International Journal of American Linguistics· 2026Q2
Counting in the Caquetá-Putumayo Region of Northwest Amazonia
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- 2026year
Short summary
Languages in Northwest Amazonia's Caquetá-Putumayo region use shared strategies for numbers above two, including body-part terms up to twenty, due to long-term multilingualism.
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Key points
- Numeral systems in the Caquetá-Putumayo region share structural properties due to multilingualism.
- Numbers above 'two' are formed using fraternal, additive, or 'half'-based strategies.
- Body-part terms are frequently used for enumeration from 'five' up to 'twenty'.
- Adnominal numerals are rarely used within noun phrases, with classifiers playing a central role.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
This article examines numerals in the languages of the Caquetá-Putumayo (CP) region of Northwest Amazonia. Drawing on data from Witotoan, Boran, Arawak (Resígaro), and the isolate Andoke, the study shows that CP numeral systems share a set of structural properties shaped by long-term multilingualism. Numeral roots for ‘one’ and ‘two’ coexist with forms of different historical and functional origins, while fraternal, additive, and other lexical (‘middle/center/half’-based) strategies serve to express values above ‘two’. From ‘five’ onward, enumeration typically employs body-part terms, often extending to ‘twenty’. The analysis highlights the limited use of adnominal numerals within the noun phrase, the central role of classifier morphology, and selective borrowing within a broader Amazonian context. The findings contribute to our understanding of numeral systems as sites of cultural meaning, grammatical innovation, and regional contact in Northwest Amazonia.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. International Journal of American Linguistics, 2026 · DOI ↗
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