Re: [tied] Re: IE right & 10

Rob:

> I'm not familiar with Altaic sound changes... I'm guessing that the
> initial */d/ was lost in Mongolian and Turkish, while it softened
> to /Z/ in Manchu and hardened to /t/ in Old Japanese? Where did
> the /r/ and /b/ in Classical Mongolian /arban/ come from?

Actually, I can't remember offhand. I just lumped all the Altaic numbers
together carelessly. If it's related, it would be because, based on
the other numerals /dörben/ "four" and /tabun/ "five" where the Altaic
reflex is seen in the roots /dör-/ (note Jap. yo-tsu) and /ta-/ (Jap.
itsu-tsu), there is a root /ar-/ here too in "ten". Some Mongolic
languages have an aspirate sound preceding the otherwise initial vowel.


Rob:

> I know I'm rehashing old arguments here, but is it possible that
> *deks- is really *dek-s-, that is, with the genitive **-s?

You'd have a better chance with the aorist but this would be expected
to be *de:ks- though. I just realized that I should have wrote *de:us-
in my last message as the presumed aorist of a verb "to abandon", btw.
Apologies. That'll teach me to smoke my friend's crackpipe.


= gLeN