Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Link to Austronesian Numbers Worksheet

I' ve posted the current version of my worksheet on the web at:
http://coconutstudio.com/Austro%20Nos%20Mar2008%2011-3.xls

So far, I've listed some 1600 number systems in both Austronesian and Papuan languages, and analysed them as best I can, with a code system that reduces a mass of information to a manageable size.

Examples:
Maisin 6 = faketi tarosi taure sese which means 'hand over 1' is coded 5\1 because faketi tarosi is 5, the \ stands for a regular 'connector' and sese means 1.

Arifama-Miniafia, another An language close by, has 6 = umat roun ta'imon where 5 = umat roun , so that's coded 51 because there is no 'connector'.

Another dialect of Arifama has 6= uma ti reban taimo nomon, 5 = uma ti morob, and 5 isn't repeated exactly in 6, while uma means hand, so this is coded H\1 (or should have been, but I made a typing error here) .

The coding has made it much easier to visualise connections between number-types in various language sub-groups (and whether they match up or not) and their distribution over larger areas.

This informaion (when I've worked out how to use Photo-Shop) will be transferred to geographical maps, making the picture a whole lot clearer.