Austronesian Numerals
Paul Li
Academia Sinica
Many Austronesian languages are endangered. An indigenous numeral
system is even more endangered than the other systems even if the language is
not itself endangered. The numeral system of a language is most susceptaible to
change and often replaced by that of a dominant language, for example, the
Japanese and Thai numerals having been replaced by Chinese. (Comrie 2005)
Numerals interact with the rest of grammar and may have unique
morphosyntactic rules. Yet numerals are often neglected or even completely
ignored in many grammars. A cursory examination of some some Austronesian
grammars shows that numerals are not carefully described or mentioned at all.
This is a general survey of cardinal numerals in Austronesian languages.
I shall start with Formosan languages, with which I am most familiar, and then
touch on extra-Formosan languages when information is available to me. An
examination of the word-formation of Formosan numerals reveals some
interesting morphological features. I shall also discuss some syntactic problems
relating to the numerals.
Most Formosan languages distinguish between human and nonhuman
numerals, and such a distinction is reconstructible for PAN. It is made not
only in cardinal numerals, but also for the terms that have to do with number,
such as 'how many/much', 'many/much' and even 'few/little'. Some Formosan
languages have the third set of numerals as used in counting, different from
both human and nonhuman numerals.
Most Formosan languages keep the decimal system although a few
numerals may have been modified in some of the languages. Pazih is the only
language that has nearly a quinary system. Thus either ‘5’ or ‘10’ constitutes
the smallest recurrent base number, as in most other Austronesian languages.
A numeral may be derived from another numeral stem by addition, subtraction
or multiplication, and some of them are unique to Formosan languages.
A numeral may function either as a noun or verb, depending on its
syntactic position. A numeral may appear in the simple form or derived form.
References
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