Language name and locationː Dano, Papua New Guinea [Refer to Ethnologue]

语言名称和分布地区: 达诺语, 巴布亚新几内亚东高地省戈罗卡地区

1. hamoʔ

2. setaʔ / sitaʔ

3. setohomoʔ (litː ''two + one'')

4. setaʔve setaʔve (litː ''two, it is two, it is '')

5. ade hela osuʔ livo (litː ''our-hand at-(one)-side being finished'')

6. ade hela osuʔ livo ade hela hamoʔ ivo

   (litː ''our-hand at-(one)-side being finished, our-hand at-(the other)-side one is'')

7. ade hela osuʔ livo ade hela setaʔ ivo

   (litː ''our-hand at-(one)-side being finished, our-hand at-(the other)-side two is'')

8. ade hela osuʔ livo ade hela setohomoʔ ivo

   (litː ''our-hand at-(one)-side being finished, our-hand at-(the other)-side three is'')

9. ade hela osuʔ livo ade hela setaʔve setaʔve ivo

   (litː ''our-hand at-(one)-side being finished, our-hand at-(the other)-side four is'')

10. ade hela hela osuʔ livo

   (litː ''our-hand at-(that)-side (and) at-(that)-side being finished'')

11.  ade hela osuʔ livo ade hela setaʔve setaʔve ivo ɡizede hela hamoʔ ivo

     (litː ''our-hand at-(that)-side (and) at-(that)-side being finished, our-foot at (one)
     -side one is'')

12.  ade hela osuʔ livo ade hela setaʔve setaʔve ivo ɡizede hela setaʔ ivo

     (litː ''our-hand at-(that)-side (and) at-(that)-side being finished, our-foot at (one)
     -side two is'')

13. ade hela osuʔ livo ade hela setaʔve setaʔve ivo ɡizede hela setohamoʔ ivo

     (litː ''our-hand at-(that)-side (and) at-(that)-side being finished, our-foot at (one)
     -side three is'')

     (litː ''our-hand at-(that)-side (and) at-(that)-side being finished, our-foot at (one)
     -side four is'')

     (litː ''our-hand at-(that)-side (and) at-(that)-side being finished, our-foot at (one)
     -side is finished'')

     (litː ''both our hands and one foot being being finished, our foot at-(the other)
     side one is'')

     (litː ''both our hands and one foot being being finished, our foot at-(the other)
     side one is'')

     (litː ''both our hands and one foot being being finished, our foot at-(the other)
     side three is'')

     (litː ''both our hands and one foot being being finished, our foot at-(the other)
     side four is'')

     (litː ''our-hand at-(that)-side at-(that)-side being finished, our foot at-(that)-side

      at-(that)-side is finished'')

Linguist providing data and dateː Mr. David Strange, Retired SIL International, July 16, 2009.

提供资料的语言学家: Mr. David Strange. 2009 年 7 月 16 日.

Other comments: Dano is spoken by approximately 30,000 speakers in Goroka district, Eastern Highlands province, Papua New Guinea. Dano is a tone language (as are Alekano and other PNG Highland languages), but tone carries a rather light semantic load with few pairs of words differing only by tone, so we do not write it. In 1960 when we began our work with the Dano people, they were already beginning to use English numbers (in or adapted from the forms found in either Pidgin English or in standard English) in preference to their own more cumbersome system, though they continued to use their own numbers up to and including four or five and probably are still doing that. So our knowledge of their own system for numbers higher than four/five probably comes more from elicited data than from naturally occurring data. However, even at that early date people could count in scores. They could say “one man’s hands and feet finished” for twenty or “two men’s hands and feet finished” for forty. Or they could substitute ‘pounds’ [£1 = 20 (shillings)] for men, so that in answer to a “how many” question, they might answer “two pound” meaning forty. Theoretically their system could be extended ad infinitum but in practice I can remember only one occasion when a man used it in conversation with me for a number greater than ten. He told me that he had had “our hand both sides finished and four on our foot at one side” (meaning fourteen) wives and he bent and took hold of the toe next to the big toe on one of his feet to demonstrate (Actually, I have sometimes seen younger people do this when speaking to older or more “uneducated” people of a number between five and twenty). I should say that counting starts from the little finger on one hand and progresses towards the thumb. Six is indicated by wrapping the fingers of one hand around the little finger of the other hand (I cannot remember if there is any specific preference about which hand, right or left, is used first). So when counting gets to the foot it starts from the little toe and proceeds towards the big toe.

  I must add that there can be minor variations in the wording for the more complex numbers in the table above. For example people might insert the verb ‘jump’ into the expression as in Ellis Deibler’s Alekano table, or they might say ”our hand on this side being finished, at our hand on that side one” with no verb connected with the “one”.