----- Original Message ----- From: "Richard Wordingham"
><richard.wordingham@...>
>To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
>Sent: Saturday, September 18, 2004 9:47 AM
>Subject: [tied] Re: Patterns in Khoisan Numerals (was: Why >borrow
'seven'?)
>
>> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott" ><BMScott@...>
>> wrote:
>> > Would you be thinking of AMR's suggestion that PKart *os'tx-
>> > (perhaps *os'txw- or *os'txo) '4' was borrowed from PIE '8'?
>>
>> Yes. I wasn't sure it was Kartvelian, which is why I
>> said 'geographically Caucasian'.
>>
>> Richard.
Yes, Kartvelian "4" is very similar to IE "8", but various linguist
reconstruct various proto-K forms:
Schmidt (1962): *otjxw-
Klimov (1964): *o(s1)tx(w)-
Gamgrelidz & Ivanov (1984): *o(s^)tx(w)-
Fähnrich & Sardshweladse (1995): *otxo-
Blazek thinks:
...
The -s^t- cluster in Svan can be explained by analogy to the following
numeral wo-xus^d, wo-xwis^d
...
The metathesis of IE *-k^t- > K *-tx- has analogies. For example, K *usx(o)
"a bull for sacrifice" < IE *ukso:n- (Klimov)
...
But Manaster-Ramer (1995) reconstructs K *os1tx(o/w), seeing here a
substitution of the satem variant of the IE *ok^toH "8" (but the final -x-
can also be explained by the alliteration with the following numeral
*xu(s1)t-.
...
If this is accepted, the semantic change "8" > "4" (Glen has already
mentioned his idea of IE "8" being the dual of "4") ca be connected to the
opposite semantic shift for K *arwa- "8" < Semitic *?arbaH- "4"
...
So I think, it is very plausible to expect Kartvelian "4" to be a loan form
IE, too.
Petusek