Re: Fw: [tied] Re: IE right & 10

From: Harald Hammarström
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sunday, September 19, 2004 6:11 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: [tied] Re: IE right & 10

>> > Two basic types:
>> > A: Direct (transparent) semantic motivation (most often body parts,
>> > sometimes pronominal, verbal or dif. origin)
>> > B: Transparent application of arithmetic operations (sum, substraction,
>> > multiplication, etc.)
>> > C: Combination of A & B, often analysable only when using etymological
>> > approach
>> >
>> > And, just as any part of lexicon, sometimes, numerals were and are
>> borrowed,
>> > of course.
>>
>> And I should add one more thing: as for numerical systems (ad B, mainly),

I

>> have encountered the following, so far:
>>
>> 1. Binary (e.g. Jawony, the Gunwinyguan family of Australian

macro-phylum)

>> (i.e. 1, 2, 2+1, 2+2, 2+2+1, ...)
>> 2. Organized in pairs (e.g. Old Japanese: 1/2 fitö/futa, 3/6 mi/mu, 4/8
>> yö/ya, 5/10 i-tu/töwo; Nama of the Khoi-San m-p.: /gui & /gaw "1" & "2",
>> etc.)
>> 3. Ternary (e.g. Yukaghir: 1,2,3,3+1,...,3+3,...)
>>
>>What? Yukaghir ternary?? Do you have a source for this? Kolyma or Tundra?

Kolyma, Waldemar Jochelson, 1905: Essay on the grammar of Yukaghir language.
Annals of the N.Y. Academy of Sciences, XVI.5,II,pp.97-152

>> 4. Qaternary (e.g. Chumash of Santa Barbara: 1, 2, 3, 4, 4&1, 4&2, 4&3,
>> 8...)
>> 5. Quinary (e.g. Sumerian, where the ternary system was also used, etc.)
>In what sense do you mean the ternary system was also used?
>
>Harald

Sumerian: See Igor M. Diakonoff, 1983: Some reflections on numerals in
Sumerian towards a history of mathematical speculation. Journal of the
American Oriental Society 103, pp. 83-93; Dombrowski F.A. & B.W.W., 1991:
Numerals and numeral systems in the Hamito-Semitic and other language
groups. In: Semitic Studies in honor of W. Leslau, ed. A.S. Kaye. Wiesbaden:
Harrassowitz, pp. 340-81

I won't give you any examples, but in short, there was one system which used
quinary counting (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5+1, 5+2, 5+3 etc., higher numeral follow
different patterns) and another one which used ternary counting (1,2,3,3+1
and similar), and even ternal count of days (be, be-be, PES, PES-be,
PES-be-be etc...I've just found myself giving examples, ha ha :-))

Petusek