Numeral Systems of World’s languages (世界诸语言的计数系统 )
Chan, Eugene S. L. （陈西林 e-mail: euslchan@yahoo.com
March 2nd , 2017, Department of Linguistics, School of Humanity, University of Hong Kong
香港大学人文学院语言学系
* Abstract:
* The existing 7,000 or so languages in the world are a common cultural treasure of humanity. Yet, it is predicted that only half of the world's languages will survive in the next century. Urgent actions to rescue and document endangered languages have been undertaken by some countries in recent years. The surviving thousands of the world's ethnic groups use a variety of different numeral systems: duodecimal systems, decimal systems, quinary systems (based on five), quaternary systems, binary systems, incomplete decimal systems, mixed systems, body-part tally systems and so on. Certain South American indigenous languages even only distinguish one and many, and a few languages without numerals. These fascinating phenomena, like a kaleidoscope, reflect the diversity and different development steps of human counting concepts.
* In this talk I shall introduce my on-going project to document the numeral systems of the world’s languages and their genetic classification, phonological systems, and counting concepts. In the last thirty years I have recorded and analyzed the numeral systems of the world's languages, and so far have successfully collected data on the basic numeral systems of around 4,800 languages. Most of the data were kindly provided by linguists, anthropologists, and other scholars working in their respective fields. The majority of the data are recorded in standard IPA symbols or phonemic transcriptions. These Numeral Systems of the World's Languages research is made accessible at the website entitled Numeral Systems of the World's Languages:
https://lingweb.eva.mpg.de/channumerals/
* As the traditional numeral systems of small languages have been rapidly replaced by those of dominant languages, it is an urgent task to document these important linguistic data before they are completely forgotten. However, more complete data for the remaining 3,000 or so languages are not yet available, so we need further generous support from fellow linguists.
Keywords:
Keyword 1: Decimal systems
Keyword 2. Incomplete decimal systems
Keyword 3: Decimal systems with heavy loans
Keyword 4: Duodecimal systems
Keyword 5: Quinary systems
Keyword 6: Vigesimal systems using hands, feet and persons
Keyword 7: Quaternary systems
Keyword 8: Binary systems
Keyword 9: Tally systems
Keyword 10: Few words to express numbers
Keyword 11: No numerals
香港大学人文学院语言学系
研讨会系列
Documentation of Numeral Systems of the World’s Languages
全球七千种语言计数系统及计数概念的记录和濒危语言文献资料保存：
演讲者：陈西林（Eugene S.L. Chan）
2017年3月2日下午4点至6点
香港大学百週年校园，逸夫楼9楼4.04室
摘要：
根据语言学家预测：下一世纪，现存7,105语种的一半即将消失。世界上现在还在使用的大约7,105种语言是全人类的一个共同文化宝库。
由于那些使用人口很少的小语种的传统计算方法正在快速地被优势语种的计算方法所取代，所以这是一项紧迫的任务，要在这些重要的语言学资料被完全遗忘之前，把它们记录下来。 这些包括全人类目前使用的各种各样计数系统：十二进制、十进制、六进制、五进制、四进制、二进制、不完全十进制、混合型计数法、用身体部位标记数目等等。某种南美土著语言仅能辨别“一”和“许多”这两个字 ，在巴西和秘鲁的亚马逊流域地区有几种土著语言甚至没有计数的概念，这些有趣的奇特现象，就像一个万花筒，反映了人类在计数概念的多样性和不同的发展阶段。
在这个演讲中，我将会介绍我进行中的记录全世界语言的计数系统计划（包括谱系分类，语音系统及计数概念），在这30年内我曾经与分布全球160多个国家的3,000多位大部分有博士学位的语言学家和人类学家建立联系和交流。从2006年6月至2015年5月9年间，我与德国莱比锡市（Leipzig）马克斯·普朗克进化人类学研究所的语言学系（Department of Linguistics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology ）进行合作并负责全球语言的计数系统及计数概念记录项目，目前继续与该研究所，位于德国耶拿的人类历史科学院的语言与文化进化学系合作，主持这个研究项目。
我在过去的三十多年对全球几千多种语言的计数系统进行记录和分析，迄今已成功收集了近4,800个语种的基本的计数系统和有关资料。这些资料大部分都是由全世界各领域的语言学家、人类学家、传教士语言工作者和其他热心人士所提供。目前该资料库正在建设阶段中，可参考网址https://lingweb.eva.mpg.de/channumerals/
From: Dr. Sing
Sing
Sent: Monday, 10 July 2023 1:05 pm
To: Eugene Chan
Subject: Re: Numeral Systems of World's Languages
Dear Eugene,
Thank you very much for your email. Many congratulations for your work, which I'm sure has been appreciated by your colleagues. I'm not based in Hong Kong and currently I'm working in the academia (though affiliated), so I'm afraid that I can't be of much help in the matter. It would be better if you write directly to the person-in-charge at the department you'd like to give a talk in, detailing your research project and topic for your talk.
Good luck!
Best wishes,
Dr. Sing Sing
From: Moro, F.R. [mailto:f.moro@let.ru.nl]
Sent: 2015年3月7日
1:57
To: Eugene Chan
Subject: RE: Numeral Systems of World's languages ( Indonesia, Sulawesi)
Dear Eugene,
Congratulations for the website, I would like to help you but unfortunately my knowledge about Sulawesi languages is limited to Dampelas.
Probably Nikolaus Himmelman and his students know more than I do.
You can write also to Marian Klamer (M.A.F.Klamer@hum.leidenuniv.nl) who is an expert of Austronesian and Papuan languages of East Indonesia.
Good luck!
Dr. Francesca Moro
From: Zygmunt Frajzyngier
Sent: Monday, 21 October, 2013 12:02
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: Re: Numeral systems of Chadic languages
Dear Eugene,
Congratulations on the progress you make!
I work on the Mac, but some of my students work on PC.
With my best wishes,
Zygmunt
-- Zygmunt Frajzyngier
Professor
Dept. of Linguistics, Box 295
University of Colorado,
Boulder, CO 80309
USA
Phone: 303-492-69
Fax: 303-492-4416
http://spot.colorado.edu/~frajzyng/
From: camargo@vjf.cnrs.fr [mailto:camargo@vjf.cnrs.fr]
Sent: 2011年11月30日 21:52 To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: RE: Numeral systems of World's languages ( Brazil )
Eugene you have all system in cashinahua, based on one up to four.
They use the Spanish or better our western numeral system.
I asked to Nathalia to check the numeral system in Sharanahua and
Mastanahua but she did not return to field. I looked at you site: very good job. Congratulations.
Dr. Eliane Camargo
From: 王士元教授 William S-Y Wang [mailto:wsywang@ee.cuhk.edu.hk]
Sent: Friday, 5 November, 2010 6:34, To: Eugene S. L. Chan, Cc: William S-Y. Wang; Gang Peng;
Subject: Re: Congratulations!
Dear Eugene,
welcome back to HK! hope your visit to SOAS was fruitful. our group meets regularly on Wednesday afternoons, coordinated by dr. PENG gang. perhaps you would be interested in giving a brief talk about your work on numerals?
best wishes, shiyuan
From: Dr.
Francoise Rose [mailto:Francoise.Rose@univ-lyon2.fr]
Sent: Monday, 5 January, 2009 21:48
To: 'Eugene S. L. Chan'
Subject: RE: Numeral systems of indigenous languages ( Emerillon
)
Same for you. Have a great year !
Congratulations for the web site and the amount of data available !!!
Best,
Françoise
From: Dr. Angelika Jakobi
Sent: Saturday, June 21, 2008 2:16 AM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: Re: Numerals
Dear Eugene,
Greetings from Bayreuth! I am so sorry for not having responded to your previous emails. I had so much work to do - please forgive me. Your website looks really nice. I congratulate you for persistence over all the past years in which you collected all these data. I haven't yet introduced it to other people though but I will do so in the next days.
With my very best wishes,
Angelika
--
Dr. Angelika Jakobi
Tel. 0921/65865
From: Prof. Grover Hudson
Sent: Monday, November 03, 2008 12:14 PM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: Re: Cushitic languages
Dear Eugene,
Looking at your website, I see 'Sebat Bet Gurage' as Ethiopian Semitic, exemplified by Chaha.
I'm doubtful that Chaha can be well referred to as equal to 'Sebat Bet Gurage'. Listing Chaha, as you
list Inor and Mesqan, would seem correct to me. I can see that the website is a wonderful and
fruitful resource.
Best wishes.
Grover
Prof. Grover Hudson, Michigan State University, USA
From: Dr. John Bendor-Samuel,
Director of SIL-UK
Sent: Friday, October 31, 2008 8:06 PM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: Numeral systems of Izi and Central Gur languages
Dear Eugene,
Greetings and thanks for your last e-mail. I've been looking on the web and congratulate you
for the progress you've made in this important project.
With all good wishes for your project, as you continue with it,
Yours sincerely,
John Bendor-Samuel
Director of SIL-UK and President of Wycliffe Bible Translators International.
From:
Mr. Dave Moody SIL-Malaysia, SIL International
Sent: Saturday, October 18, 2008 4:50 PM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: Re: Numeral systems of Austronesian languages ( Malaysia
)
Dear Eugene,
Thank you for your note and CONGRATULATIONS on this landmark of getting your work on the internet. It is a grand accomplishment.
Sincerely,
Dave
From:
Prof. David Crystal
Sent: Monday, October 06,
2008 6:27 AM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: Re: Numeral
systems of World's languages
Thanks for your message, Eugene. You have a fantastic resource there. I think the best thing to do, regarding contacts in Hong Kong, is write to Nicholas Ostler at the Foundation for Endangered Languages. He is likely to know who is working in this area in HK. @chibcha.demon.co.uk
With good wishes
David
Professor David Crystal
www.davidcrystal.com
著有《剑桥语言百科全书》的英国语言学家戴维·克里斯特尔博士
From:
Dr. Marie-Claude Simeone-Senelle, CRNR, Paris, France,
Sent: Monday, September 15, 2008 7:16 PM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: RE: Dahaalik Numbers
Dear Eugene,
Thank you for your message. I access your site and I want to congratulate you
As for the classification of Tigre, Tigrinya and Dahalik ... under "Ethiopian"
, let me express my disagreement once again. As I said to you in a previous
message this label is inadequate and problematic. Afro-Semitic is a suggestion
adopted by some linguists.
Very cordially
With my best wishes
Marie-Claude
From: Dr. Tiffany L. Kershner
Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2008 4:35 AM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: Re: Chisukwa numeral system
Dear Eugene,
I really enjoy your website. You have done a lot of great work. I am very impressed.
Thank you for the update on your project.
Best wishes,
Tiffany
Dr. Tiffany L. Kershner
Assistant Professor of Linguistic Anthropology, Kansas State University
From: Dr. Ken Vanbik , University of Berkeley, USA
Sent: Saturday, September 06, 2008 2:55 AM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: RE: Chin and small languages in Myanmar
Great site and data, Eugene.
Keep up the good work.
Ken
From: Dr, Jim Roberts
On Behalf Of
Director SIL-America area
Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2008 10:45 PM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: RE: Numeral systems of Indigenous languages in the Americas
Yes, I can see the
site. This represents a lot of work. Congratulations on getting this
valuable information compiled.
Jim Roberts
From:
Dr. Rod Casali, SIL International
Sent: Thursday, August 07, 2008 1:05 AM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Cc: Myles Leitch
Subject: Re: Babole and Languages in Congo
Dear Eugene,
Greetings, I'm glad to hear that your project is coming along so well. That's a very impressive number of languages!
I wish you continued good success with your numeral project. I think this is a very valuable study.
Best,
Rod
From:
Dr. John Bendor Samuel, SI International
Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2008 11:34 PM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: RE: Numeral systems of Izi and Central Gur languages
Thanks, Eugene, Your
website comes up clearly. Congratulations.
Best wishes,
John
From:
Mr. Herold Rajan.
Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2008 9:45 PM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: Re: Numeral systems of Dravidian languages / Updated
classification on Dravidian languages
Dear Eugene,
I went through the website and first of all congratulation.
Shalom
Herold Rajan
From: Dr. Hein van der Voort
Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2008 2:24 AM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: Re: Numeral systems of Native American Languages
Dear Eugene,
Thanks for your message. I certainly remember you, and your request for information about numeral systems.
Please do send me your Kwaza text and I will check it again thoroughly. Congratulations with your cooperation
with Prof. Comrie! Leipzig is a great place to do linguistics. I had a look at your website and I like
the set-up. In case there is anything else I can help you with, don't hesitate to contact me. Best regards,
Hein
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
From: Prof. Michael Noonan
Sent: Sunday, July 27, 2008 12:14 AM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: Re: Greetings from Hong Kong!
It's a very impressive site!
Michael Noonan
Dept. of English, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI 53201, USA
From:
Prof. Byron W. Bender
Sent: Saturday, July 26, 2008 8:16 AM
To: 'Eugene S. L. Chan'
Subject: RE: Greetings from Hong Kong!
Eugene
Good to hear from you. Congratulations on your most unique website. Keep up the good work.
Byron
Byron W. Bender, Emeritus Professor
Department of Linguistics, 1890 East-West Rd.
Honolulu, HI 96822-1823
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~bender/
From: Dr. Oliver Stegen, SIL International
Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2008 5:38 PM
To: 'Eugene S. L. Chan'
Subject: Rangi numerals
Dear Eugene,
I've received several messages from you. Please excuse my slow response.
Unfortunately, I am not always able to access the internet, and when I am,
it is often too slow. Just today, I was able to have a look at your updated
numerals website. Quite impressive!
Best wishes,
Oliver Stegen
-----Original Message-----
From: Dr. Jason Kandybowicz
Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2008 6:38 AM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: Re: Nupe language
Hi Eugene,
The site looks great and there is a spectacular array of data! Very impressive!
Thanks for letting me know.
Best wishes,
Jason
From:
Prof. Lee Bickmore
Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2008 12:34 AM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: Re: Languages in Namibia and Zambia
Eugene,
Pages look great. Very interesting project. Yes, I should be able to give you the Namwanga and Cilungu numbers later in the fall semester when my consultant arrives.
lee
Lee S. Bickmore , Associate Professor, University at Albany. USA
From:
Prof. Dave Odden
Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 10:52 PM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: Tanzanian languages
Hi Eugene,
Yep, I don't find any access problems. It's actually kind of impressive how straightforward access is.
Best,
Dave O
From:
Dr. Karl Anderbeck
Sent: Saturday, July 19, 2008 1:01 AM
To: 'Eugene S. L. Chan'
Subject: RE: Numeral systems of Austronesian languages
Greetings,
I was able to find the files, thank you for the instructions. I haven’t looked at all of it, but particularly at the Sumatra pages with which I am most familiar. It is an impressive collection!
I notice you haven’t entered the Komering data on there yet. Any problems?
Take care,
Karl
From: Prof. Vaishna Narang
Sent: Saturday, July 26, 2008 9:15 PM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: RE: Nicobarese and Andaman languages
Dear Eugene
Please accept heartiest graduations on this achievement. It is a pleasure going through your work. I am sure it was hard work and sheer determination that you have this volume of data.
With my best regards
Vaishna
Professor of Linguistics, Centre for Linguistics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi - 110 067 INDIA
From:
Dr. Simon Leblanc
Sent: Friday, July 25, 2008 2:20 AM
To: 'Eugene S. L. Chan'
Subject: RE: Numeral systems of languages in Congo
Dear Dr. Chan,
Yes, thank you! J The website will certainly be very useful. And whenever we will have an opportunity, we will send you additional data.
Simon
From:
Prof. David Appleyard, University of London, UK
Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2008 4:43 PM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: Re: Agaw languages and languages in the Horn of Africa
Dear Eugene,
Yes, many thanks, it's all quite clear. Thank you too for your earlier e-mail. I am at present on holiday and so have not had occasion to check e-mails regularly.
Best wishes - and congratulations on such a comprehensive website.
David
From:
Dr. George Mrikaria
Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2008 2:26 PM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: RE: Kimochi numeral system / languages in Tanzania
Dear Eugene,
Thanks for your e-mail. It is great that there is a great collection of numeral
system of so many languages. I will spread to others the website address so that
if anyone interested can contact you to give any information if he/she has.
Congratulations for a great job you did.
G. Mrikaria,
University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
From:
Dr. John Clifton, SIL International
Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 8:11 PM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: Re: Caucasian, Altaic and Uralic Languages
Hi Eugene,
Yes, it is clear on my computer. Congratulations!
John
From:
Dr.
Wal, G.J. van der, Leiden University, the Netherlands
Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2008 2:35 PM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: RE: Makhua numeral system
Congratulations on having all of it online! I am sorry, but I haven't got anything more. Will ask if I go again.
Best,
Jenneke
-----Original Message-----
From: Dr. Joseph Atoyebi, MPI, Leipzig, H\Germany
Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2008 12:12 AM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: Re: Counting systems of Edo and languages in Nigeria
Hello Eugene,
Great job! Congratulations! You have done very well.
I have a few update too regarding my on-going work on Oko numerals (see attachment).
Have a great day.
Joe
From:
Mr & Mr. Roberto & Nancy Weber, SIL International
Sent: Saturday, July 19, 2008 5:28 AM
To: Chan Eugene
Subject: Greetings from Hong Kong!
Greetings from Rapa Nui, Eugene.
We have just received, by forwarded mail, the note you sent on July 4.
Congratulations on the great amount of data on numeral systems that you have gathered and organized. We will have a look, soon, at the Rapa Nui data uploaded to your web site, to see if there are any adjustments needing to be made to what we provided ten years ago.
All the best,
Bob Weber
PROGRAMA LENGUA RAPA NUI - RAPA NUI
LANGUAGE PROJECT
Rapa Nui / Isla de Pascua / Easter Island, Chile
- Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso:
http://www.ucv.cl
From:
Prof. Ekkehard Wolff
Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 10:44 PM
To: 'Eugene S. L. Chan'
Subject: AW: Numeral systems of Chadic languages
Dear Eugene,
I've just taken the opportunity to play around with your numeral data base - very nice and highly interesting, compliment once again to you for tremendous work.
Keep well, all best wishes,
Ekkehard
Prof. Dr.
H. Ekkehard Wolff ,
Institut für Afrikanistik,
Universität Leipzig,
Beethovenstr. 15
D-04107 Leipzig / Germany
From:
Dr. Olga Kazakevich, Russia
Sent: Wednesday, July 09, 2008 1:05 AM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: Re: Contact fellow linguists
Dear Eugene,
thank you for mailing. I am leaving for an expedition in a couple of days.
I visited your site. It is quite alive, congratulations!
All the best,
Olga Kazakevich
From: Professor William Gillies, UK
Sent: Tuesday, July 08, 2008 12:19 AM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: Re: Greetings from Hong Kong!
Dear Eugene
Many thanks for this, and congratulations on bringing it to its present
stage of completion. I will certainly draw it to the attention of some
of my students and colleagues.
Yours sincerely
William Gillies
From:
Dr.
Alex Francois, CNRS, Paris, France
Sent: Friday, June 27, 2008 11:52 PM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: Re: Greetings from Hong Kong!
Dear Eugene,
Thank you for your email. Congratulations for your website. This must have been
a huge work, but I can see it reflects the incredible amount of efforts you have
been putting in that whole project of yours.
Good luck for your future projects!
best wishes,
Alex.
From:
Mr. Karl Grebe
Sent: Friday, June 27, 2008 1:24 AM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: Re: Numeral systems of languages in Cameroon
Dear Eugene,
Congratulation on the good work you have done so far. As to more date from other languages in Cameroon, I cannot help you much as I am no longer in Cameroon. I am now stationed in Canada.
Best wishes,
Karl
***********************************
Karl Grebe
Translation Consultant, SIL-Cameroon
From:
Director Sudan
Sent: Friday, June 27, 2008 2:51 AM
To: 'Eugene S. L. Chan'
Subject: RE: Numeral systems of languages in Sudan
Dear Eugene,
Thank you for your message. Congratulations on the work that you are doing on the numeral systems of languages in Sudan.
Yours sincerely,
Elizabeth
______________
Elizabeth Newport
Director, Sudan Branch, SIL International
From:
Dr. Graziano Sava
Sent: Wednesday, June 25, 2008 12:15 AM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: RE: Languages in Ethiopia
Dear
Eugene,
I have visited the website. It looks fine to me.
Congratulations,
Graziano
Dr. Graziano Savà - Università degli Studi di Napoli "L'Orientale", Italy
(PhD in African Languages and Cultures, Leiden University, The Netherlands)
From:
Dr.
Marie-Claude Simeone-Senelle, CNRS, Paris, France
Sent: Saturday, June 21, 2008 8:59 PM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: RE: Dahaalik Numbers
Thank you Eugene, and congratulations !
I just have a look on your very interesting website. I shall look at it with
more attention later.
I'll send my others comments concerning your website ASAP
With my best wishes
Cordially,
Marie-Claude
From:
Prof.
Wolfgang Schulze, Munich University, Germany
Sent: Saturday, June 21, 2008 3:55 PM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: Re: Greetings from Hong Kong
Dear Eugene,
many thanks for your kind mail and for having driven my attention to your
updated website! It looks really great! Congratulation! I guess I will refer to
it on multiple occasions.
Best wishes to you and enjoy summer!
Wolfgang
----------------------------------------------------------
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schulze
----------------------------------------------------------
-----Original Message-----
From: Dr. Antonia Soriente
Sent: Saturday, June 07, 2008 4:28 PM
To:
Cc:
Subject: numerals
Dear Eugene,
Thanks for your email and congratulations for your project. I have tried to view info about numerals in
Austronesian languages but without success. Let me know what to do in case I'd like to view them.I am
still involved in the study and documentation of Kenyah and Penan languages and indeed the numeral
systems are endangered since more and more the national language is used to express dates and
numbers. In naturalistic texts the use of Kenyah numbers occurs very seldom.
I wish all the best for this project.
My best regards,
Antonia
Antonia Soriente
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology , Jakarta Field Station,
Jakarta 12930, Indonesia
From:
Dr. Kirk R. Person SIL International
Sent: Thursday, May 22, 2008 5:16 PM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: Re: Mpi and Bisoid languages
Dear
Eugene:
Nice website! Congratulations!
Kirk
From:
Mr. Lee Hochstetler, SIL International
Sent: Friday, May 16, 2008 3:28 AM
To: 'Eugene S. L. Chan'
Subject: RE: Languages in Mali
Eugene,
I finally took a look at your website today. It’s wonderful! Very well indexed and easy to find my way around. I’m very impressed. Indexing the data sets by language families was very wise. Your color codings were helpful too.
I’m cheering you on!
Lee
From:
Dr. Robert Carlson, SIL International
Sent: Friday, May 16, 2008 12:32 AM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: RE: My website on numeral systems
Yes, Eugene. I have had a look at it. Very impressive.
Bob
From:
Dr.
John R. Watters, SIL International
Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2008 3:44 PM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Cc: J
Subject: Re: Congratulations!
Dear Eugene,
Thank you for your
greetings and congratulations.
I trust some day we
can meet, either in Hong Kong or Dallas.
God's blessings,
John
President, SIL International
From:
Dr. Rolf Theil, Norway
Sent: Saturday, May 10, 2008 2:55 AM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: Re:
您好！
Hello
again!
I’ll think over who among my colleagues I’ll contact.
Personally, I’m working on Nizaa (“Suga”; Bantoid), and the Omotic languages
Kafa, and Koorete, but I’m impressed to see that they are all represented on
your website. The forms from Kafa and Koorete lack tones, and I can supply them.
Have a nice weekend, you, too!
Rolf
From:
Dr. Amara Prasithrathsint , Thailand
Sent: Thursday, May 08, 2008 8:53 PM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: RE: hello!
Dear Eugene:
Thank you very much for informing me about your project. Your numeral
website is fantastic. Great!!! Congratulations!
Beat wishes,
Amara
From:
Dr.
Dick Watson, SIL International
Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2008 9:08 PM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: RE: Pacoh numerals
Dear Eugene,
Greetings from North
Carolina. The Pacoh page looks great!
Your site is looking
better and better, and it is very nice that your dream is being realized after
so many years of hard work and struggle.
Blessings, Dick
From:
Ms. Denise Bailey, SIL International
Sent: Sunday, May 04, 2008 8:43 PM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: Re: Iranian languages
Dear Eugene,
I looked at the site. Very nicely done and so interesting! Many congratulations for such fine work.
Kindly and best wishes to you,
Denise Bailey
From:
Dr. Bruce Hooley, SIL International
Sent: Thursday, April 24, 2008 6:47 PM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: Re: Central Buang numeral system
Dear Eugene
Thanks for that! Keep up the good work.
Sincerely
Bruce
From:
Miss MI HWA HAN, SIL International
Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2008 4:17 PM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: Re: Tai Daeng numeral system
Dear Dr. Eugene,
Thank you for your email. Congratulations on your work!
Hope I have time to visit!
Blessings,
Mi Hwa
From: Dr. Rogier Nieuweboer
Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2008 11:10 PM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: Numerals
Dear Eugene,
Congratulations - that is an incredible amount of information!
Best regards,
Rogier
From: Dr. Claus Peter Zoller, Norway
Sent: Monday, April 21, 2008 3:44 AM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: Re: Greetings from Hong Kong!
Dear Eugene,
Thanks very much for your Email, and especially for the link to your site with the numeral systems.
I am really impressed and I am sure that you have done a very valuable work. So it is actually you who
has to be thanked. I am very much looking forward to seeing the further development of your project and remain.
With best greetings
Claus Peter Zoller
From:
Ms. Bartee Ellen, SIL International
Sent: Monday, April 21, 2008 1:02 PM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: Re: numerals on Khams
Dear Eugene,
Yes, I did visit your website. Very impressive! I look forward to seeing
more Tibetan language data on your site.
Blessings,
Ellen
From:
Mr. David Captain, SIL International
Sent: Saturday, April 19, 2008 1:35 AM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: Re: Numeral systems of Indigenous languages in the Americas
Dear Eugene,
Thank you for your kind reply. The link to your website was very helpful. I was pleased to see that you had already posted the Wayuu data to your webpage. Again, congratulations on such a significant task that you are undertaking.
Sincerely,
David Captain
From: Dr. Mark Turin
Sent: Saturday, April 19, 2008 2:40 PM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: Re: numeral systems of Chintang and Puma
Thanks, Eugene, that's great! I am most impressed
Well done
all the best,
Mark
From:
Dr.
David Beine
Sent: Friday, April 18, 2008 11:26 PM
To: 'Eugene S. L. Chan'
Subject: Indigenous languages in North America
Hello Eugene:
The web site looks very impressive. Congratulations on such an impressive job. It will be a valuable resource for scholars.
Dave
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Dr. Dave Beine
Summer Session Director, Canada Institute of Linguistics
From:
Ms. Heike Andreas
Sent: Thursday, April 10, 2008 2:10 AM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: RE: Numeral systems of Chadic languages
Dear Eugene,
Thanks for your quick answer. I am impressed and I like your homepage. I just
looked through the first pages and then to the different languages quickly.
Thanks for displaying the Nyam numeral system there already. You work really
quick :-)
Kindest regards,
Heike
From:
Mr. Tim Stirtz
Sent: Friday, March 28, 2008 8:03 PM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: Re: Number data of 4 languages
Eugene,
Yes, Thomas has seen your website and was impressed.
Tim
From: Dr. Smita Sinha
Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 2:16 PM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: congrats
Hi,
What a great work. A big congrats for launching the website. I am really impressed. You have made a great
contribution to linguistics. All the best wishes for your future research.
Smita
From:
Ms. Andrea Suter, SIL International
Sent: Monday, February 11, 2008 4:00 AM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: Re: Languages in Burkina Faso
Dear Eugene
I finally had a chance to look at your web pages. I was delighted to find that you have done research in comparative Indo-European linguistics, Latin, Greek etc. I studied classical philology (ancient Greek and Latin) with some courses in comparative Indo-European linguistics, too.
As to your web sites: Congratulations to http://lingweb.eva.mpg.de/numeral/ I like the way it looks, it's neat. I like the colors of the background and fonts you use and the way you displayed the languages in their "genealogy" or family tree, nicely indented. This family tree feature embodies a lot of information in itself, which is nice. I wonder, though, whether you could incorporate some search option to access a particular language directly? At the moment, it seems to me that one has to know the history and families of a particular language, clicking through the levels, and therefore only linguists with this background knowledge can find a particular language. (There seems to be something like this in "Browse Data", but I could not figure out how to operate it) Also, although I set the encoding to UTF-8 but still had some ????s coming up. Not in the actual language data (this is displayed without problem), but usually in the commentaries like the following, eg.:
From:
Mr. bruno okoudowa
Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2008 3:31 AM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: RE: First answer from Gabon
Dear Eugene,
I really enjoy the sites. Mainly your home page.
Congratulations!!
Best regards
B.Ok.
From:
Ms. Riikka Halme, University of Helsinki, Finland
Sent: Tuesday, February 05, 2008 5:11 AM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: RE: Languages in Angola
Dear Eugene,
Looks good, congratulations!
Riikka
From:
ETB Linguistics Coordinator (Mr. Andreas Joswig), SIL International
Sent: Friday, February 01, 2008 8:51 PM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: Re: Numeral systems of languages in Ethiopia
Dear Eugene,
Thank you for sending the links. I just had a look and am quite impressed with
the wealth of data you have collected! Very nice! The way you have arranged
everything according to language families makes it easy to quickly find all
languages that one is interested in.
Thanks again,
Andreas Joswig
From:
Mr.
Don Lindholm, SIL International
Sent: Friday, February 01, 2008 10:10 AM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: RE: Languages in Nigeria
Dear Eugene,
Congratulations on the
progress you have made. I looked at the URS you gave. I don't have the back
ground to give you any useful technical comments.
Keep up the good work.
Don
From: Dr. Angelika Jakobi, University of Koln, Germany
Sent: Thursday, January 31, 2008 4:35 PM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: Re: Nilo-Saharan languages
Dear Eugene,
Congratulations! You did a fantastic job and I really admire your endurance during so many years of data collection!
I will send you a comment on the Zaghawa/Saharan list as soon as I can spare some time.
Best wishes and kind regards,
Angelika
--
Dr. Angelika Jakobi
From:
Dr.
Georges Mulumbwa
Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2008 7:03 AM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: RE : Languages in DR of the Congo
Dear Eugene,
Congratulations for the web site you are constructing. I appreciate your initiative, this will let many people know and appreciate the wonderful work you are doing.
I will try to send you soon some suggestions but my first impression is that the web site is well done.
Tomorrow, I will receive data Kalunga Marcel and Kabange have sent me. I need your postal address of Hong Kong to send them to you.
Have a nice day (night?),. Here it's precisely 0h00
Yours
Georges
From: Prof. Mary Esther Dakubu, University of Ghana, Ghana
Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2008 8:32 PM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: Re: Languages in Ghana
Dear Eugene
Congratulations. I have just spent an hour enjoying the Niger-Congo section. I am quite excited because I think it is going to help clarify. I hope it will be possible to call up a particular numeral in a selection of languages.
Best wishes
Mary Esther
From:
Dr. Evarista Osiruemu, Nigeria
Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2008 10:39 PM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: RE: Numeral systems of languages in Nigeria
Hello Eugene,
I've read your reply to my mail. That was quick, I must say. I also took a brief look at your website. Looks impressive. More later. Cheers.
Evarista.
From: Ms. Martin-Silke Sauer, SIL International
Sent: Friday, April 18, 2008 8:46 PM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: Re: Languages in Chad
As it happens I am in Cameroon right now, with good internet connections and
was able to look up your website. Quite impressive work, congratulations!
I'm glad I could contribute a tiny little bit,
Silke
From:
Mr. Sylvester Nkrumah, SIL International
Sent: Friday, April 18, 2008 3:42 AM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: Re: Paasaal numeral system and Languages in Ghana
Dear Eugene,
Thanks for continuing to update me on this project. It is impressive. I have found it very useful and I will download it and study it. You have reminded me of my days at the university when I was deep into linguistics and the history of language families. Thanks.
I do hope to get you the numerals in my language, Delo which is also a Gur language in the same group as Paasaal.
Once again, thanks
Sylvester.
From:
Mr. Howard Shelden, SIL International
Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2008 4:11 AM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: RE: Numeral systems of World's languages ( Halmahera )
Eugene,
I have just skimmed the
West Papuan portion of your website. It is impressive. I
Howard Shelden
From:
Dr. Joan Baart, SIL International
Sent: Thursday, January 31, 2008 8:41 PM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: Website
Dear Eugene,
This looks quite impressive already. And it is nice that the MPI is going to host your pages. I think many people will appreciate your work.
- At some point during the 1990s, the name of my organization changed to "SIL International". The name "Summer Institute of Linguistics" is still used in some contexts, but in general, where you are listing the affiliation of a linguist, then it will be more up-to-date to say "SIL International".
Anyway, you are doing an amazing work. May it continue to go well!
--Joan
From:
Dr. Ken Smith, SIL International
Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2008 11:34 PM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: Re: Numeral systems of Mon-Khmer languages
Dear Eugene,
Hi! I clicked on both references. And, of course, I migrated to Sedang and voila! there were the Sedang numerals. Congratulations!
Sincerely, Ken
30Jan08 CM
From:
Dr. David Dwyer
Sent: Thursday, January 31, 2008 1:21 PM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: RE: Website
Dear Eugene,
I took a look at the numeral page and I find it to be excellent. You
certainly have a lot of work ahead of you, but that shouldn't be a problem given
your very impressive CV.
Good luck with your project.
Peace,
David Dwyer
From: Dr. Andrei Filtchenko, Tomsk State Pedagogical University, Russia
Sent: Thursday, January 31, 2008 6:35 PM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: RE: Khanty languages
Dear Eugene,
Your site looks quite impressive, congratulations! It will be even more so once completed.
As for the Eastern Khanty data, it looks OK, If possible, I would appreciate if you could make links on your page from my name (Andrey Filchenko) to my own site
<http://www.policy.hu/filtchenko/Andrey%20Filchenko/index.htm>, and from my university name on your page (Tomsk State Pedagogical University) to
my department site <http://eng.tspu.edu.ru/siblang/>. Let me know, one you have completed the site so
I could also link to it from sites.
Thanks.
Best,
Andrey
From:
Prof. Larry M. Hyman
Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2007 8:43 AM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: Re: Numeral systems of Bantoid Languages
Eugene - Impressive to read your message.
Good luck with your work.
Best,
Larry
From:
Dr. Robert Carlson, SIL International
Sent: Friday, May 16, 2008 12:32 AM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: RE: My website on numeral systems
Yes, Eugene. I have had a look at it. Very impressive.
Bob
From:
Mr.
Don Lindholm, SIL International
Sent: Friday, February 01, 2008 10:10 AM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: RE: Languages in Nigeria
Dear Eugene,
Congratulations on the
progress you have made. I looked at the URS you gave. I don't have the back
ground to give you any useful technical comments.
Keep up the good work.
Don
From:
Dr. Martine
Vanhove, CNRS, Paris, France
Sent: Wednesday, May 16, 2007 9:37 PM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: Re: Afar numeral system
Dear Eugene,
Congratulations, I am eager to read the results.
As for Afar and Saho, there are no tones, so don't worry, but I am forwarding
your e-mail to my colleague, Marie-Claude Simeone-Senelle, who is much more
competent than I am to answer you for these languages.
All the best
Martine
From:
Mr. Steve Bagwell, SIL International
Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2007 3:45 PM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: RE: Greetings! Languages in Chad
Dear Eugene,
Congratulations on your work with Prof. Comrie.
Best wishes for your research,
Steve Bagwell
From:
Dr. Robert Hedinger, SIL International
Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2007 2:54 AM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: Re: Languages in Cameroun
Dear Eugene,
congratulations on your post in Leipzig.
Yes, I still remember helping to collect data on languages in Cameroon. I am still in Cameroon. I recently got another invitation for collecting data from you via our office in the capital.
Sincerely,
Robert
From: Dr. Tapani Tasalmin, University of Helsinki, Finland
Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2007 7:19 PM
To: Eugene S. L. Chan
Subject: Re: Uralic languages
Dear Eugene,
Thanks for your message. I remember you well, and if I'm not mistaken you agreed to call me Tapani.
This is great! Please accept my congratulations and
With best regards, Tapani