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88-440: The House of Machabeli ( sing. Georgian : მაჩაბელი , pl. მაჩაბლები, Machablebi ; Russian: Мачабелов , romanized : Machabelov ) was a Georgian princely house ( tavadi ) which held a large fiefdom ( satavado ) in the province of Inner Kartli (central Georgia) called Samachablo after their family name. The origin of the family is not clear. According to a traditional account, they descended from one of

176-449: A numeral in the broadest sense is a word or phrase that describes a numerical quantity . Some theories of grammar use the word "numeral" to refer to cardinal numbers that act as a determiner that specify the quantity of a noun , for example the "two" in "two hats". Some theories of grammar do not include determiners as a part of speech and consider "two" in this example to be an adjective . Some theories consider "numeral" to be

264-816: A synonym for "number" and assign all numbers (including ordinal numbers like "first") to a part of speech called "numerals". Numerals in the broad sense can also be analyzed as a noun ("three is a small number"), as a pronoun ("the two went to town"), or for a small number of words as an adverb ("I rode the slide twice"). Numerals can express relationships like quantity (cardinal numbers), sequence (ordinal numbers), frequency (once, twice), and part ( fraction ). Numerals may be attributive , as in two dogs , or pronominal , as in I saw two (of them) . Many words of different parts of speech indicate number or quantity. Such words are called quantifiers . Examples are words such as every , most , least , some , etc. Numerals are distinguished from other quantifiers by

352-497: A base-nine system. Decimal systems are based on the number 10. A majority of traditional number systems are decimal. This dates back at least to the ancient Egyptians , who used a wholly decimal system. Anthropologists hypothesize this may be due to humans having five digits per hand, ten in total. There are many regional variations including: Duodecimal systems are based on the number 12. These include: Duodecimal numeric systems have some practical advantages over decimal. It

440-426: A currency unit when India decimalised its currency in 1957, followed by Pakistan in 1961. Vigesimal systems are based on the number 20. Anthropologists are convinced the system originated from digit counting, as did bases five and ten, twenty being the number of human fingers and toes combined. The system is in widespread use across the world. Some include the classical Mesoamerican cultures, still in use today in

528-468: A decimal system for integers , but switched to duodecimal for fractions , and correspondingly Latin developed a rich vocabulary for duodecimal-based fractions (see Roman numerals ). A notable fictional duodecimal system was that of J. R. R. Tolkien 's Elvish languages , which used duodecimal as well as decimal. Hexadecimal systems are based on the number 16. The traditional Chinese units of measurement were base-16. For example, one jīn (斤) in

616-728: A facultative trial, like in Ngan'gi . Most languages with a trial are in the Austronesian family, and most non-Austronesian languages with a trial are nearby in Oceania. The latter category includes the Austronesian-influenced English creole languages of Tok Pisin , Bislama , and Pijin . In Australia, the trial can also be found in Aboriginal languages of many different language families. In Indonesia, trial pronouns are common in

704-487: A group of 100,000 referred to in the plural. Much like the dual, it is crosslinguistically variable which words and parts of speech may be marked with the paucal. Baiso has the paucal only for nouns and not pronouns, whereas Yimas has the paucal only for pronouns and not nouns. In Meryam Mir , the paucal is mostly marked on the verbs. Avar has the paucal for only about 90 specific nouns, including brush, spade, snake, and daughter-in-law (the only kin term that can take

792-452: A large number of something, and has been called the plural of abundance. In other languages like Kaytetye , it can refer to all of something in existence, and has been called the global plural. Like some other grammatical numbers, languages also vary as to which cases the greater plural may be used in. The greater plural is more common in nouns than in pronouns. Accordingly, in Kaytetye,

880-466: A member of the Georgian nobility is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Grammatical number The word "number" is also used in linguistics to describe the distinction between certain grammatical aspects that indicate the number of times an event occurs, such as the semelfactive aspect, the iterative aspect, etc. For that use of the term, see " Grammatical aspect ". Most languages of

968-1479: A noun, it may replace the article : the/some dogs played in the park → twelve dogs played in the park . (* dozen dogs played in the park is not grammatical, so "dozen" is not a numeral in this sense.) English numerals indicate cardinal numbers . However, not all words for cardinal numbers are necessarily numerals. For example, million is grammatically a noun, and must be preceded by an article or numeral itself. Numerals may be simple, such as 'eleven', or compound, such as 'twenty-three'. In linguistics, however, numerals are classified according to purpose: examples are ordinal numbers ( first , second , third , etc.; from 'third' up, these are also used for fractions), multiplicative (adverbial) numbers ( once , twice , and thrice ), multipliers ( single , double , and triple ), and distributive numbers ( singly , doubly , and triply ). Georgian , Latin, and Romanian (see Romanian distributive numbers ) have regular distributive numbers , such as Latin singuli "one-by-one", bini "in pairs, two-by-two", terni "three each", etc. In languages other than English, there may be other kinds of number words. For example, in Slavic languages there are collective numbers (monad, pair/dyad, triad) which describe sets, such as pair or dozen in English (see Russian numerals , Polish numerals ). Some languages have

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1056-615: A number distinction is pronouns. An example of a personal pronoun system distinguishing singular and plural is that of Wayoró : Like the singular denotes exactly one item, the dual number denotes exactly two items. For example, in Camsá : In languages with a singular/dual/plural paradigm, the exact meaning of plural depends on whether the dual is obligatory or facultative (optional). In contrast to English and other singular/plural languages where plural means two or more, in languages with an obligatory dual, plural strictly means three or more. This

1144-558: A number larger than and beyond greater plural. It has also been called the "even greater plural". For example, in Warekena : A similar system is found in Banyun , where the greater plural represents unlimitedness, and the greatest plural represents "a higher degree of unlimitedness". Linguist Daniel Harbour has represented the paucal, greater paucal, plural, greater plural, and greatest plural as collectively definable by "cuts" that divide

1232-529: A paucal. Similar things have been said about trial pronouns in Larike and Anejom̃ . Russian has what has variably been called paucal numerals, the count form, the adnumerative, or the genitive of quantification. When a noun in the nominative case has a numeral added to quantify it, the noun becomes genitive singular with 2, 3, or 4, but genitive plural with 5 or above. Many linguists have described these as paucal constructions. However, some have disagreed on

1320-472: A plural, leaving the former plural with a greater plural meaning. A different four-way distinction of singular, paucal, plural, and greater plural can be found in some verbs of Hualapai . A more complex system is found in Mele-Fila : pronouns distinguish singular, dual, plural, and greater plural, but articles attached to nouns distinguish singular, paucal, and plural. The result is that for full sentences, there

1408-481: A quadral or a quintal. Linguist Susan McBurney has contended that American Sign Language has a true dual, but that the trial, quadral, and quintal should instead be classified as numeral incorporation rather than grammatical number. This is motivated by the dual marker handshape being distinct from the handshape for the numeral two, in contrast to higher number markers; the ability to also incorporate these numerals into other words, including those for times and amounts; and

1496-479: A quadral; the final 2016 reference grammar of Marshallese by Byron W. Bender , a linguist with expertise in the language, still refers to it as having a quadral. Besides singular, dual, trial, and quadral or paucal, Marshallese additionally has two different plural forms, one for five or more and one for two or more (referred to as multiple and plural absolute respectively), creating a partially overlapping six-way number distinction. Kove has been recorded as having

1584-408: A rare pronoun form for exactly six people. Some American Sign Language speakers have incorporated numerals up to nine into inclusive pronouns upon solicitation. Israeli Sign Language theoretically has the grammatical ability to incorporate numerals up to ten into pronouns. Greater plural is a number larger than and beyond plural. In various forms across different languages, it has also been called

1672-461: A second set of numerals anyway. An example is Japanese , which uses either native or Chinese-derived numerals depending on what is being counted. In many languages, such as Chinese , numerals require the use of numeral classifiers . Many sign languages , such as ASL , incorporate numerals. English has derived numerals for multiples of its base ( fifty, sixty, etc.), and some languages have simplex numerals for these, or even for numbers between

1760-464: A similar pronoun system as Marshallese, with one addition: the plural (2+) is split between two categories, one for members of the same family and one for members of different families, creating a seven-way distinction. A few other languages have also been claimed to have quadral pronouns. Robert Blust and others have said they exist in some of the Austronesian Kenyah languages , specifically

1848-501: A spoken language with the trial (in both pronouns and verbs) outside of Oceania is Muklom Tangsa , spoken in northeast India. The paucal number represents 'a few', a small inexactly numbered group of items. For example, in Motuna : Almost all languages with a paucal also have a dual. However, this is not universal. Nouns in Mocoví only have singular, paucal, and plural. On the other hand,

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1936-456: A system of paucal, greater paucal, plural. Other examples can be found in the related languages of Northern Gumuz and Daatsʼiin . Northern Gumuz is said to mark the plural and greater plural on verbs, and Daatsʼiin is said to mark "three degrees of plurality" (plural, greater plural, and greatest plural) on verbs. In both languages though, the "plural" is often actually a paucal, understood to mean about two to four. However, in neither language

2024-852: A true quadral did exist, but it has since morphed into a plural form. It has thus been hypothesized that the quadral existed in Proto-Oceanic and Proto-Southern Vanuatu. The quintal number denotes exactly five items. Apparent examples of its use can mostly only be found in pronouns of sign languages. Like the quadral, its existence has been contested, and only some classifications accept it. Like trial and quadral forms, rare quintal forms of pronouns have been said to be attested in Tok Pisin and Bislama. These languages insert numerals to represent exact numbers of referents. For example, in Bislama, the numerals tu (two) and tri (three) are contained within

2112-465: A very limited set of numerals, and in some cases they arguably do not have any numerals at all, but instead use more generic quantifiers, such as 'pair' or 'many'. However, by now most such languages have borrowed the numeral system or part of the numeral system of a national or colonial language, though in a few cases (such as Guarani ), a numeral system has been invented internally rather than borrowed. Other languages had an indigenous system but borrowed

2200-509: Is Nukna , which has only a single trial pronoun, nanggula , which can be either 2nd or 3rd person. The trial may also be marked on verbs, such as in Lenakel . While the dual can be obligatory or facultative, according to Greville Corbett there are no known cases of an obligatory trial, so the trial might always be facultative. However, languages may have both a facultative dual and a facultative trial, like in Larike, or an obligatory dual and

2288-404: Is 'one hundred two score', not *seven score, and there is no numeral for 400 (great score). The term score originates from tally sticks , and is perhaps a remnant of Celtic vigesimal counting. It was widely used to learn the pre-decimal British currency in this idiom: "a dozen pence and a score of bob ", referring to the 20 shillings in a pound . For Americans the term is most known from

2376-452: Is a combined five-way distinction of singular, dual, paucal, plural, and greater plural. Singular and plural have straightforward number agreements, whereas dual has dual pronouns but paucal articles, paucal has plural pronouns but paucal articles, and greater plural has greater plural pronouns but plural articles. The exact meaning of and terminology for the greater plural differs between languages. In some languages like Miya , it represents

2464-435: Is a larger paucal category, for an inexactly numbered group that is larger in size than a smaller paucal. It can be found in the pronouns of the Austronesian language of Sursurunga , which exhibit a five-way distinction described as singular, dual, paucal, greater paucal, and plural. The Sursurunga paucal is used for smaller groups, usually of about three or four, or for nuclear families of any size. The Sursurunga greater paucal

2552-797: Is a table of English names for non-negative rational numbers less than or equal to 1. It also lists alternative names, but there is no widespread convention for the names of extremely small positive numbers. Keep in mind that rational numbers like 0.12 can be represented in infinitely many ways, e.g. zero-point-one-two (0.12), twelve percent (12%), three twenty-fifths ( ⁠ 3 / 25 ⁠ ), nine seventy-fifths ( ⁠ 9 / 75 ⁠ ), six fiftieths ( ⁠ 6 / 50 ⁠ ), twelve hundredths ( ⁠ 12 / 100 ⁠ ), twenty-four two-hundredths ( ⁠ 24 / 200 ⁠ ), etc. Various terms have arisen to describe commonly used measured quantities. Not all peoples use counting , at least not verbally. Specifically, there

2640-515: Is found particularly in the isolating languages of West Africa. One of the simplest number distinctions a language can make is singular and plural. Singular denotes exactly one referent, while plural denotes more than one referent. For example, in English: To mark number, English has different singular and plural forms for nouns and verbs (in the third person): "my dog watch es television" (singular) and "my dog s watch television" (plural). This

2728-465: Is much easier to divide the base digit twelve (which is a highly composite number ) by many important divisors in market and trade settings, such as the numbers 2 , 3 , 4 and 6 . Because of several measurements based on twelve, many Western languages have words for base-twelve units such as dozen , gross and great gross , which allow for rudimentary duodecimal nomenclature , such as "two gross six dozen" for 360. Ancient Romans used

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2816-417: Is no consistent and widely accepted way to extend cardinals beyond centillion ( centilliard ). The following table details the myriad, octad, Ancient Greek Archimedes's notation, Chinese myriad, Chinese long and -yllion names for powers of 10. There is also a Knuth -proposed system notation of numbers, named the -yllion system. In this system, a new word is invented for every 2 -th power of ten. This

2904-422: Is not much need for counting among hunter-gatherers who do not engage in commerce. Many languages around the world have no numerals above two to four (if they are actually numerals at all, and not some other part of speech)—or at least did not before contact with the colonial societies—and speakers of these languages may have no tradition of using the numerals they did have for counting. Indeed, several languages from

2992-422: Is not universal: Wambaya marks number on nouns but not verbs, and Onondaga marks number on verbs but not nouns. Latin has different singular and plural forms for nouns, verbs, and adjectives, in contrast to English where adjectives do not change for number. Tundra Nenets can mark singular and plural on nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and postpositions . However, the most common part of speech to show

3080-447: Is obligatory for pronouns but facultative for nouns. In Comanche , it is obligatory when referring to humans, facultative for other animate nouns, and rarely used for inanimate nouns. There are also languages where use of the dual number is more restricted than singular and plural. In the possessive noun forms of Northern Sámi , the possessor can be in the dual number, but the noun possessed can only be singular or plural. Pronouns are

3168-419: Is rare for a language to mark the trial on nouns, and some sources even claim that trial marking on nouns does not exist. However, it has been recorded for a few languages; besides Awa, Arabana , Urama , and Angaataha have trial number. It is much more common for a language to have trial pronouns, the case for the Austronesian languages of Larike , Tolai , Raga , and Wamesa . A minimal example

3256-411: Is the case for Sanskrit , North Mansi , and Alutiiq . In languages with a facultative dual, two of something can be referred to using either the dual or the plural, and so plural means two or more. This is the case for modern Arabic dialects, at least some Inuktitut dialects, and Yandruwandha . In some languages, the dual is obligatory in certain cases but facultative in others. In Slovene , it

3344-417: Is this always the case. The Northern Gumuz paucal/plural may sometimes refer to "much greater than four". In some languages, the default form of a noun is not singular, but rather general, which does not specify number and could mean one or more than one. Singular and plural forms are marked from the general form. The general is used when the specific number is deemed irrelevant or unimportant. In this system,

3432-456: Is to categorize the apparent trial/quadral/quintal forms as "cardinal plurals", or forms of the grammatical plural number where the number of people is specified. Other authors have treated these concepts as perfectly equivalent, referring to pronoun numeral incorporation while still applying the terms quadral and quintal. There are also cases of sign language pronouns indicating specific numbers of referents above five. Ugandan Sign Language has

3520-605: Is used for groups of four or more (and must be used instead of the plural for a group of two or more dyads). There is thus some overlap between the two groups; a family of four can be referred to in Sursurunga by either of the paucals. This distinction is found both in Sursurunga's personal pronouns and in two different sets of possessive pronouns, one for edible things and one for non-edible things. The quadral number denotes exactly four items. Apparent examples of its use are almost entirely confined to pronouns, and specifically those in

3608-568: The Palikúr language has a base-seven system, but this is dubious. Octal systems are based on the number 8. Examples can be found in the Yuki language of California and in the Pamean languages of Mexico , because the Yuki and Pame keep count by using the four spaces between their fingers rather than the fingers themselves. Nonary systems are based on the number 9. It has been suggested that Nenets has

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3696-597: The Sorbian languages . Indo-European languages that have long ago lost the dual still sometimes have residual traces of it, such as the English distinctions both vs. all , either vs. any , and neither vs. none . The Norwegian både , cognate with English both , has further evolved to be able to refer to more than two items, as in både epler, pærer, og druer , literally "both apples, pears, and grapes." The trial number denotes exactly three items. For example, in Awa : It

3784-535: The Amazon have been independently reported to have no specific number words other than 'one'. These include Nadëb , pre-contact Mocoví and Pilagá , Culina and pre-contact Jarawara , Jabutí , Canela-Krahô , Botocudo (Krenák) , Chiquitano , the Campa languages , Arabela , and Achuar . Some languages of Australia, such as Warlpiri , do not have words for quantities above two, and neither did many Khoisan languages at

3872-457: The English sentences below: The quantity of apples is marked on the noun—"apple" singular number (one item) vs. "apples" plural number (more than one item)—on the demonstrative, that/those , and on the verb, is/are . In the second sentence, all this information is redundant , since quantity is already indicated by the numeral two . A language has grammatical number when its noun forms are subdivided into morphological classes according to

3960-467: The Kiwaian languages, but it is now recognized that many actually have a paucal instead. Linguist Michael Cysouw has suggested that most languages reported to have trials in fact have mislabelled paucals, and that true trials are very rare. On the other hand, Luise Hercus stated in her published grammar of Arabana that the language's trial (which can be marked on nouns) is a true trial which cannot act as

4048-452: The Melanesian pidgins of Tok Pisin, Bislama, and Pijin. However, while these are grammatically possible, they are rare, and plural forms are almost always used in their place. Many different sign languages have been explicitly described as having quadral pronoun forms. Estonian Sign Language has even been described as having the quadral for nouns. Marshallese has been said to have

4136-418: The base are a distinct part of speech , while the words for powers of the base belong to one of the other word classes. In English, these higher words are hundred 10 , thousand 10 , million 10 , and higher powers of a thousand ( short scale ) or of a million ( long scale —see names of large numbers ). These words cannot modify a noun without being preceded by an article or numeral (* hundred dogs played in

4224-448: The body which do not have a numeric base; there are (or were) no numerals, but rather nouns for relevant parts of the body—or simply pointing to the relevant spots—were used for quantities. For example, 1–4 may be the fingers, 5 'thumb', 6 'wrist', 7 'elbow', 8 'shoulder', etc., across the body and down the other arm, so that the opposite little finger represents a number between 17 ( Torres Islands ) to 23 ( Eleman ). For numbers beyond this,

4312-402: The cardinal numbers 5 to 10 were feminine nouns; when quantifying a noun, that noun was declined in the genitive plural like other nouns that followed a noun of quantity (one would say the equivalent of "five of people"). In English grammar, the classification " numeral " (viewed as a part of speech ) is reserved for those words which have distinct grammatical behavior: when a numeral modifies

4400-519: The court of the Georgian kings of Kartli . Their fiefdom, Samachablo, covered a significant portion of what is now breakaway region of the so called " South Ossetia ", and enjoyed a degree of autonomy within the Kingdom of Kartli from c. 1470 to 1800 when Georgia was annexed to Imperial Russia . The Machabeli house was confirmed in princely dignity by the Russian Tsar in 1850. This article about

4488-554: The dual can only be used by an adult male speaking to another adult male. Dual number existed in all nouns and adjectives of Proto-Indo-European around 4000 BCE, and was inherited in some form in many of its prehistoric , protohistoric , ancient , and medieval descendents. Only rarely has it persisted in Indo-European languages to the modern day. It survived in Proto-Germanic in the first and second person pronouns, where it

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4576-486: The existence of multiple plural categories may blur the line between paucal and plural. For example, Mele-Fila is said to have a paucal, plural, and greater plural. However, the transition between plural and greater plural occurs around 15 to 20. This puts the Mele-Fila "plural" in range of some larger "paucals" described in other languages. Thus the distinction is muddied between a system of paucal, plural, greater plural, and

4664-421: The fact that they designate a specific number. Examples are words such as five, ten, fifty, one hundred, etc. They may or may not be treated as a distinct part of speech; this may vary, not only with the language, but with the choice of word. For example, "dozen" serves the function of a noun , "first" serves the function of an adjective , and "twice" serves the function of an adverb . In Old Church Slavonic ,

4752-544: The following tables, [and] indicates that the word and is used in some dialects (such as British English ), and omitted in other dialects (such as American English ). This table demonstrates the standard English construction of some cardinal numbers. (See next table for names of larger cardinals.) This table compares the English names of cardinal numbers according to various American, British, and Continental European conventions. See English numerals or names of large numbers for more information on naming numbers. There

4840-558: The global plural, the remote plural, the plural of abundance, the unlimited plural, and the superplural. For example, in Tswana : The greater plural may also be a component of larger number systems. Nouns in Barngarla have a four-way distinction of singular, dual, plural, and greater plural. The same four-way distinction is found in Mokilese pronouns, where a former trial has evolved to become

4928-401: The greater plural exists only in nouns and not pronouns. Oppositely, Mokilese has the greater plural in pronouns but not nouns. Chamacoco has the greater plural only in first person inclusive pronouns, second person pronouns, and first person inclusive verb inflections. Tigre has the greater plural only in a single word, nälät , which means a large number of deer. Greatest plural is

5016-425: The grounds that a Russian noun cannot be declined to stand by itself and mean anywhere between 2 and 4. Similar constructions can be found in other Slavic languages , including Polish , Serbo-Croatian , and Slovene. Because Slovene also has a regular dual, there is a four-way distinction of nouns being singular with 1, dual with 2, plural with 3 or 4, and genitive plural with 5 or more. The greater paucal number

5104-565: The highland Lepoʼ Sawa dialect spoken in Long Anap . There seems to be no other published sources of info on this dialect's pronouns, and an investigation into the lowland Lebo’ Vo’ dialect has revealed a paucal instead of a quadral. A quadral claim has also been made for the animate demonstrative pronouns in Nauruan . Outside the Austronesian family, Abun storytelling reportedly frequently contains quadral pronouns in addition to trial ones. Perhaps

5192-467: The lack of grammatical number with an extensive system of measure words . Joseph Greenberg has proposed a number category hierarchy as a linguistic universal : "No language has a trial number unless it has a dual. No language has a dual unless it has a plural." This hierarchy does not account for the paucal. Obligatory plural marking of all nouns is found throughout the languages of western and northern Eurasia and most parts of Africa . The rest of

5280-437: The languages of Oceania or in sign languages . It has been contested whether the quadral truly exists in natural language; some linguists have rejected it as an extant category, while others have accepted it. Some languages that have previously been described as having a quadral, like Sursurunga, have since been reanalyzed as having a paucal instead. Like trial forms, quadral forms of pronouns have been said to be attested in

5368-544: The modern indigenous languages of their descendants, namely the Nahuatl and Mayan languages (see Maya numerals ). A modern national language which uses a full vigesimal system is Dzongkha in Bhutan. Partial vigesimal systems are found in some European languages: Basque , Celtic languages , French (from Celtic), Danish , and Georgian . In these languages the systems are vigesimal up to 99, then decimal from 100 up. That is, 140

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5456-471: The multiples of its base. Balinese , for example, currently has a decimal system, with words for 10, 100, and 1000, but has additional simplex numerals for 25 (with a second word for 25 only found in a compound for 75), 35, 45, 50, 150, 175, 200 (with a second found in a compound for 1200), 400, 900, and 1600. In Hindustani , the numerals between 10 and 100 have developed to the extent that they need to be learned independently. In many languages, numerals up to

5544-440: The number 4. Some Austronesian , Melanesian , Sulawesi , and Papua New Guinea ethnic groups, count with the base number four, using the term asu or aso , the word for dog , as the ubiquitous village dog has four legs. This is argued by anthropologists to be also based on early humans noting the human and animal shared body feature of two arms and two legs as well as its ease in simple arithmetic and counting. As an example of

5632-481: The number 5. It is almost certain the quinary system developed from counting by fingers (five fingers per hand). An example are the Epi languages of Vanuatu, where 5 is luna 'hand', 10 lua-luna 'two hand', 15 tolu-luna 'three hand', etc. 11 is then lua-luna tai 'two-hand one', and 17 tolu-luna lua 'three-hand two'. 5 is a common auxiliary base , or sub-base , where 6 is 'five and one', 7 'five and two', etc. Aztec

5720-458: The old system equals sixteen taels . The suanpan (Chinese abacus ) can be used to perform hexadecimal calculations such as additions and subtractions. South Asian monetary systems were base-16. One rupee in Pakistan and India was divided into 16 annay. A single anna was subdivided into four paisa or twelve pies (thus there were 64 paise or 192 pies in a rupee). The anna was demonetised as

5808-433: The only known spoken language outside Oceania to have a claimed quadral is Apinayé of Brazil, recorded as having a third person pronominal prefix meaning "they four", although this has been little researched or described. In some Austronesian languages with a singular/dual/trial/plural pronoun system, the plural forms are etymologically related to the number four. This has led to suggestions or assertions that historically

5896-452: The only part of speech with a dual form in some Polynesian languages , including Samoan , Tuvaluan , and Māori . In Maltese , the dual only exists for about 30 specific nouns, of which it is obligatory for only 8 (hour, day, week, month, year, once, hundred, and thousand). Words that can take a facultative dual in Maltese include egg, branch, tear, and wicker basket. In Mezquital Otomi ,

5984-480: The opening of the Gettysburg Address : "Four score and seven years ago our fathers..." . Quadrovigesimal systems are based on the number 24. The Sko languages have a base-24 system with a sub-base of 6. Duotrigesimal systems are based on the number 32. The Ngiti ethnolinguistic group uses a base 32 numeral system. Sexagesimal systems are based on the number 60. Ekari has a base-60 system. Sumeria had

6072-523: The park ), and so are nouns. In East Asia, the higher units are hundred, thousand, myriad 10 , and powers of myriad . In the Indian subcontinent , they are hundred, thousand, lakh 10 , crore 10 , and so on . The Mesoamerican system , still used to some extent in Mayan languages , was based on powers of 20: bak’ 400 (20 ), pik 8000 (20 ), kalab 160,000 (20 ), etc. The cardinal numbers have numerals. In

6160-645: The paucal in Avar). Takivatan Bunun has a paucal only in its distal demonstratives used in reference to people. It is common for former trials to evolve in meaning to become paucals, and many Austronesian languages have paucal markers that are etymologically derived from the numeral three, indicating the old usage. It is less common for duals to evolve into paucals, but this has been observed in some dialects of Arabic. Paucals that are etymologically trials are sometimes incorrectly described as being trials. For example, trial pronouns were once described as being found in all

6248-418: The primary factor for using the paucal is not a specific number range, but the referents forming a single group; although the paucal is most common between 3 and 5, it has been used with more than 20. In Paamese , a major factor is relative group size compared to the plural, such that even though the paucal generally means 12 or fewer, a group of 2,000 people may be referred to in the paucal when contrasted with

6336-702: The princes of the Abkhaz-Georgian feudal clan of Anchabadze who had fled the disorders in Abkhazia . Another version holds it that the Machabeli were an offshoot of the Tavkhelidze family who adopted their dynastic name after the village of Achabeti on the Great Liakhvi River where their initial domain was located. Beginning with the 15th century, the Machabeli grew in prominence and held various important posts at

6424-845: The pronouns in Mussau and Lihir have dual, trial, and paucal. The lower bound of the paucal is usually defined by what other number categories exist in the language. In singular/paucal/plural paradigms, use of the paucal begins at two, but with the addition of the dual, the paucal begins at three. There is usually no exact upper bound on how many paucal refers to, and its approximate range depends on both language and context. It has been recorded as going up to about 5 in Warndarrang , about 6 in Baiso , 10 in Arabic, and about 10 or 15 in Murrinh-patha . In Manam ,

6512-415: The quadral as a regular feature in its pronoun system. While the apparent Marshallese quadral can mean exactly four, it also has an alternate rhetorical use in speeches to larger groups in order to impart a sense of individual intimacy. According to Greville Corbett , this means it is better classified as a paucal. However, there is not consensus that this alternate use means Marshallese does not truly have

6600-761: The quantity they express, such that: This is partly true for English: every noun and pronoun form is singular or plural (a few, such as " fish ", " cannon " and " you ", can be either, according to context). Some modifiers of nouns—namely the demonstrative determiners—and finite verbs inflect to agree with the number of the noun forms they modify or have as subject: this car and these cars are correct, while * this cars and * these car are incorrect. However, adjectives do not inflect for and many verb forms do not distinguish between singular and plural ("She/They went", "She/They can go", "She/They had gone", "She/They will go"). Many languages distinguish between count nouns and mass nouns . Only count nouns can be freely used in

6688-525: The range of possible numbers into different sections. One low cut defines paucal and plural, and one high cut defines plural and greater plural. Two low cuts define paucal, greater paucal, and plural; one low cut and one high cut define paucal, plural, and greater plural; and two high cuts define plural, greater plural, and greatest plural. There does not appear to be any language with three such cuts, and so no language with three paucal categories and an "even greater paucal". Because they are inexactly defined,

6776-504: The second person pronouns yutufala (dual) and yutrifala (trial). These forms theoretically have no specific limit, but in practicality usually stop at three. Sign languages described as having a quintal in addition to the quadral include American Sign Language , Argentine Sign Language , British Sign Language , German Sign Language , Levantine Arabic Sign Language , and Ugandan Sign Language . The validity has been debated of categorizing sign language pronouns as having

6864-566: The singular and in the plural. Mass nouns, like "milk", "gold", and "furniture", are normally invariant. (In some cases, a normally mass noun X may be used as a count noun to collect several distinct kinds of X into an enumerable group; for example, a cheesemaker might speak of goat, sheep, and cow milk as milks .) Not all languages have number as a grammatical category. In those that do not, quantity must be expressed either directly, with numerals , or indirectly, through optional quantifiers . However, many of these languages compensate for

6952-725: The singular is often called the singulative, to distinguish it as derived from a different form. Similarly, the plural derived from the general has been called the plurative. For example, in Pular : However, some languages only have a two-way difference between general and plurative, like in Japanese : Less common is a two-way distinction between general and singulative. No language has this as its default number contrast, although some languages have specific nouns with this distinction. For example, in Sidama : Numeral (linguistics) In linguistics,

7040-554: The storytelling of Abun , a possible language isolate. In the Solomon Islands, trial pronouns are used very frequently in Touo , either a Central Solomon language or a language isolate. As a result, bilingual speakers of Touo and Pijin will use trial pronouns a lot more commonly in Pijin than other speakers, for whom the trial is usually a lot less common than the dual. A very rare example of

7128-440: The system's ease a realistic scenario could include a farmer returning from the market with fifty asu heads of pig (200), less 30 asu (120) of pig bartered for 10 asu (40) of goats noting his new pig count total as twenty asu : 80 pigs remaining. The system has a correlation to the dozen counting system and is still in common use in these areas as a natural and easy method of simple arithmetic. Quinary systems are based on

7216-535: The time of European contact. Such languages do not have a word class of 'numeral'. Most languages with both numerals and counting use base 8, 10, 12, or 20. Base 10 appears to come from counting one's fingers, base 20 from the fingers and toes, base 8 from counting the spaces between the fingers (attested in California), and base 12 from counting the knuckles (3 each for the four fingers). Many languages of Melanesia have (or once had) counting systems based on parts of

7304-544: The torso, legs and toes may be used, or one might count back up the other arm and back down the first, depending on the people. Binary systems are based on the number 2, using zeros and ones. Due to its simplicity, only having two distinct digits, binary is commonly used in computing, with zero and one often corresponding to "off/on" respectively. Ternary systems are based on the number 3, having practical usage in some analog logic, in baseball scoring and in self–similar mathematical structures. Quaternary systems are based on

7392-537: The use of markers higher than the dual not being obligatory, with replacement by the plural being acceptable. There was not enough data available to McBurney to argue whether or not these reasons equally applied to other sign languages. Linguist Raquel Veiga Busto has argued they do not equally apply to Catalan Sign Language , and has applied the terms quadral and quintal to the language's pronouns for convenience without taking an official stance as to whether they are grammatical number or numeral incorporation. A third model

7480-464: The world have formal means to express differences of number. One widespread distinction, found in English and many other languages, involves a simple two-way contrast between singular and plural number ( car / cars , child / children , etc.). Discussion of other more elaborate systems of number appears below. Grammatical number is a morphological category characterized by the expression of quantity through inflection or agreement. As an example, consider

7568-680: The world's languages present a heterogeneous picture. Optional plural marking is common in Southeast and East Asia and Australian languages , and complete lack of plural marking is particularly found in New Guinea and Australian languages. In addition to the areal correlations , there also seems to be at least one correlation with morphological typology : isolating languages appear to favor no or non-obligatory plural marking. This can be seen particularly in Africa, where optionality or absence of plural marking

7656-639: Was a vigesimal (base-20) system with sub-base 5. Senary systems are based on the number 6. The Morehead-Maro languages of Southern New Guinea are examples of the rare base 6 system with monomorphemic words running up to 6 . Examples are Kanum and Kómnzo . The Sko languages on the North Coast of New Guinea follow a base-24 system with a sub-base of 6. Septenary systems are based on the number 7. Septenary systems are very rare, as few natural objects consistently have seven distinctive features. Traditionally, it occurs in week-related timing. It has been suggested that

7744-563: Was then inherited by Old English , Old High German , Old Low German , Early Old Swedish , Old Norwegian , Old Icelandic , and Gothic . It continued in Icelandic until the 1700s, some dialects of Faroese until at least the late 1800s, and some dialects of North Frisian through the 1900s. From Proto-Greek it entered Ancient Greek , and from Proto-Indo-Iranian it entered Sanskrit. From Proto-Slavic , it still exists today in Slovene and

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