Re: Numbers from 1-10
| From: | Isidora Zamora <isidora@...> |
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| Date: | Thursday, August 28, 2003, 19:42 |
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At 04:28 PM 8/28/03 +0100, you wrote:
>What happens if your language doesn't stretch to 10 by design? I don't
>have a language like that, but people always mention (I'm not sure if
>its a myth or not) some languages, especially aborigonal ones, which
>supposedly don't have words for higher numbers.... I wonder if it really
>is true, or another peice of information along the likes of "Eskimos
>have lots of words for snow" which derives from the fact that the
>language is poly-synthetic, so there are lots of words, but not lots of
>roots that mean snow.
In the Lapine language that Richard Adams constructed for his book
_Watership Down_, the word 'hrair' could mean either "five" or "a
"thousand" for the simple reason that the rabbits couldn't count above
five. Actually, 'hrair' meant something more like "a lot," but it was the
number that came after four.
I can't speak to any natural languages having severely restricted numbering
systems or not.
Isidora
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