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Re: Historical Sound Change & Numbers Puzzle

From:T. A. McLeay <conlang@...>
Date:Sunday, March 11, 2007, 9:18
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.