On 04-09-11 10:06, Richard Wordingham wrote:
> Slavic has another break at 4 - Slavic cardinals from '5' up suffix -
> tI.
*sedmI '7' and *osmI '8' don't, although they share the *-I desinence
with the rest of the "five-to-ten" sequence. The *-m- of *osmI has of
course resulted from contamination between pairs of numerals (in serial
counting), just like the *d- of Slavic *deve~tI 'nine'. What really sets
them all (as well as the decadic numerals, '100' and '1000') apart from
the lowest numerals is the fact those above '4' are declined like nouns,
and take a noun in the genitive plural ('five _of_ Xs'), while the
numerals from '1' to '4' are formally adjectives.
Piotr