Number System
The number system of the Supyire people is unique, and quite confusing. Values exist for numbers 1-5, 10, 20, 80, and 400. Strangely, all of these numerals are members of gender 1 except “four hundred”, which is in gender 3. The numbers 6-9 are formed using a combination of basic math and the prefix –baa. The word for “six” is baa-nì, translated to mean “five and one”, although the root of “one” has been shortened. After ten, a distinct prefix is associated with the teens, twenties, thirties, and so on (see Table 4). The word for 80, ŋ`kùù, is formally and etymologically identical to the word for 'chicken'. This identity is inexplicable to speakers; Carlson (1994) supposes it to relate to a historical price of a chicken.
Because of obvious confusion with this number system and close contact with neighboring Bambara people, the Supyire have been slowly disregarding this system. Like other languages in this region, numerals that refer to money (in this instance, the franc) are counted in groups of five.
Read more about this topic: Supyire Language
Famous quotes containing the words number and/or system:
“Civilization is maintained by a very few people in a small number of places and we need only some bombs and a few prisons to blot it out altogether.”
—Cyril Connolly (1903–1974)
“All who wish to hand down to their children that happy republican system bequeathed to them by their revolutionary fathers, must now take their stand against this consolidating, corrupting money power, and put it down, or their children will become hewers of wood and drawers of water to this aristocratic ragocracy.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)