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Language name and locationː Oro Win, Rondônia state, Brazil [Refer to Ethnologue]
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. /kawasan/ to be one |
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. /jiksam/ to be two, a pair |
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. /kawasan toman/ to be a quantity between three and five. |
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Linguist providing data and dateː Dr. Joshua Birchall, Department of Linguistics,
Radbound University, Nijmegen, Netherlands /Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Belem,
Brazil.
December 24 提供资料的语言学家: Dr. Joshua Birchall, 2009 年 12 月 24 日. |
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Other comments: Oro Win or Oto Towati is a nearly extinct language spoken with 5 speakers out of 56 ethnic population in Pacaás-Novos river headwaters, a tributary of Mamoré river, Rondônia state, Brazil. Oro Win "numbers" primarily function as verbs. There are three verbs that they call numbers, another verb meaning 'to be many', and one seemingly adjective
that means 'many'. As
far as I can tell, 'few' is used by saying, roughly, 'to be not many' by negating the verb for many. The 'number' verbs are
(uninflected) as:
/kawasan/ to be one, /jiksam/ to be two, a pair, /kawasan toman/ to be a quantity
between three and five.
The speaker I worked with wasn't
able to give any further translation or breakdown
of these words. The speaker said that kawasan toman can be
any quantity between 3 and 5, but not six. He was counting on his
hand, and said that kawasan toman were
the remaining fingers, but not the next hand. There is no
indication that either of the two words have anything to do with
hand, however. He said the next hand (6+) was already mija' na
'it is many' (see below). The numbers can be used alone, or in
serial verb constructions and/or verbal compounds (the jury is still
out). For example:
fri jiksam onon iri'ije
kill two 1s-3m queixada
I killed two queixada (wild boars)
There is another word /mija'/ 'to
be many', but the people don't really consider it a number word.
Another word that they considered a (relative) number is (what seems
to be) an adjective.
/iri' ykeren/ more, much (lit.
'truly many', but ykeren can't be used alone)
<'> is a glottal stop, and <y> a
mid front round (dotted e)
and example such as: fri
onon iri' ykeren iri'ije - I killed truly many queixada
iri' ykeren
is what is generally used in comparative constructions, with the
lesser quantity being negated, leading to something like "I killed
many queixada, Paulo
didn't kill many queixada" I can dig in my notes for an example if you like, I just can't find it right now. However, be warned that this work was only elicited with one of the 6 speakers, and since it was my last day (already in the city), I didn't have a chance to check with the other speakers. The only example I can find of number use in a text was jiksam, in reference to two people (a married couple). There are also a few examples of portuguese numbers, which are most commonly used. I am returning for another trip in March, and can recheck and try to clarify things then. |
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