Last night, I went to sleep reading the EIEC article on numerals (yes, EIEC
is bedtime reading; it explains why my copy of this cheaply bound but
expensive to purchase volume is rapidly falling apart, and keeps together
only by the grace of duct tape).
The interesting thing is that the ten-word probably means twice-five
(duo-dkm), and that the centum/satem word means 'big/enhanced/raised by ten
ten'.
It does raise questions about the exact number of a hecatomb (a 100 cattle
sacrifice).
Germanic used the this root as a 'fundamental counting unit'; it appears in
compound-words up to 120.
I also read how 1-4 are adjectives, but 5 onwards are nouns, the two words
for 'one' (un and sem), and especially, the peculiarity of 'three': 'the
one, distinct from the other two, as in latinate 'testimony' (i.e,
'witness'). Eight seems to be a dual (four-*dual ending*).
PIE cannot claim a complete set of home-grown numerals from 1 to 10. 1, 2,
3, yes, but innumerately. Maybe four. Definitely five. After that, there
seems to no agreement beyond the observation that there was a lot of
inter-stock borrowing. Nine is the 'new-numeral'. Everyone comments about a
Semitic borrowing for 7. Germanic 11 and 12 are 'one left' and 'two left'
(after ten).
The interesting thing is that base-ten counting took a while to impose
itself semi-completely. We still tell time and count by 12s.
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