10-Cycle Systems

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There are among the Austronesian (AN) and Non-Austronesian (NAN) languages of Papua New Guinea and Oceania, examples of 10-cycle systems that do not have a 5-cycle or 20-cycle system. Of these, there are a number that have (10, 20) or (10, 20, 60) cycle and given the ancient origins of these cultures, it is evident that the Babylonians were not the only people to have 60-cycle systems nor that they were diffused from Babylon but rather were unusual, unique local developments. In addition, some systems have a replacement for 10 in higher numbers and others regard the specific group of 10 as more important than the number 10 itself leading to a range of words for 10 as in Motu. Lean (1992) also indicated that pairs may dominate and there are some systems in which 10 is likely to refer to 10 pairs. In addition, a number of systems refer to numbers such as 8 as 4 × 2, 9 = 4 × 2 + 1 while others in the second pentad refer to the number required to reach the complete group of 10 such as 8 = 10-2. Furthermore, a 10-cycle system is by no means the norm for AN languages. Interestingly, classifiers for number groups are also found in a range of languages from those in Manus (AN), to NAN languages in Bougainville to Polynesian languages of Micronesia as well as in the Solomons (Chapter 8 has more details.). Comparative data indicate the probability of Proto Polynesian language having this kind of classifier rather than it occurring discretely.