Language name and locationː Puinave, Colombia, Venezuela [Refer to Ethnologue ]

语言名称和分布地区: 普伊纳维语, 哥伦比亚最东部瓜伊尼亚省和比查达省伊尼里达河流域热带雨林和委内瑞拉境内

1. tə̃̀m

2. kàw

3. pə̄i *  high tone

40.  kàw èpin (litː ''two persons''), 60.pə̄i èpin (litː ''three persons'')

Linguist providing data and dateː Mr. Larry A. Richardson, New Tribes Missions, Colombia, January 6, 1995, July 6, 2013..

提供资料的语言学家: Mr. Larry A. Richardson, 1995 年 1 月 6 日, 2013 年 7 月 6 日.

Other comments: Puinave or Puinabe is spoken by approximately 2,500 speakers out of 9,000 ethnic population in Guainía and Vichada departments: Inírida river and tributaries, Colombia as well as Venezuela.

Puinave has a traditional counting up to 20. Puinave is a tonal language. I've indicated the tones of these numerals by a line over them, indicating approximately the tone patternsː  v̄= High tone,  v̀ = high falling tones, v́= Mid rising tone. Note: even though the second syllable of /dāptəm/ is recognizably the morpheme meaning "one", its tone here is neutral (only stressed syllables carry phonemic tone in this language).

Language name and locationː Puinave, Colombia, Venezuela [Refer to Ethnologue ]

语言名称和分布地区: 普伊纳维语, 哥伦比亚最东部瓜伊尼亚省和比查达省伊尼里达河流域热带雨林和委内瑞拉境内

1. tɤ̃m

2. kâu

3. pɤ́i

Linguist providing data and dateː Dr. Jesús Marios Girón, National University of Colombia, Colombia, August 4, 2008.

提供资料的语言学家: Dr. Jesús Marios Girón, 2008 年 8 月 4 日.

Other comments: Puinave has a traditional counting up to 20. Moreover, they use Spanish numbers above five nowadays. Puinave number 4 is formed by 2 (kau) plus the formant -nok (a grammaticalized function of the "go" formative). 5 is dáp-töm ''one hand''. 6 to 9 are very interesting, since they are formed by 1, 2, 3, 4 plus the phrase -dábat(t)abat which can be parsed= dáp-bat-a-bat //hand cross /opposed-alative-cross//. We can read this sequence as "crossing to the opposed hand-towards crossing//. So 6 is töm-dáp-bat-a-bat or "one crossing to the opposed hand". It means the systems regards the numbering between 6 to 9 as the units that lack to complete the second hand. In this way, the complete opposed hand works like a milestone since the speaker counts each quantity. This is my interpretation; then it is not a simple additive designation, but an advanced or forewarned construction. Of course, it is opaque to the speakers. 10 is built by two ways: dáp-at-kau //hand-ablative/completive-two// "from the second hand", or kâu-mo-dáp //two-someone-hand// "the second hand of someone". 20 is "one person", 40 "two person". Numbers between 11 to 19 add the word for "foot", in a similar way that 6-9 numbers. But I said these designations are grammatical constructions that nobody uses. Puinave is sometimes linked specifically with Makú, as Puinave-Maku, and sometimes connected to the Arutani-Sape languages in a Kalianan branch.