Language name and locationː Matsés, Peru, Brazil [Refer to Ethnologue]

语言名称和分布地区: 马策斯语, 秘鲁, 巴西

1. a'bentsɨk    ( litː 'alone' )

2. daid           ( litː 'to increase in number' )

3. a'bentsɨk tʃo  ( litː 'one more comes(?)', 'has one more' ?)

4. daid daid     ( litː 'two plus two ? )

5. mɨ'dante auk a'bentsɨk  (litː 'as many as on one hand' )

6. mɨ'dante u'tsiuk be'danek  ( litː 'starting on the other hand' )

Linguist providing data and dateː Dr. David W. Fleck, 15 September, 2008.

La Trobe University, Australia.

提供资料的语言学家: Dr. David W. Fleck, 2008 年 10 月 16 日

Other comments: The Matses language has very few true numerals.  The only two words that could be considered basic numerals are abentsëk ‘one’ and daëd ‘two.’ 

But even these are polysemous forms, meaning also ‘alone’ and ‘increase in number,’ respectively.  The term for ‘three’ is not semantically transparent (and is morpho-syntactically a verb phrase), and the meaning ‘four’ is not exactly predictable from

the reduplication of daëd (Table 7.9).  So these could be said to be lexicalized

phrases.  All other terms for talking about numbers are complex, semantically transparent, and subject to high socio-linguistic variation, showing no signs of lexicalization.  In modern times, the Peruvian Matses have adopted the Spanish

number system, using the Matses terms abentsëk and daëd interchangeably with

the corresponding borrowed Spanish terms in conversation, but only Spanish terms

for counting or doing mathematics (e.g., in school).  The other Matses number terms

in above Table are now only used occasionally by older speakers.

Note that the traditional phonetic symbolsː < ë > = IPA [i].

Language name and locationː Matsés, Peru, Brazil [Refer to Ethnologue]

语言名称和分布地区: 马策斯语, 秘鲁, 巴西

1. abentsëc   

2. daëd     

3. daëd abentsëc / abetsëc choec

4. daëd daëd 

5. mëdante auc abentsëc tedi

Linguist providing data and dateː Ms. Hattie Kneeland , 11 January, 1996.

Summer Institute of Linguistics, Peru

提供资料的语言学家: Dr. Ms. Hattie Kneeland, 1996 年 1 月 11 日

Other comments: When there are no schools, the numbers of the systems are not fixed absolutes. One could be one or two. There could be many ( daëdpen ='' not two'')

But the trend of the young people is to use Spanish numbers.