From: Joao S. Lopes
Message: 63715
Date: 2009-03-31
In Hindi, Panza is both (open)palm and five.
Kishore patnaik
On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 4:23 PM, Pavel A. da Mek <a.da_mek0@... cz> wrote:
> there are languages where 2 = "many", 5 = "hand", etc.
There were two systems of counting on fingers or digits: excluding the
thumb and including the thumb. So the numeral 5 was literally "with
thumb" and 4 "without". This allows us to reconstruct pre-PIE words
kWe "with"
pen "thumb"
twor "out"
pen-kWe "with thumb > five"
kWe-twor "without > four"
P.A.
(This message is intended to be read tomorrow.)
--
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