Re: 5 = "hand"

In Hindi, Panza is both (open)palm and five.

Kishore patnaik

On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 4:23 PM, Pavel A. da Mek <a.da_mek0@...> wrote:

> there are languages where 2 = "many", 5 = "hand", etc.

There were two systems of counting on fingers or digits: excluding the
thumb and including the thumb. So the numeral 5 was literally "with
thumb" and 4 "without". This allows us to reconstruct pre-PIE words

kWe "with"
pen "thumb"
twor "out"
pen-kWe "with thumb > five"
kWe-twor "without > four"

P.A.

(This message is intended to be read tomorrow.)

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