The PA reconstruction is *telu, and the Tagalog form derives from reduplicated *ta-telu (originally used in counting human beings). Same with *duSa, *da-duSa (> dalawa) 'two'.
 
Piotr
 
 
----- Original Message -----
From: Glen Gordon
To: nostratic@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2001 8:11 PM
Subject: [nostratic] Afro-Austronesian numerals ?


Piotr:
>Actually, it was *t-t-, not *t-r- in the protolanguage, as I have
> >explained before. The -r- results from t-voicing in _some_ daughter
> >languages.

If I recall, Tagalog, the official language of Winnipeg :), has /tadlo/ for
"three" with a medial -d-. What was the Austronesian reconstruction again? I
would have presumed *taDu where *D = /d./ like in Indian languages. If I
recall it's *Dua for "two" (Tagalog /dalawa/).

- gLeN