Numbers for Zompist: Sm'algyax

[muckefuck]

Some of you may know that my buddy zompist maintains his own site with a list of numbers in over 5,000 languages. As you can imagine, it's a rare day when I can contribute a set he doesn't already have, and I was both surprised and tickled to find him lacking Sm'algyax (Coast Tsimshian).

1. k'üül ['kˀɯːl]
2. gu'pḻ ['guʔpl̩]
3. k'wili [kʷˀɩ'li]
4. txaalpx ['tx̣aːlpx̣]
5. kwstuns ['kʷʰstuns] (cf. kwsḵ'a̱y "little finger")
6. k'oolt [qˀɔːld]
7. t'apxoolt [tˀʌ'x̣ɔːld]
8. yukwdeelt [jukʷ'deːlt]
9. ksta̱moos [kstʌ'mɔːs] (cf. moos "thumb"; kwstuns appears in the reduced form kws- before certain counters)
10. kpiil ['kʰpiːl]

Source: Dunn, John A. Sm'algyax: a reference dictionary and grammar for the Coast Tsimshian language. (Seattle, 1995)

Notes: I've followed Dunn's orthography exactly, including the use of optional underline diacritics (i.e. <ḻ> and <a̱>), as given on page 38. Certain numbers have variant forms in the body of the lexicon: "Six" and "seven" are given with final d rather than final t (i.e. k'oold and t'apxoolt) and so transcribed. "Ten" has the variant form k'yep ['kʲˀɛpʰ]. With the phonetic transcription, I've made a few modifications in the direction of more standard IPA (e.g. [j] for [y], [ː] for his middle dot, [ɯ] for [ï], etc.).

Like Japanese, Sm'algyax has different sets of numbers depending on the item being counted. "Two", for instance, takes the form gu'pḻon before most measures and gulapdaat when counting humans in a conveyance (such as a canoe or an airplane). Otherwise, the form used for people is t'apxaduul and empty vehicles are counted with g̱albeeltx. Two animals, animal products (such as hides) or flat things are counted with t'apxaat. The numbers given here are used for "round [and] abstract" things, and I assume from the presentation that they are the forms that would be used when simply counting off.

Comments

[richardthinks.livejournal.com]

This is without a doubt the most made up looking language I have ever seen, which makes me wonder if it's the source for Barker's Tekumel stuff, and/or a hundred other fantasy fiction languages. Thanks.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Implausible. Dunn's lexicon and grammar were originally published in 1978 and 1979, respectively, or not until several years after the first iteration of the Tékumel setting (1975). Still, someone died and made apostrophes and x's de rigueur for fantasy languages. Seems to me the cliché was already in place by the pulp era.

(Incidentally, <x> is simply common phonetic notation for a velar or uvular fricative, what English speakers to tend to represent with <kh> or, in words of Celtic origin, <ch> or <gh>. And the apostrophe is a widespread convention for glottalisation, of which there's a lot of Tsimshian.)

[ptownnyc.livejournal.com]

I am consistently amazed at how many languages get quite multisyllabic on numbers 1-10. That may be an Indo-European bias (and I know not all Indo-Euro are so simple), but you would think that base 10, being so commonly used, would be the simplest in form!

I can only imagine what 37 is like!

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Less than half the numbers listed are multisyllabic--that's the really scary thing!

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

It's actually not so bad: k'wili wil kpiil di t'apxoolt. I don't think anyone whose ancestors said "dau ar bymtheg ar hugain" really has any room to throw stones.

[ptownnyc.livejournal.com]

That's why I picked 37 as an example :)

[keyne.livejournal.com]

Good heavens. Have you seen this?

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

I thought about linking to that, actually. Some acquaintances of mine who are well-versed in historical linguistics have reviewed it at length and concluded that the methodology is sound. The most conspicuous flaw is the lack of any cognate morphology, but otherwise it gets filed in the "suggestive but not proven" folder.