Tag Archives: fractions

Fractions

I was just wondering about the way Ayeri forms fractions. The Grammar (§ 4.2.2.1) currently says that:

Fractional numerals are formed from men ‘one’ plus the integer divided by.

A table with all the forms for the basic numerals from ja to tam is listed.[1. Cf. an earlier article on numerals on this blog.] It informs furthermore that in order to

give multiples of a fraction, the numerator is used as a modifier of the fraction word, which serves as the head of the phrase:

[gloss]vadisān menkay sam
bread {third [= one.three]} two[/gloss]
‘two thirds of a loaf’

However, how about a competing (e.g. traditional/colloquial vs. mathematical) or regional alternative where the denominator is the genitive form of the respective cardinal number, like this:

  1. [gloss]vadisān kay-ena sam
    bread three-GEN two[/gloss]
    ‘two thirds of a loaf’

Or, to pattern with other case-marked numerals and their special meanings,[1. Cf. an earlier article on ordinals and multiplicative numerals on this blog.] the numeral could also be nominalized first and then case-marked:

  1. [gloss]vadisān kay-an-ena sam
    bread three-NMLZ-GEN two[/gloss]
    ‘two thirds of a loaf’

Although kayanena is strictly speaking a nominal form and thus might be expected to follow ordinals (kayan vadisānena ‘the third bread’, three-NMLZ bread-GEN), it makes sense to use it as a regular numeral anyway – a drop-in replacement for menkay – since noun phrases cannot usually be doubly case-marked in Ayeri:

  1. [gloss]Ang konja vadisānena {kayan-ena [= menkay]} sam.
    AT eat-3SG.M.T bread-GEN third-GEN two[/gloss]
    ‘He ate two thirds of a loaf.’

  2. [gloss]*​Ang konja kayan-ena-ley sam vadisānena.
    AT eat-3SG.M.T third-GEN-P sam vadisānena[/gloss]