Re: [tied] Fw: Sorok i devianosto

There are various etymological proposals concerning <sorok>. If I remember correctly, Comrie in Gvozdanovic's collection criticises the "tessarokonta" hypothesis and supports the connection between <sorok> and Germanic *sarki- 'garment, coat' -- I haven't got the book to hand but I recall I once summarised this on early Cybalist. Everybody agrees, at any rate, that it was a trade term originally, and that it meant a bundle of 40 skins.

<dev'anosto> comes from *deve~tIno sUto 'nonary hundred'. The formation is reminiscent of Germanic "hund" counting (cf. OE hund-nigontig '90').

Piotr

----- Original Message -----
From: "george knysh" <gknysh@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 28, 2003 1:19 AM
Subject: Re: [tied] Fw: Sorok i devianosto


>
> --- Davius Sanctex <gruposdavius@...> wrote:
> > A question about Russian:
> >
> > dvadtsat' = dva-djesjat' = dos-diez
> > tridtsat' = tri-djesjat' = tres-diez
> > SOROK = ¿ ? (Otkuda? ¿de dónde?)
> > 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.*****