Subject: re : 6 . 943 , disc : non - decimal counting systems

the fulfulde language of west africa is based on fives . so you have separate words for one through five , from then on : 5 + 1 for six , then 5 + 2 , 5 + 3 , 5 + 4 . but there is a word for ten : 's appo ' which indicates putting both sets of fingers together . then we get 10 + 1 . . . . 10 + 5 + 4 , then a separate word for twenty . . . . . i wish to contribute to this topic of discussion with dagaare data . dagaare is a west african language ( gur family ) spoken in ghana and burkina faso . i provide below salient aspects of the dagaare system of numerals . as can be seen it is basically a decimal system ( based on 10 ) but it is also , to some extent , based on 20 . forty in dagaare is two 20 's , sixty is three 20 's and , like french , eighty is four 20 's . hundred has its own name but some speakers still insist on calling it five 20 's . all this shown below . 4 . dagaare numerals + human count - human count nenyeni - yeni 1 bonyeni bayi - yi 2 ayi bata - ta 3 ata banaare - naare 4 anaare banuu - nuu 5 anuu bayooo - yooo 6 ayooo bayopoi - yopoi 7 ayopoi banii - nii 8 anii bawae - wae 9 awae ( noba ) pie 10 ( boma ) pie ( noba ) pie ne yeni 11 ( boma ) pie ne yeni pie ne bayi 12 pie ne ayi . . . . pie ne bawae 19 pie ne awae ( noba ) lezare 20 ( boma ) lezare lezare ne yeni 21 lezare ne yeni lezare ne bayi 22 lezare ne ayi . . . . lezare ne bawae 29 lezare ne awae ( noba ) lezare ne pie 30 ( boma ) lezare ne pie lezare ne pie ne yeni 31 lezare ne pie ne yeni lezare ne pie ne bayi 32 lezare ne pie ne ayi . . . . ( noba ) lezae ayi 40 ( boma ) lezae ayi lezae ayi ne yeni 41 lezae ayi ne yeni lezae ayi ne bayi 42 lezae ayi ne ayi . . . . lezae ayi ne pie 50 lezae ayi ne pie lezae ayi ne pie ne yeni 51 lezae ayi ne pie ne yeni lezae ayi ne pie ne bayi 52 lezae ayi ne pie ne ayi . . . . ( noba ) lezae ata 60 ( boma ) lezae ata lezae ata ne yeni 61 lezae ata ne yeni lezae ata ne bayi 62 lezae ata ne ayi . . . . ( noba ) lezae ata ne pie 70 ( boma ) lezae ata ne pie lezae ata ne pie ne yeni 71 lezae ata ne pie ne yeni lezae ata ne pie ne bayi 72 lezae ata ne pie ne ayi . . . . ( noba ) lezae anaare 80 ( boma ) lezae anaare lezae anaare ne yeni 81 lezae anaare ne yeni lezae anaare ne bayi 82 lezae anaare ne ayi . . . . ( noba ) lezae anaare ne pie 90 ( boma ) lezae anaare ne pie lezae anaare ne pie ne yeni 91 lezae anaare ne pie ne yeni lezae anaare ne pie ne bayi 92 lezae anaare ne pie ne ayi . . . . ( noba ) koo 100 ( boma ) koo koo ne yeni 101 koo ne yeni koo ne bayi 102 koo ne ayi . . . . koore ayi 200 koore ayi koore ata 300 koore ata . . . . koore awae 900 koore awae ( noba ) tur 1000 ( boma ) tur . . tur ayi 2000 tur ayi tur ata 3000 tur ata . . tur tur ( mur ) 1000 000 tur tur ( mur ) . . tur tur tur ( bur ) 1000 000 000 tur tur tur ( bur ) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - as can be seen for the last two numerals above , speakers would refer to million as ' thousand thousand ' and billion , presumably as ' thousand , thousand , thousand ' . the names in parenthesis ( ' mur ' and ' bur ' ) are my own suggestions , as a linguist / native speaker of the language , towards a better way of referring to very large numbers . i wonder how other languages are accomodating this need to have more numerals in the counting system . adams bodomo
