Re: Historical Sound Change & Numbers Puzzle
| From: | T. A. McLeay <conlang@...> |
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| Date: | Sunday, March 11, 2007, 9:18 |
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Joseph Fatula wrote:
> I don't know if this happens in natlangs, but it wouldn't surprise me.
> Consider how the word "million" has changed meaning in British English
> from 1,000,000,000 to 1,000,000. It's not quite the kind of change
> you're talking about, but it is a situation where the pressure of a new
> number system caused a word to be reanalyzed.
Actually, it was ‘billion’ changing from 1 000 000 000 000 (i.e. a
million million) to 1 000 000 000 (i.e. a thousand million, a milliard).
--
Tristan.