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

语言名称和分布地区: 门雅语, 巴布亚新几内亚莫罗贝省及海湾省

1. hŋqu = hᵑqu  (lit: one)

2. hŋquaqu  (lit: two)

3. hŋquaqu hŋque ( lit: three)

4. hŋquaqui hŋquaqui  (lit: two two)

5. hŋquaqui hŋquaqui (lit: all the hand on one side, hiqa=hand)   ä=IPA [ə]

6. hŋquaqui hŋquaqui hŋquaqui  

7. hŋquaqui hŋquaqui hŋquaqui hŋque 

8. hŋquaqui hŋquaqui hŋquaqui hŋquaqui

9. hŋquaqui hŋquaqui hŋquaqui hŋquaqui hŋque

10. hŋquaqui hŋquaqui hŋquaqui hŋquaqui hŋquaqi / hipa hŋɡi hŋɡi eeqä 

11. hipa eeqä sukä buŋi hŋqu  (litː all the hand (hand) one on the feet below)

12. hipa eeqä sukä buŋi hŋquaqu (litː all the hand (hand) two on the feet below)

13. hipa eeqä sukä buŋi hŋquaqu hŋque

14. hipa eeqä sukä buŋi hŋquaqui hŋquaqui

15. hŋquaqui hŋquaqui hŋquaqui hŋquaqui hŋquaqi hŋquaqui hŋquaqui hŋque

16. hŋquaqui hŋquaqui hŋquaqui hŋquaqui hŋquaqi hŋquaqui hŋquaqui hŋquaqui

17. hŋq. hŋquaqui hŋquaqui hŋquaqui hŋquaqi hŋquaqui hŋquaqui hŋquaqui hŋque

18. hŋq. hŋq. hŋquaqui hŋquaqui hŋquaqi hŋquaqui hŋquaqui hŋquaqui hŋquaqui

19. hŋq. hŋq. hŋq. hŋquaqui hŋquaqi hŋquaqui hŋquaqui hŋquaqui hŋquaqui hŋque

20. hipa hŋquaqu sukä hŋquaqu  ( litː 'two hands two legs')

Linguist providing data and dateː Dr. Carl Whitehead, SIL International, Papua New Guinea. February 5, 2011.

提供资料的语言学家: Dr. Carl Whitehead, 2011 年 2 月 5 日.

Other comments: Menya is spoken by about 25,000 speakers in Gulf province and
Morobe province, Papua New Guinea. Menya has a traditional two-base system, up to nine, using whichever demonstrative root is appropriate. That is, 'four' is 'two two', 'seven' is two two one', etc. The numbers one through four using the indefinite root and are still regularly used.

The numbers 'five' and 'ten' are expressed by NPs making reference to hands and the numbers 'eleven' through 'nineteen' by reference to hands and feet. Visual motions often accompany counting by this traditional system. Starting with the thumb of the left hand, the finger tips are brought together for numbers one through five. Six through ten would add the finger tips of the right hand to the clustered tips of the left, again starting with the thumb and ending with all ten finger tips together. People seated while counting beyond ten have been observed to touch the clustered fingers to the required number of toes. More recently, however, these traditional numbers are falling out of use and are being replaced with numbers borrowed from English via Tok Pisin.

Note that the word ‘hipa’ (hand), the word ‘huiqä’ (finger) can be substituted. The words ‘yätu(ŋi)’ (above) and ‘bu(ŋi)’ (below) can be omitted. There is a lot of personal/ideolectal variation in the use of these expressions and most people are simply using the Tok Pisin loan words, especially for anything above three.