Re: [tied] Re: Why borrow 'seven'? (was: IE right & 10)

From: Harald Hammarström
Message: 34398
Date: 2004-10-01

> > > '7' yorthelemrr yormart koyrr
> > > '8' yorthelemrr yormart morrmaq
> > > '9' yorthelemrr yormart morrmaq
> > > '10' yorkoyrr
> > > - a quinary system with a suppletive word for six. (Curious,
> > > morphemes up to 'six' - someone said that didn't happen!
> >
> > What I meant was that there is no, or almost no, attested system
> > with (only) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, many. Cases with bigger systems with 1-6
> > and the higher bases monomorphemic are more plentiful, but still of
> > course quite uncommon.
>
> Do you wish to rephrase this 'clarification'. As it stands, the
> last sentence does not seem to be true.

Consider systems which have conventionalised ways of expressing higher numerals
than six, these are always systems which have a base. It can be the
case that these have exactly 1-6, 10, .. monomorphemic (as opposed to
e.g 1-10 monomorphemic or 1-5, 10 monomorphemic). This is more common than
systems with only 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, many (which I don't even know one
case). But if you look at the how many 1-6, 10, .. systems there are
attested against all attested systems, they are very rare.

Harald