[tied] Re: Why borrow 'seven'? (was: IE right & 10)

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Exu Yangi" <exuyangi@...> wrote:

> >--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...>
> >wrote:
> >Within the lunar month the moon has four phases, each about a
> >week 7 days long. That's sacred for ya.
> >
> >So perhaps a tendency to become a taboo word. That might explain
> >the independent Uralic borrowings from different branches of IE.
> >
>
> Perhaps, although the breaking up into FOUR groups of seven seems

fairly

> arbitrary. Why not 3 groups (new, 1/3, and 2/3), or even just two

(new/full)

> ? The seven day week seem a new thing, although there are

evidences of four

> day weeks from northern and central Africa. Perhaps not four

groups of

> seven, but seven groups of four?
>
> As for being a taboo word, and hence borrowed from elsewhere ---

usually

> taboo words find their replacements from within the native stock.

Withness

> Japanese shi (death;four) being replaced from another counting

heirarchy.

As the ancient semitic culture also spread the idea of a calendar
with 4 weeks per month this seems no problem. Business people and
especially ones who travel, need calendars.

Keep in mind that by calling the importance of seven totemistic this
discussion downplays the fact that ancient people did not
distinguish like we do between knowledge one has to have faith in,
and knowledge simply. The calendar and stories about which things
are sacred, like the moon, were both ways of describing what only
later got to be called nature. In other words, this understanding of
weeks also spread because it was useful, not just because the moon
was considered sacred.

...or so it seems given the evidence we now have.

Best Regards
Andrew Lancaster