Re: Numerals query again

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Harald Hammarstrom <haha2581@...>
wrote:

> Hi
> I'm suprised nooone answered my question below. You answer Alex:s
> stuff all the time so why not mine :-) Surely, Piotr you must know
> the answer for English?
> all the best, Harald
>
> -------------------------
> Dear experts in historical linguistics,
> What is the originof the 20-count in French, Danish, older English
> (score), Old Norse (skor), Insular Celtic and dialectal German

(steigs)?

>
> I've been doing some research in the literature but I figured I get
> better answer here. E.g the majestic Gvozdanovic volume "Indo-

European

> Numerals" have but little information on it. The chapter on Romance

does

> have some interesting information, suggesting that the 20-count for

French

> comes from English which in turn might have got it from Old Norse,

with

> some evidence and counter-points. But the Celtic chapter has almost

no

> information on theories of the origin but makes it clear that the

system

> probably does not date back to proto-Insular Celtic. The chapter on
> Danish only mentions the ultra-peculiar Danish system in passing.
>
> grateful for any information,
>

I have vague recollection of a dictionary article on the problem.
Seems the the twenty-count where used is somehow connected with farm
products. I'm old enough to have been in taught in school how to
add 'snese' (scores) plus single items; oddly most examples involved
eggs. The Danish twenty-count (it made as little sense to me as a
child as to any foreigner) originates in Jutland; until the loss of
the Scanian lands it competed with ten-count decade names, after that
it became predominant. Twenty-count is found in Southern Italy too
(and Faroese). Traditionally the twenty-count is ascribed to a Celtic
substrate.

Torsten