Re: Fwd: Phonetic change lo-no in some languages

From: Rick McCallister
Message: 55631
Date: 2008-03-21

So perhaps they were counting by placing the thumb
against each finger in turn?

--- Patrick Ryan <proto-language@...> wrote:

> I could offer my opinion of the phonetic question
> involved.
>
> I believe the PIE word for 'nine' does derive from
> the word for 'new'; and
> would have had the pronunciation of /nawa/ in a
> Mitannian (IIr)context.
>
> The form of the word in earliest PIE will have been
> /nowo/ from Nostratic
> /nup?u/.
>
> The idea of 'new' is simply that the thumbs were not
> employed for digits in
> this system of counting; and after the four fingers
> on each hand (8), a
> 'new' count must begin.
>
> Patrick
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Kishore patnaik" <kishorepatnaik09@...>
> To: <vedichistory@yahoogroups.com>;
> <ancientindia@yahoogroups.com>;
> <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Friday, March 21, 2008 11:58 AM
> Subject: [tied] Fwd: Phonetic change lo-no in some
> languages
>
>
>
>
> [Moderator's note : Found this interesting]
>
> --- In austroasiatic@yahoogroups.com, "kalyan97"
> <kalyan97@...>
> wrote:
>
> I am struggling to find an answer to this problem
> related to Santali
> and many languages of India.
>
> lo = nine (Santali)
> noe = nine (Bengali); no_~ = nine (Lahnd.a, Punjabi)
>
> I am told that l-n interchanges are recorded in
> Pushto and Assamese.
>
> My problem is deeper. There is an early word for
> nine in Sanskrit
> (Vedic), also attested in Kikkuli's horse training
> manual (ca. 1700
> BCE); the word is 'nava'. What could have been the
> early phonetic
> form of the word for nine? Was it lo or no?
>
> An answer to this is likely to be significant in
> unravelling the
> language used which may be read on some glyphs of
> inscribed objects
> to count a set of 9 leaves.
>
> The word loa means a ficus glomerata (the type of
> leaf depicted on
> inscribed objects).
>
> The word loh means metal (ore) in Santali.
>
> There is a hypothesis which I have suggested that
> the count of nine
> leaves is a phonetic determinant of the substantive
> word lo which
> meant 'metal ore'.
>
> The nature of the phonetic change is likely to
> determine if the
> language used by the person who created the
> inscribed object, say,
> for trade or for denoting personal property holdings
> or profession
> [say, a metal-worker or smith] was either Santali or
> some early Indo-
> European dialect used in the area generally called
> the Harappan
> Civilization or Sarasvati-Sindhu Valley Civilization
> (ca. 3300 to
> 1400 BCE).
>
>
http://www.hindunet.org/saraswati/munda/mundanine.htm
> This URL provides background notes and the pictures
> of inscribed
> objects.
>
> I shall be thankful for the views of the members of
> the group.
>
> --- End forwarded message ---
>
>



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