Language name and location: Bouni, Papua New Guinea [Refer toː Ethnologue]

语言名称和分布地区: 博乌尼语 (苏莫语 Sumo), 巴布亚新几内亚桑道恩省苏莫村

1. aɾuta ('one')

2. peipin ('two')

3. peipin aɾu ('two (plus) one')

4. peipin peipin ('two (plus) two')

5. peipin peipin aɾu ('two (plus) two (plus) one')

6. peipin peipin peipin ('two (plus) two (plus) two')

7. peipin peipin peipin aɾu ('two (plus) two (plus) two (plus) one')

8. peipin peipin peipin peipin ('two (plus) two (plus) two (plus) two')

9. peipin aɾu peipin aɾu peipin aɾu ('two (plus) one two (plus) one two (plus) one')

10. peipin peipin aɾu peipin peipin aɾu

     ('two (plus) two (plus) two (plus) two (plus) two')

Linguist providing data and dateː Mr. Ray Stegeman, SIL International, Papua New Guinea and native speakers: Sebby Nugia & Lington Kubin. November 16, 2022.

提供资料的语言学家: Mr. Ray Stegeman, 2022 年 11 月 16 日.

Other comments: Bouni or Sumo is spoken by approximately a few hundreds speakers in Sumo village; south of Sera coast, West Aitape Rural LLG, Sandaun province, Papua New Guinea. The Bouni language only has two numbers ('one' and 'two') and uses a mathematical system for combining them to add up to other numbers. Of course, this system gets unwieldy quickly, so Tok Pisin or English numbers are usually used to refer to numbers over 10. It's interesting to note they say 10 by saying '2, 2, 1, 2, 2, 1' = 'two fives' instead of saying '2, 2, 2, 2, 2' = 'five twos'. They also preference counting by 3s for the number 9 by saying '2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1' = 'three threes' (but not for 6).