Language name and location: Wára, Papua, Indonesia [Refer to Ethnologue]
语言名称和分布地区: 瓦拉语 (孔恩佐语 Kómnzo), 巴新西部省莫尔黑德河流域地区

1. næmbɪ <nämbi>

2. æntæ  <enta> [ɛnda̯]

3. æðɐ  <etha> [eða̯]

4. ɐsər  <asar> [asar]

5. <tambuthui> [t̪ambuðuı]

6. <tambuthui nimbo> [t̪ambuðuı nımbɔ]

36. 6x6=[fə̯ta̯]

216. 6x6x6=[tarumba]

1,296. 6x6x6x6=[ndamnɔ]

7,776, 6x6x6x6x6=[wærəmɛkə]

Linguist providing data and dateː Dr. Christian Döhler, School of Culture, History and Language, the Australian National University, Canberra, Australia. April 5, 2011, November 7, 2012.
提供资料的语言学家: Dr. Christian Döhler. 2011 年 4 月 5 日, 2012 年 11 月 7 日.

Other comments: Wára or Kómnzo has a senary numeral system whose numbers above five have a power of six. The senary counting system is almost exclusively used for counting yam tubers, which are the staple diet of the people. exchange of yams is of great importance for feasts and exchange marriages. Other side of this special domain, people almost never count in Kómnzo. Nowadays, they used English terms. In the past, at least that is my hypothesis, people did not count higher than 3 or 4. In fact, the term for three (etha) is frequently used to mean 'few' without a special number values assigned. Wára is spoken by about 930 speakers (Evans et al 2018) in in a few villages in villages west of Morehead, Morehead district, Western province, Papua New Guinea.

When the yam counting takes place, two men pick up three tubers each and move them from one pile to the newly started pile. With each time the move 6 yams and each time, they call out the number terms from 1 to 6. Oddly enough, they employ terms which are slightly different. At least for 2 [ɛnda̯] and 3 [eða̯], people use [jə̯nda̯] and [jə̯ðɔ] respectively. These are the terms from the neighboring variety Wára (also found in Anta). There is no explanation for this, when counting things other than yams or even when counting yams without this public ritualistic counting, they would use the above mentioned Kómnzo terms.

When the two counters have finished one cycle of 1 to 6, a single yam is put aside and they start over again. The single yams which have been put to the side represent a unit of 36 each now. This unit is called [fə̯ta̯]. This procedure of counting can be repeated with the [fə̯ta̯] yams. In this way, one ends up with terms for the power of 6.

6x6=[fə̯ta̯], 6x6x6=[tarumba], 6x6x6x6=[ndamnɔ], 6x6x6x6x6=[wærəmɛkə]

There is no term for 6 to the power of 6. People would simple call it 'too much to count'. Neighboring languages (Kunja or Arammba) do have a term for this amount.