09-11-03 16:35, Harald Hammarstrom wrote:
> In fact, neither I nor the literature on the subject
> know of any language which has atoms over 10 (at least diachronically).
Well, there are some primitive systems of counting that have no base
(let alone an exponential base) but employ names of body parts as
numerals; these go beyond 10. For example, Telefol (from Papua New
Guinea, where such systems are rather common) is reported to have 27
atomic numerals, from <maakub> '1' = 'little finger of the left hand' to
<kakkat> '27' = 'little finger of the right hand' (just fancy having
different terms for them!). The middle number <mitkal> '14' is _of
course_ the word for 'nose' (well, on second thoughts it could be
something else).
> The 20-count in the IE languages I mentioned in the original query
> have all innovated it in that they were originally IE-decimal. But I have
> a difficulties finding information even on when they got it and so on, the
> origin question aside. It's hard to believe howvere that Piotr for example
> doesn't know anything about the distribution and age of the score-counts
> in older stages of English or that Jens doesn't know how long the Danes
> have counted so peculiarly :-)
Your faith in us is touching :-). All I know, however, is that the
_attested_ use of OE scoru in counting goes back to the 11th c. The
etymological meaning of the word (perhaps a calque from ON skor) was
'notch' (as e.g. on a wooden tally for keeping records).
What's interesting about early Germanic numerals is the use of *xunda-
as 'approximate hundred' (70-120), as in Old English:
70 hund-seofon-tig
80 hund-eahta-tig
90 hund-nigon-tig
100 hund-te:on-tig (= hund)
110 hund-ændlæf-tig
120 hund-twelf-tig
This must have something to do with the use of ON hundrað (and
occasionally of Eng. hundred) for the "long" or "great" hundred (120).
It's somethimes called the duodecimal hundred, though strictly speaking
in a duodecimal system a hundred = 144 (in decimal terms).
Piotr