Chontal de Tabasco originally had a complex counting system that used different numbers to refer to animate and inanimate nouns
(the two butterflies below are chap'e, for example, but two rocks would be chatu.)
But today, only the first four numerals of this traditional counting system are still used (unp'e/untu, chap'e/chatu,
uxp'e/uxtu, and chinp'e/chintu.) The others are the same regardless of animacy, and many of
the currently used numerals have been borrowed from Spanish (such as ses which comes from Spanish seis;
the original Chontal Maya word for six was recorded as wactu, presumably with the corresponding animate form wacp'e.)
Native American culture
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