ayearinlanguage: A Year in Language, Day 19: Nheengatu Nheengatu is a language native to Brazil. It
ayearinlanguage: A Year in Language, Day 19: Nheengatu Nheengatu is a language native to Brazil. It is the direct descendant of the classical Tupi language, which was once a lingua franca of the Amazon and part of the namesake of the language family to which Nheengatu belongs: the Tupi-Guarani family. Like the Bantu languages of Africa, Nheengatu has prenasalized consonants, and all of its vowels have a contrasting nasal variety. Nheengatu uses a base 5 counting system instead of the base 10 English speakers are familiar with. There are distinct words for one to five, but six is “five one”, seven is “five two” and so on. -- source link