From: Richard Wordingham
Message: 34198
Date: 2004-09-17
--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "petusek" <petusek@...> wrote:
Richard:
> >> >How sure are you of your Nama forms? In
> >www.zompist.com/numbers.htm
> >> >they are given as:
> >> >
> >> >1 /úí 2 /ám
> >> >3 !noná 6 !naní
> >> >4 hàká 8 //xáísá
Petusek:
> >>if there are two different realizations of the PCK click, the
> >> "unclicked" is always in the numeral "1" (as for the probable
> >> cognates of Nama), does that mean anything???
Richard:
> >I think these clickless forms starting with 'k' are all spelling
> >mistakes!
> >On the other hand, there are differences between the initials
> >of '1' and '2' in //Ng _||we_ (writable _||kwe_) '1' and _!u_ (_!
> >ku_) or _!?u_ '2' and #Khomani _||oe_ (_||koe_) '1' and _!?u_ '2'.
Petusek:
> >> If we compare hàkà and //kaisa (Nharo) or hàká and //xáísá, and
if
> >we take
> >> into account the dual suffix -sa, we might imagine "8" < * hkAsa
> >(or
> >> h'kAsa?) < ** hàkA-sA By the way, what influence on the vowel
> >quality (or
> >> even consonant quality) does the tone have (or vice versa!)?
(what
> >if the
> >> consonantal group of *h(?)k lead to what is _//x_ now?)
Richard:
> >It is simpler than that. According to Ehret, Proto-SAK *||
(lateral
> >click, writable ||k), yields Central Khoisan (e.g. Nama) [||kh],
> >where the 'kh' seems to represent a stronger aspiration than the
> >plain aspiration written [||h].
Petusek:
> Oh, great, I hoped it would be like that. So, does this support or
disagree
> with the idea that Nama (or other Khoisan languages) has several
numerals
> based on the duality system?
Richard:
I'm not quite sure what you mean by 'duality system'. Look at
the //Au//en numbers. (//Au//en is labelled as tAu.//eî with a
bold 't' for a palatal click by Mark Rosenfeld. It has many, similar
names. Its ethnolgue code is AUE.) It is very striking that the
Nama words for '6' and '8' correspond to the //Au//en words for '3'
and '4', namely !nanni and ||kai. I don't know what's going on here,
but there is a parallel with a geographically Caucasian form
resembling IE *okto: - Glen probably remembers the details. Do we
have loans or pairs of possibly related roots? However, I don't
think there is anything similar going on in the alliteration of |gui
and |gam.
On the other hand, the interpretation of Nama //xáísá as 'two fours'
does seem very sound.
Richard.