Emma,
Thank you for the question.
When I said "a concept that doesn't exist in English" I meant
that dual - in the sense of a word having a different form depending
on whether there are two are many - is not found in English.
The wording may have been bad.
vit = we two
vér = we (more than two)
þit = you two
þér = you (more than two)
>The construction "you two" or "we two" is actually used quite often. It is
>another way of saying "the two of you" or "the two of us". The latter is of
>course the more common structure, and as the number of participants
>increases beyond say three or four you will not find people saying "we
>eight" or "you eight", etc.
Yes, interesting. One wonders where exactly the boundary lies:)
we two (normal)
we three (normal)
we four (abnormal??)
we five (abnormal?)
Regards,
Haukur