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Re: Odd thing.

From:Wesley Parish <wes.parish@...>
Date:Thursday, July 11, 2002, 9:59
On Thu, 11 Jul 2002 08:59, tim talpas wrote:
> # > # Joe scripsit: > # > # > I was looking at Finninsh for a while. As I was looking at the > numbers, # > something struck me. > # > > # > The numbers 1 and 2 are <yksi> and <kaksi> respectively. Now, the > numbers 8 # > and 9 are <kahdeksan> and <yhdeksan>. > # > > # > now, these, to me, look suspiciously indo-european. > # > # Finno-Ugric (or is it Uralic) numbers are only reconstructible up to six. > # Everything above that is a borrowing from IE. > # > > Hurm.... what about hungarian 8 "nyolc" and 9 "kilenc"? Anybody? ferko? > other hungarian natives? > > (i think "nyolc" is reconstructable back to at least Ob-Ugric) > > There seems to be a trend in some FU langs where the words for 8 and 9 > are based on the number 10... in the same manner of finnish... > > like mansi 10 "lov", 9 "ontolov", 8 "nyololov" (or something like that) > > i think similar patters are evident in khanty, udmurt, and komi. > > -tim > http://www.zece.com/conlang/
I was actually under the impression that |yksi| and |kaksi| - which decline to stems |yhde-| and |kahde-| - were being declined with an adjectival ending based on the translative case |-ksi|, meaning something like "two down from ten" and "one down from ten". I could be wrong, and probably am, but that's my interpretation. Wesley Parish -- Mau e ki, "He aha te mea nui?" You ask, "What is the most important thing?" Maku e ki, "He tangata, he tangata, he tangata." I reply, "It is people, it is people, it is people."

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Jan van Steenbergen <ijzeren_jan@...>