Re: Cardinal and Ordinal Integers

Yes, I can see that pattern. I am wondering if they did not come from "one" from
another language. IE has two roots for fire, and two for water and I tend to think
that one root is good enough for a language. Otherwise some have 2 roots,
others have none. There should be some general principles.

Piotr Gasiorowski wrote:

----- Original Message -----
From: "H.M. Hubey" <hubeyh@...>
To: <Nostratica@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, January 31, 2003 1:46 AM
Subject: Re: [Nostratica] Cardinal and Ordinal Integers



> I was looking for a pattern.

The lowest numerals (if "one" is a real numeral) tend to lack "proper" ordinals. The word for "first" usually means, etymologically 'that in front, foremost, earliest', and the word for "second" typically originates as an adjective meaning 'next, another, the other' etc. For these reasons it's normal for the words "one"/"first" as well as "two"/"second" to have different histories and to derive from different roots -- as in English, and as in nearly all my examples.

Piotr





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M. Hubey
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