukaghir ternary?? Do you have a source for this? Kolyma or Tundra?
> > A: Direct (transparent) semantic motivation (most often body parts,
> > sometimes pronominal, verbal or dif. origin)
> > B: Transparent application of arithmetic operations (sum, substraction,
> > multiplication, etc.)
> > C: Combination of A & B, often analysable only when using etymological
> > approach
> >
> > And, just as any part of lexicon, sometimes, numerals were and are
> borrowed,
> > of course.
>
> And I should add one more thing: as for numerical systems (ad B, mainly), I
> have encountered the following, so far:
>
> 1. Binary (e.g. Jawony, the Gunwinyguan family of Australian macro-phylum)
> (i.e. 1, 2, 2+1, 2+2, 2+2+1, ...)
> 2. Organized in pairs (e.g. Old Japanese: 1/2 fitö/futa, 3/6 mi/mu, 4/8
> yö/ya, 5/10 i-tu/töwo; Nama of the Khoi-San m-p.: /gui & /gaw "1" & "2",
> etc.)
> 3. Ternary (e.g. Yukaghir: 1,2,3,3+1,...,3+3,...)
> 4. Qaternary (e.g. Chumash of Santa Barbara: 1, 2, 3, 4, 4&1, 4&2, 4&3,In what sense do you mean the ternary system was also used?
> 8...)
> 5. Quinary (e.g. Sumerian, where the ternary system was also used, etc.)