Nambo

Language name and location: Nambo, Papua New Guinea [Ref. to Ethnologue]
语言名称和分布地区: 南博语 (恩姆博语Nmbo), 巴布亚新几内亚西部省莫尔黑德河地区

1. æmbru (Kerake dialect) /æmbru (Yarne dialect) ä = IPA [æ]

2. sombwi (Kerake dialect) /sombio (Yarne dialect)

3. nambi (Kerake dialect) /sombio (Yarne dialect)

4. somba sombwi (Kerake dialect) /sombio-sombio (Yarne dialect) (litː '2+2')

5. widma tndro (Kerake dialect) /widma tndro (Yarne dialect) (litː 'side of the hand')

6. æmbru for (Kerake dialect) /æmbru fur (Yarne dialect) (litː '1 x 6')

7. æmbru for mé æmbru (Kerake dialect) /æmbro fur æmbro (Yarne dialect) ('6+1')

8. æmbru for sombwi (Kerake dialect) /æmbro fur sombio (Yarne dialect) ('6+2')

9. æmbru for nambi (Kerake dialect) /æmbro fur sombio(Yarne dialect) ('6+3')

10. sombwi tnd brobro (Kerake dialect) /æmbro fur æmbro sombio-sombwio

(Yarne dialect) ('6+4')

12. sombwi for vor (Kerake dialect) /æmbro furvur (Yarne dialect) ('6 x 2')

36. frta / æmbro frta (Kerake dialect) (6²) / unknown (Yarne dialect)

216. taromba (Kerake dialect) (6³) /unknown (Yarne dialect)

1,206. damno (Kerake dialect) (6⁴) /unknown (Yarne dialect)

7,776. wæ.ræ.mɐ.ka (Kerake dialect) (6⁵) /unknown (Yarne dialect)

46,656. mæmæ wim(Kerake dialect) (6⁶) /unknown (Yarne dialect)

Nmbo senary numeral system 1-12. *=Martin (2001) gives as wi

Linguist providing data and dateː Dr. Eri Kashima, Department of Linguistics, the Australian National University, Canberra, Australia. December 7, 2021.
提供资料的语言学家: Dr. Eri Kashima. 2021 年 12 月 8 日.

Other comments: Nmbo or Nambo is an under-described language spoken by people of the South-Fly District of Western Province, Papua New Guinea. Nmbo is a vital language with some 700-1000 speakers living primarily in the three villages of Govav, Bevdvn, and Arovwe, with many Nmbo speaking women living in adjacent non-Nmbo villages due to the convention of virilocal exogamy.

The Nmbo has a counting system based on six and the senary system of higher values are numerals for ascending powers of six. Evans (2009) hypothesises that the emergence of this particular numeral system was due to the cultural context of yam counting. Yam counting is a ritualised activity that has two men carrying three yams each to form a pile, and this pile is made up of the six yams deliberately laid out in an aesthetically pleasing manner. To this day yams are often bundled into groups of six. Previous work by Martin (2001) shows a term wi which supposedly means 6⁶, but this was not something that my consultants gave. I was given the word mämä wim for 6⁶ (which literally translates to “bad scent”). Martin has 6⁷ as mämä wim.

One point of interest is the form of the 6² value. The form frta listed in above table
is an elicited one, but I have observed the use of the form feta during the course of my fieldwork. In Williams (1936), the 6² form is listed as peta (p.227). This suggests that the form frta is perhaps a recent innovation, with the form feta as the intermediary form. Note that the cognate for feta in Nen is peta.

Notes on IPA to orthographic correspondences for non-Latin characters:

Aniba and Martin have recently produced a few chapters from the Gospel of John in the New Orthography, and a few Nmbo and Nen speakers are messaging via the internet in a variation of the New Orthography.

New orthography ä = SIL-Orthography [ee] = IPA [æ],

New orthography é = SIL-Orthography [o] = IPA [u],

New orthography a = SIL-Orthography [aa] = IPA [ɑ],

New orthography á= SIL-Orthography [a] = IPA [ɐ],

New orthography o = SIL-Orthography [oo] = IPA [o],

New orthography f = SIL-Orthography [f] = IPA [ɸ],

New orthography v = SIL-Orthography [v] = IPA [β]

Language name and location: Nambo, Papua New Guinea [Refer to Ethnologue]
语言名称和分布地区: 南博语, 巴布亚新几内亚西部省莫尔黑德河地区

1. eembru ee = IPA [æ]

2. somboi [səmboi]

3. naambi [nɑmbi]

4. somboi somboi (litː '2+2')

5. widmátandás [widmɐtɑndɐs] (litː 'side of the hand')

6. ambás pus [ɑmbɐs pus ](litː '1 x 6', one pus)

Linguist providing data and dateː Dr. Grahame Martin, Pioneers Bible Translators, Papua New Guinea. March 23, 2011.
提供资料的语言学家: Dr. Grahame Martin. 2011 年 5 月 23 日.

Other comments: Traditionally the speakers of the Nambu language, who are called Keraakie, used the day or night to measure small durations, but only up to three. This measurement of short durations is noted in their use of a limited number of linguistic items, such as today: ganoso; tomorrow/yesterday: kai, and two days in the past or in the future: naambat. The Keraakie also use a limited number of numerals: one: eembru, two: somboi, three: naambi, with the time unit of day or night to indicate lengths of time. Francis Williams (anthropologist who visited the Nambu speakers during 1926-33, writing Papuans of the Trans Fly) mentioned in his field notes a counting system using parts of the body, such as the fingers of one hand, then the fingers of the other hand. The number eleven was the forearm (dikav dikav), twelve was the elbow (dengwa), thirteen was the upper arm (tevi), fourteen was the shoulder (minu) and fifteen was the chest or heart (tikav). This is no longer in use and has been replaced by the Western numerical system, but the Keraakie have another numerical system based on counting yams in groups of six, which is still in use today. Williams mentioned that this system was adopted from the people west of the Morehead River, but his version
differs from the modern one, which is shown below:

six yams is an eembru for = 6

six eembru for make up one ferta eembru = 36

six ferta make up one taromba = 216

six tarumba make up one daameno = 1,296

six daameno make up one werameka = 7,776

six werameka make up one wiwi = 46,656

six wiwi make up one meemee wim = 279,936

Although the potential was there, the Keraakie did not use this system to measure time or other objects.

Notesː