Marco:
>Hello, Glen
>
>I perfectly agree about your discussion of Etruscan dice.
>Naturally I don't believe in Indo-Tyrrhenian, and I think a NEC
>etymology for /huth/ is far simpler.
>In Spanish /quatro/ has one 't', but in Italian the numeral
>is /quattro/.
>
>Marco
>
Please, if so, be more specific. As for Caucasus, there are several
possibilities:
1. Kartvelian *xu(s1)t- "5", which is often considered to be a loan from
2. NC, e.g. Rutul xud, Khinalug pxu, Bats pXi, Kabardin txw? etc. "5",
reconstructed as EC *xxw? and WC *(t)xw?- (by Klimov) or NC EC *f_hä/*fhä
besides WC *s-xw? (in NCED 426)
However, you would have to answer following questions:
1. Which source?
2. When & where?
3. What about the non-correspondent meaning 4 vs. 5? Internal etymological
explanations? Or any analogy in other languages (i.e. borr. orignial "5" as
"4")?
It is fair to mention, that Manaster-Ramer proposes that Kartvelian *xus1t-
"5" < some Semitic source of the type of Akkadian f. h_amis^tu(m) "5"
h_amus^tum "5th", supposes a developement via *h_awis^tu (or h_awus^tu).
If M-R was right, I would be able to imagine a similar way in Etruscan, but
we would have to explain the "5" > "4" shift, again. I'm about to look for
some analogies and I'll present them if I find any, but not here, as we
constantly forget about the main purpose of this list, being an IE one.
Petusek