Numbers.

The recent discussions on IE numbers has set me to thinking. It's
occurred to me that the concept of 'number' comes rather late to human
languages. It's not that our ancestors did not know how to count, or
were unaware of quantity. What I am suggesting is that the idea of
distinct numbers, going of into infinity, did not come along until
about the time the precursors of writing emerged, i.e., at the time
you started to have to represent quantity with symbols.

In preliterate societies, where you never have need to write down a
number, an exact low number (but not too far above twenty) can be
represented with gesture, with fingers. For things like tally sticks,
the usual system seems to have been units, and then, sets of units,
vs. an exact numeric representation. They could count, but seem not to
have counted the way we do, with distinct numerals.

I'm suggesting our ancestors did not think in numbers, but rather, in
sets, collectives. My speculation is that what 'numerals' they had
were actually nouns describing such sets.

The quirky thing about numerals is that they are fundamentally
adjectives, describing a quality rather than a thing (tho', of
coruse, every number can also be a noun). The great breakthrough must
have been when we first figured out this quality, and then
re-organized the counting system to accomodate the minting of such a
huge number of adjectives.

While we learn the number system early and quickly in childhood, it
seems to not be an intrinsically intuitive thing. It's something that
has to be taught.

Thoughts?