Language name and locationː Nheengatú, Brazil, Colombia [Refer to Ethnologue]

语言名称和分布地区: 宁加图语, 巴西西北部亚马逊州尼格罗河上游支流──伊萨纳河流域, 沃佩斯河低段地区及哥伦比亚, 委内瑞拉境内

1. ye.ˈpe

2. mu.'kuĩ

3. ˌmu.sa.ˈpi.ri

4. ˌi.run.ˈdʒi

5. Portuguese numbers from here

Linguist providing data and dateː Dr. Simeon Floyd, Department of Linguistics, University of Texas at Austin, Texas, USA, August 3, 2008.

提供资料的语言学家: Dr. Simeon Floyd, 2008 年 3 月 10 日.

Other comments: Nheengatú (Ñe’engatú) or Coastal Tupian, Língua Geral Amazônica, Modern Tupí is spoken by 14,000 speakers in Amazonas state: Içana, Lower Vaupés, Xié and Negro river areas, Brazil as well as Venezuela and Colombia.

Nheengatú is a modern-day descendant of Tupinambá, and 16th century sources show Tupinambá had the same 4 term system. While it is common in Latin America for Spanish or Portuguese terms to replace higher numerals (today in Quichua, for example, Spanish numbers are more common than Quichua numbers above 10 in everyday discourse), it is reasonable to assume that the Portuguese terms have supplemented rather than replaced the original terms. Because the numbers 2 and 3 appear to contain the root “mu”, which could mean “brother”, it is possible they are what has been called a “fraternal” numeral system (“one”, “one-with-brother” etc.).

Phonetic charts of Nheengatú (Tupi-Guaraní; Rio Negro, Amazonas State, Brazil)

a, e, i, u : ã, ẽ, ĩ, ũ