Watch out for number ONE: Jingpho ŋāi 'I' and ləŋâi 'one (with some speculations about Jingpho number TWO)

Abstract

The Jingpho (Jg.) word ləŋâi one has always had a special place in my heart, since it was the very first form I ever elicited in a Tibeto-Burman (TB) language, in the summer of 1963, when working with LaRaw Maran. The next word to emerge in that elicitation session was of course lekhorj 'two'. Already these two forms led me to a couple of false assumptions: (a) that the prefix 13-was very common, especially with numerals; and (b) that the high-to-low falling tone, "51" (symbolized here as I "/ ) was likewise. Both assumptions were of course premature. b- occurs with no other numerals, except HUNDRED, where it seems to mean ONE; and "51" turned out to be by far the rarest of the Jg. tones, occurring mostly as a sandhi variant of the low tone "31"1 -- though it does in fact occur with one other numeral, dzekhu 'nine'.