Re: Effect on number agreement when new numbers arise

Staving David Peterson:
>Pete wrote:
>
><<Known vs unknown quantities is a culturally important distinction for the
>speakers. They're semi-nomadic herdsmen, and the distinction between
>domestic animals that they've counted and wild ones that you haven't is
>probably at the root of it.>>
>
>Ah, then another question.  If this distinction is culturally important,
>why isn't it as old as the other forms?
The original singular and plural come from Khangaþyagon, the parent
language , where the distinction didn't have the same significance. As the
cultural development of the Wavolar made the known/unknown distinction more
significant, their language developed a grammatical distinction to express it.

Pete