15
votes
Accepted
Why did Japanese borrow words for simple numbers from Chinese?
Besides prestige reasons, there is also the fact that the Old Japanese numeral systems can be seen as inconvenient, especially for higher numbers. Disadvantages compared to the Chinese system are:
...
- 391
14
votes
Which cultures are big-endian?
This is potentially a very interesting question, but it suffers from conflation of “language”, “culture”, and “country”. It is the same sort of confusion that happens when people who do not speak ...
- 23.8k
14
votes
Apparent sound crespondences between Eurasian, Trans-New-Guinean, Pama-Nyungan and Burushaski
I don't see any regular correspondences in the data you've presented.
A regular correspondence involves a series of forms in which, whenever language A has sound X, language B has sound Y. For example,...
- 10.9k
12
votes
Why did Japanese borrow words for simple numbers from Chinese?
The reason is similar to the reason why English has borrowed (French) words for beef, pork, mutton even though there are Germanic words for cows, swine and sheep. There is a tendency to borrow words ...
- 82.1k
8
votes
Can we make a case for Eurasiatic numerals for one and two?
Definitely not.
Two words only aren't enough to establish any kind of relationship.
The best you can do with it is to use them as seeds for possible sound relations and look of regular sound laws ...
- 29.8k
8
votes
Accepted
4 or 5: is thumb a finger? Distribution across languages
What about the idiom “five finger discount” that is popular in at least modern English? Giving someone a “high five” also indirectly refers to the five fingers of one’s hand. To me the “thumb” has ...
7
votes
What kind of a word class are numbers?
It depends on your ideology of word class, and probably on the language (depending on your ideology of word class). In a number of Bantu languages, they constitute an autonomous word class. They have ...
- 82.1k
7
votes
Accepted
What numeral system is on this Hyderabad banknote?
This is really an extremely interesting question that made me make a little investigation and with the help of @fdb I learned about the unique Siyaq (Arabic سياق siyāq ‘order’) numerical system I had ...
- 17.7k
6
votes
Have words for numbers changed since the introduction of public schools?
In many Bantu languages of Kenya and Tanzania, numbers are now changing, especially those above 10. For instance, the traditional number for "20" in Logoori is makʊmi gavɪrɪ (lit. 'two tens'), but ...
- 82.1k
5
votes
Accepted
(PIE) déḱm̥ vs déḱm̥t (ten)
The only language to preserve both is Sanskrit: dáśa- 'ten' ~ daśát- f. 'a set of ten; decade'.
A similar form is Lith. dešimtìs which reflects a Balto-Slavic consonant stem, as shown by gen.pl. ...
- 121
5
votes
Languages where numbers are read out in a mixed-up fashion
Arabic: 1984 could be read as "one thousand and nine hundred and four and eighty" (the modern reading) or "four and eighty and nine hundred and one thousand" (traditional). I have heard the latter ...
- 437
5
votes
Apparent sound crespondences between Eurasian, Trans-New-Guinean, Pama-Nyungan and Burushaski
Below are my comments on the Eurasiatic data, and why I think @Anixx's forms are not Proto-Eurasiatic numerals. As I am not a specialist of Burushaski, Trans-New-Guinean, or Pama-Nyungan, I cannot ...
- 159
5
votes
Why did Japanese borrow words for simple numbers from Chinese?
They are pronounced that way, before the importing of the Chinese characters, and even to this day: ひとつ、ふたつ、みっつ、よっつ、いつつ、むっつ、ななつ、やっつ、ここのつ、とお.
There even is the shortened way of counting: ひ、ふ、み、よ、い、む、な、...
- 159
4
votes
Have words for numbers changed since the introduction of public schools?
In Norwegian language, the way of counting was changed recently (1951 by declaration of the Norwegian parliament) from a German-style system to an English-style system. See Zahlwörter (Wikipedia).
...
- 29.8k
4
votes
Accepted
Is the numeral or the noun the head? Does it vary depending on the language?
Yes, I think that it not only varies between languages, but it can vary within a language for different numerals. I think large numerals have a greater tendency to function as heads.
I think that the ...
- 17.8k
4
votes
What is the name of the category that describes the ways a number can be read?
The rhythmic grouping of numbers is usually called "phrasing", e.g. "4-3 2-1-7 9-1-5-6". Within a "phrase", at least in English, there are still options regarding reading ...
- 82.1k
3
votes
Accepted
Do Urdu Numerals belong to the Persian Script?
I think I understand what you are asking. Urdu, like Persian, is written with Arabic script, with a few extra letters. The numbers are written with the Eastern form of the Arabic (originally Indian) ...
- 23.8k
3
votes
Accepted
Is there a term for cardinal numerals that don't express quantity?
It is a nominal number. It is like a cardinal in writing, but doesn't really express a number. It is kind of like an ordinal in some contexts. For example, 2020 says "the 2020th year after the Birth ...
- 1,551
3
votes
Accepted
Devanagari digit variants
They are regional variants:
Numerical Notation: A Comparative History, Stephen Chrisomalis (p.198, 199, 211)
http://software.sil.org/downloads/r/annapurna/AnnapurnaSIL-features.pdf
https://www....
- 3,102
3
votes
Accepted
declining numerals in Old English
Quote from An Introduction to Old English by George Leslie Brook, page 51:
§132 The cardinal numerals from 4 to 19 generally remain uninflected when they stand before a noun; when they follow a noun ...
- 46
3
votes
What kind of a word class are numbers?
It seems in English, numbers can be adjectives, determiners, and nouns.
(Though I feel the nouns are really just adjectives that have an implied noun.)
Types of numbers
Ordinals: first, second...
...
- 31
3
votes
Word for eighteen expressed as Twenty Minus Two
Ainu is one of those: (http://www.sf.airnet.ne.jp/ts/language/number/ainu.html)
1 sinep 1 obj.
2 tup 2 obj.
3 rep 3 obj.
4 inep 4 obj.
5 asiknep 5 obj.
...
- 1,251
3
votes
Which modern, spoken languages do not use the decimal number system?
By "modern" do you mean a language that's still spoken by living people nowadays?
The most unusual modern example is the Telefol and Oksapmin languages, which use a base-27 counting system
...
- 792
3
votes
What is the name of the category that describes the ways a number can be read?
I am not aware of any linguistic terminology for this particular kind of conventions. However, there is some applicable terminology from software engineering, particularly from the field of ...
- 29.8k
3
votes
Word form for Number in Ancient Obscure Language
Peina-bumfit is 17 - These are all corruptions of older Brythonic languages once spoken throughout England.
Peina is "2", Bumfit is "15", so essentially, '15 and 2'.
The older ...
- 61
3
votes
Why did Japanese borrow words for simple numbers from Chinese?
It's not only Chinese numerals that were imported to Japanese, but also Chinese counter suffixes (these are akin to units and are specific to the category of object being counted). Now how could ...
- 131
2
votes
Are there languages with indefinite articles but for which the word for "one" is not related etymologically to any of the indefinite articles?
Czech seems to be developing some sort of definite/indefinite articles with definite ones being evolved from demonstrative pronoun "ten" (this), while indefinite ones from the undetermined pronominal ...
- 2,363
2
votes
What is the reason for some languages have non-linear word order for numbers?
My guess would be that it has something to do with rhythm. When you have a couple or a triplet of words on the same level ("X and Y" or "X, Y and Z"), there is a tendency in Indo-European languages to ...
- 2,363
2
votes
Languages where numbers are read out in a mixed-up fashion
Not surprisingly, numbers in Dutch are organized the same way as in German. For example, 634542 written out becomes
zeshonderd vierendertig duizend vijfhonderd tweeënveertig.
- 21
2
votes
Languages where numbers are read out in a mixed-up fashion
In Irish numbers are famously messy, putting the three counting systems aside to focus on the system for non-people/inanimate objects to address the question, numbers can be read in two ways, base ten ...
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