This PMP construction replaced PAn *ma-lima-N ‘fifty’.

Presumably with the same numeral marker that appears as e in other Oceanic languages.

For Mongondow i-lima ‘the fifth’ cp. e.g. Kadazan Dusun iŋg-onom, Malagasy in-énina ‘six times’,Mongondow iŋg-onon ‘the sixth’. This still poorly understood numeral prefix evidently had different allomorphs before vowel-initial and consonant-initial bases.

In many languages it is difficult to disinguish reflexes of this form from reflexes of PAn *Sika-lima ‘the fifth’. Both *ka-lima and *maka-lima appear to have meant ‘five times’, and it is therefore possible that the data taken to support this shorter word are actually truncated forms of *maka-lima.

Possibly *ka-lima ‘become fifth’.

Onvlee (1984) gives Kambera njara makalimangu baina ‘a stallion with five mares’ (lit. ‘a stallion, five times his mares’, but this appears to be njara ma-ka-lima-ŋu bai-na ). It is possible that the PAn form meaning ‘five times’ was *maka-lima-N.

Although the prefix in this form clearly was *maŋ-, it may have had an allomorph [maŋa] before bases that began with a liquid consonant.

This form is puzzling, as it is clearly derived from *lima ‘five’, but *qa- is not a known affix. A number of other languages reflect *lima as both ‘five’ and ‘hand’, in the latter meaning presumably by reduction of the longer form. In other cases the two senses are distinguished by stress, as in Bontok limá ‘five’ : líma ‘hand and arm’, or Kankanaey limá ‘five’ : líma, ma-limá-an ‘manipulated; rickety, as chickens or dogs that are manipulated too much in their youth’. The latter meaning raises questions about whether seemingly distinct items such as Cebuano alíma ‘take care of someone by administering to his needs’, or Manobo (Western Bukidnon) elima ‘to care for; to look after; to provide for, as children, plants, garden, animals, etc.’ might also be related (cf. English ‘to handle someone’s affairs’).

The reconstruction of this pattern for multiples of ten in PAn was first demonstrated by Zeitoun, Teng and Ferrell (2010).

Puyuma (Tsuchida 1980) also has a pattern paR-X-n for bases ending in a vowel, and paR-X-en for bases ending in a consonant, meaning ‘to do X times’. However, for this affixational pattern the innovative form luwaT ‘five’ is used, yielding paR-luwaT ‘to do five times’. While this form cannot be directly compared with those in Philippine languages, it does suggest that if a reflex of *lima had been retained in this type of construction the result would have been **paR-lima-n, and the reconstruction given here would then be upgraded to PAn.