Origins of Northern Costanoan ʃak:en ‘six’:A Reconsideration of Senary Counting in Utian1

Proto‐Costanoan numerals for ‘one’, ‘two’, ‘three’, and ‘six’ are reconstructed by Callaghan (1990), leading her to suggest that Proto‐Costanoan may have had a senary (base 6) counting system, as originally proposed by Beeler (1961a). This paper suggests (i ) that Northern Costanoan *ʂak:en ‘six’ is a loan from Proto‐Eastern‐Miwok *ʂak:en ‘six’; (ii ) that, though there is little evidence for a senary counting system in Costanoan, there is evidence for base 6 counting in Eastern Miwok, from which, it is argued, the term ʃak:en ‘six’ was borrowed into Northern Costanoan and northern Yokuts; and (iii ) that Proto‐Eastern‐Miwok *ʂak:en ‘six’ is a derived form of the Proto‐Eastern‐Miwok stem *ʂok:e-, *ʂyk:e- ‘all, whole, everything’, lending further support to a senary count within this subgroup of Miwok. Under this analysis, only the numerals ‘one’, ‘two’, and ‘three’ are reconstructible for Proto‐Costanoan. This parallels Callaghan’s (1994) findings for Miwok, suggesting a restricted numeral system for Proto‐Utian as a whole.