Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Ćwarmin: A Regional Quirk in Forming Large Numbers

Most Ćwarmin dialects have calqued their way of forming numbers beyond a thousand from Bryatesle. However, in the far west, there is a community that went through a relatively rapid modernization of their economy with very little contact with either Bryatesle or Dairwueh, but rather with several other groups. This rapid modernization also brought with it the need for an ability to form bigger numbers, and since none of their trading partners were particularly dominant, they evolved one of their own instead of borrowing it.

Notice that the dialect has some sound changes as well as some lexical differences from the version I usually describe. Below I give examples for the tens and the thousands.
Observation: nine divided by six is one and a half.
dusso = ten
eyse tara dusol = one ten-part = 1.5*10, rounded up = 20
mey tara dusol = 2* 1.5 * 10 = 30
mey tara e dusso = two ten-parts and ten = 30 + 10
sićey tara dusol = three parts, rounded up = 50
nurwa tara dusol = 60
nurwa tara e dusso = 70
meŋgə tara dusol = 80
seŋgə tara dusol = 90
kurcuw = thousand
eyse tara kurgwal = one piece of thousand = 1.5 * thousand, then rounded up = 2000
mey tara kurgwal = two pieces of thousand = 3000
mey tara e kurcuw = two pieces and thousand = 4000
sićey tara kurgwal = three pieces = 5000
nurwa tara kurgwal = four pieces = 6000
nurwa tara e kurcuw = four pieces and thousand = 7000
meŋgə tara kurgwal = five pieces = 8000
seŋgə tara kurgwal = 9000

So essentially, "ten with a sub-base of rounded-off 1.5". The same pattern for hundreds can be obtained by substituting dusso with peknə and dusol with pektəy. A smaller number can be placed to the right of these numbers, i.e.
sićey tara dusol sićey = 53
three part ten three

Sometimes, larger numbers appear on the left hand side, giving, for instance
seŋgə dusso tara dusol = 16*1.5*10 = 240.
The rounding is always upwards.

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