--- Davius Sanctex <
gruposdavius@...> wrote:
> A question about Russian:
>
> dvadtsat' = dva-djesjat' = dos-diez
> tridtsat' = tri-djesjat' = tres-diez
> SOROK = � ? (Otkuda? �de d�nde?)
> pit'disjat' = pjat'-djesjat' = cinco-diez
> shest'disjat' = shest'-djesjat' = seis-diez
> sim'disjat' = sjem'-djesjat' = siete-diez
> vosjem'disjat' = vosjem'-djesjat' = ocho-diez
> djevjanosto = djevjat' + �no? + sto =
> = nine + �**? + 100
>
> What is the source of this SOROK ?
*****GK: It apparently derives (for all East Slavic
languages) from mediaeval Byzantine-Rus' commercial
contacts. One Byzantine litra (a unit of account found
in the earliest treaties between Kyiv and
Constantinople) was the equivalent of 40 marten skins.
And so Greek "tessarokonta" --> sorokonta --> sorokont
--> SOROK replaced the basic Slavic "chotyry desjat'".
There is a good account in O. Nazarenko's
"Proizkhozhdenie drevnerusskogo denezhno-vesovogo
scheta", published as pp. 5-79 of the 1996 issue of
DREVNEISHIE GOSUDARSTVA VOSTOCHNOI YEVROPI.*****
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