Number nine
From: afyangh
Message: 51319
Date: 2008-01-16
I have looked at North-caucasian
and the root for "nine" displays some oddities :
- it should be a verb,
- it should be *-w_H2-
Because it is a verb
it can "generate"
- n_w_H2- : Cf. PIE now-m
- d_w_H2- (Cf. Slavic) *devjantj
The lost of H2 in *now-m might be
a kind of "Saussure-Hirt" law.
but
When one looks at some words in IE,
some words are "strange" :
Celtic : forms with -a- in Breton nao and Welsh
Greek : enn- with two -n- from *enH2- ?
I 'd like some insight upon these forms.
Do we have Mycenian Greek for "9" ?
What kind of "verb" could become "9" ?
Next,
H2 is a kind of dental stop or affricate.
Another oddity is that this H2 surfaces in Etruscan as
nu-r-ph or nu-t-ph.
Etruscan has a very old form of PIE *nowH2-
As usual you start with a new question
and you bump into an old one.
Arnaud