Datensatz

Zusammenfassung

This study analyzes the numeral systems of Austronesian and Papuan
languages, investigating their areal distribution and considering their most
likely ancestral states. The presence or absence of different methods of
numeration has often been ascribed to contact-induced change. This can
certainly be seen in scholarship pertaining to Melanesia, where
Austronesian languages probably first came into contact with Papuan
languages around 3,500 years ago. Indeed, since Proto-Austronesian is
reconstructed as having employed a decimal (base-10) numeral system
(with reflexes occurring throughout the Austronesian world), the presence
of quinary (base-5) numeral systems in the Austronesian languages of
Melanesia has commonly been attributed to contact with Papuan languages.
Relying on a typological survey of 1,825 languages, this paper argues that
highly conventionalized quinary systems were probably rare in Melanesia
prior to the arrival of Austronesian languages. Rather, it was more likely that
Austronesian speakers spread lexicalized quinary systems to Papuan groups,
not the other way around. In making this argument, the paper stresses that,
while numeration may be something that is linguistically encoded in a
systematic fashion, it may also be realized as a cultural feature without
strongly conventionalized lexicalized expressions.