The verbs for counting in Dairwueh and Bryatesle all derive relatively transparently from verbs denoting physical actions in these two languages. Contact between Dairwueh and Bryatesle groups goes back to proto-D and proto-B times - neither of the language families to which they belong form a continuous geographical area, and contact between these families has been ongoing for centuries.
The first verb pair: - Bryatesle mbunerait, Dairwueh ruwekal. Bryatesle mbuneit is a verb that means 'extend the index finger, point at' depending on whether it's used intransitively or transitively. -ra- is an archaic, and currently non-productive morpheme signifying iteration or repetition. Likewise ruwel signifies "to point, to extend" in Dairwueh. Dairwueh has a productive iterative/habitual morpheme, -ka-. Both are used when counting small amounts, and probably relate to the common practice of extending fingers when counting.
The second verb pair is similar: B: vexrait, D: tsihkal, both iterative version of 'cut'. This is more often used in reference to larger numbers or the counting carried out by officials in various capacities - the reference being to incising numbers in clay tablets. The same verb can be used to denote writing.
No comments:
Post a Comment