--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Daniel J. Milton" <dmilt1896@...>
wrote:
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Peter P" <roskis@...> wrote:
> > I just restated from Nykysoumen Sanakirja by Häkkinen p 133.
> >
> > It is also known that the numbers 1 to 6 are related in most
> Uralic
> > languages, but numbers above 7 are not, so base 10 counting
seems
> to
> > have evolved later.
> Was there really a base 6 counting system in Uralic? I
mean,
> do 12, 18, etc. function in any way like 20, 30 in the decimal
> system? There being a linguistic break after 6 isn't the same
> thing.
> http://www.leeds.ac.uk/linguistics/research/WP2000/Nels&Toiv2.pdf
> discusses such a break in one of the Sami languages. Unless I
> missed it, the authors don't explain why it's there and not at
some
> other point in the number series.
That paper seems to be attacking a straw man. They set their target
up thus:
"Another, related assumption in the generative literature is that
the lexicon consists of an unordered list of items, characterised by
idiosyncracy and unpredictability (Chomsky 1965:84, Williams 1994).
There are differences across frameworks as to how structured the
elexicon is assumed to be, but there is general agreement that
lexical entries are not organized in any kind of numerical order or
linear string. If the contents of the lexicon are indeed unordered,
this again exceludes the possibilities of "counting" for any rule
that applies there."
The etymology of cardinals often has recourse to the counting
sequence to explain phonetic developments. Moreover, children do
not learn the small numbers in isolation, but more by chanted
sequences.
Breaks after 6 are well known in language. French changes the word
formation rules after 16 (_seize_ '16' but _dix-sept_ '17') and 60
(_soixante_ '60' but _soixante-dix_ '70'). (However, Western
Romance languages switch between the old forms of the teens and the
new forms at different points.) Old English tens from
_hundseofontig_ '70' to _hundtwelftig_ '120' are prefixed by
_hund_ '100' ('120' in some usages).
The example in the paper was a change in case government by
cardinals from taking the accusative for 2-6 and partitive for 7
up. Russian shows the same sort of behaviour - genitive singular
for 2 to 4 and genitive plural for 5 up. (More interesting is that
this switches to case _agreement_ from the genitive onwards.)
Slavic has another break at 4 - Slavic cardinals from '5' up suffix -
tI.
Richard.