Re: Types of numerals

On Fri, 13 Jan 2006 14:45:20 -0800, Tom Chappell <tomhchappell@...> wrote:

>>>> In fact, all languages I know of have 2 per
>>>> series tops,
>>>What does that mean, exactly?  I don't understand.
>> That there are no primitive non-cardinals
>> relating to numbers other than 1 or 2.
>
>But I think there are, though they may be rare.
>What about English "quarter"?  What about the Ancient
>Egyptian words for "2/3" and "1/3", whatever they
>were? (Does someone know?  If I'm wrong about this, I
>don't want to keep "talking through my hat" about it.)
The Beinlich wordlist
 http://www.newton.cam.ac.uk/egypt/beinlich/beinlich.html
gives _xmt_ 'drei', _rA_ 'Drittel'.  I can't find any word for 2/3 itself,
but there is _sA.wj_ 'Zweidrittelgold'.

Alex