Re: Asian Number Systems (was Re: FYI re: Greenberg's Universals)
| From: | Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...> |
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| Date: | Thursday, October 5, 2000, 3:11 |
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Yoon Ha Lee wrote:
> Don't know about Japan, but Korean buildings I've seen don't skip 4
> (which is tabu).
I THINK I remember my Japanese professor saying that they did skip it,
but I might be mistaken.
Speaking of taboos, there's a language where the word for "eight" is
literally "six and one", or something like that, because the original
word for "eight" was so taboo, that it couldn't be used, and even using
"seven and one" or "six and two" was considered too close for comfort!
--
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God gave teeth; God will give bread - Lithuanian proverb
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