Language name and location: Suki, Papua New Guinea [Refer to Ethnologue]

语言名称和分布地区: 苏基语, 巴布亚新几内亚西部省苏基湖附近地区

1. nimap

2. menes

3. menes nimap (2+1)

4. menes menes (2+2)

5. damti(yap) (kabse)

6. damti(yap) kabse nimap

7. damti(yap) kabse menes

8. damti(yap) kabse menes nimap

9. damti(yap) kabse menes menes

10. damti damti

Linguist providing data and dateː Dr. Charlotte van Tongeren, Department of Linguistics, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia,

April 14, 2012.

提供资料的语言学家: Dr. Charlotte van Tongeren, 2014 年 4 月 14 日.

Other comments: Suki is spoken by about 3,500 speakers in Lake Suki, Western province, Papua New Guinea. In daily speech, Suki speakers only use the numerals nimap ‘one’ and menes ‘two’, and switch to English to express ‘three’ already. That’s why it’s difficult to state with certainty, at this point, what the numerals for five and higher are. The forms given above seem to be learned in school rather than acquired naturally. Damti means ‘half’ (e.g. of a sago pancake), ‘one of a pair of two’ (e.g. one shoe) ‘one side’, ‘the other side’ (e.g. to refer to the land on the other side of a river), so its use in ‘five’ and above refers to one of the two hands. People often hold a fist in the air when they say damti in a counting context, yet this only really happened when I explicitly asked them for Suki numerals. –yap means ‘just, only’.

Language name and location: Suki, Papua New Guinea [Refer to Ethnologue]

语言名称和分布地区: 苏基语, 巴布亚新几内亚西部省苏基湖附近地区

1. nimap

2. menes

3. menes nimap (2+1)

4. menes menes (2+2) / pirebia (litː 'many')

5. menes menes nimap  (2+2+1) / pira (litː 'many')

Linguist providing data and dateː Dr. Grahame Martin, Pioneers Bible Translators, Papua New Guinea. March 24, 2011.

提供资料的语言学家: Dr. Grahame Martin. 2011 年 5 月 24 日.

Other comments: The Suki people has a simple 2-cycle traditional system up to 3 or 5. Old data had recorded words pirebia which means many and pire also is a shortened version of 'many'. punpubia also means many. To express 5 (five) they use the one clenched fist in a physical action and two fists to men 10. They could use the term kabse (hand). They like the Nambu language speaking people only use three numbers, but may have used many more in the past, which have vanished from usage.

Suki Phonemic Systemː

Consonantsː 

Vowelsː