Language name and locationː Iquitu, Loreto region, Peru [Refer to Ethnologue]

语言名称和分布地区: 伊基托语, 秘鲁东北部洛雷托大区

1. núúkiika

2. kúúmí

3. sɨ́ɨ́sara maahɨɨtáámi   (litː 'bad brother')

Linguist providing data and dateː Mrs. Betty Eastman. Summer Institute of Linguistics, Peru, August 19, 1994. Mr. I-wen Lai, Student, Department of Linguistics, University of Texas at Austin, USA, eptember 9, 2008.

提供资料的语言学家: Mrs. Betty Eastman. 1994 年 8 月 19 日

Other comments: Iquitu or Iquito, Akenóiri is a nearly extinct language with 25 speakers left within 520 ethnic population in Loreto region: Atalaya and San Antonio on Chambira, Nanay, and Pintoyacu rivers, Peru.

Iquitu has a simple system. The above data was gathered in early 1960s. There were only two words for numbers with other few words for 'brothers', 'hands' and 'feet' for 3, 4, 5, 10, 15 and 20. When the researchers (Mr. & Mrs. Eastman) asked the native speakers to answer a question that might elicit some other numbers, such as ''how many egg are in the bowl?'', the answer would be ''I don't know'' or ''I don't know how to count'', ''count'' being a Spanish loan word. Numbers beyond one or two didn't seem to be used in many contexts. Recent data by Mr. I-wen Lai said that they uses Spanish numbers after five, ''cinco, seis, etc.''. The new data recorded by Lai was as followsː
1. núki:ka, 2. kúmi/kúːpɨ depending on the animacy.
3. sɨ:saramájɨːta:mi, 4. suwaramájɨːta:mi (suhuaramáj+taami / p+) animacy.

For number 3 and 4, they actually literally means "bad brother" and "good brother"!  It has to do with their conceptualization of a pair being good and unpaired person being not good because he is lonely. This corresponds with how they count using their fingers! They pair up the fingers as they count: so the small finger pairs with the ring finger as they count 1 and 2, and the middle finger pairs with the index finger. So, the middle finger wouldn't be paired until the index finger is counted, which corresponds to the literal meanings of number 3 and 4 (bad brother and good brother). Of course, the use of number has been lexicalized so the native speakers were not able to tell us the original derivation of the number 3 and 4. It was after the lexical comparison and learning the local cultural value!