From: cindy@solan10.solan.unit.no (Cynthia Kandolf)
Subject: One, Two, Many revisited.
Organization: /home/ludviga/cindy/.organization
Distribution: alt
Date: 12 Sep 92 17:32:04

I have once again sifted through my book collection (this job is
getting tougher every time i do it - i think they're multiplying
behind my back) and found a little more information about the
"languages that count one, two, many", as well as the dual plural in
Old English.  Those of you who are bored by linguist chat are advised
to skip ahead now...

First, the "one, two, many".  All of the following information is from
_The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language_, by David Crystal, (c)
Cambridge University Press 1987.  By the way, this is an excellent
book for examining language ULs and language in general.  

on page 15, in a discussion of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (the WHAT?
i hear you cry.  Well, it's a largely discredited hypothesis that
our speech patterns are determined exclusively by the language
we learn as infants.), i found this:  "Several languages have few
words for numerals:  Australian aboriginal languages, for example, are
often restricted to a few general words (such as 'all', 'many', few'),
'one', and 'two'.  In such cases, it is sometimes said that the people
lack the concept of number - that aboriginals 'haven't the
intelligence to count', as it was once put.  But this is not so, as is
shown when these speakers learn English as a second language: their 
ability to count and calculate is quite comparable to that of English
native speakers."  

So you can't actually say they _count_ one, two, many... but you can
say they do not have any numerals greater than two.  

From page 99, a discussion of miscellaneous number systems: "Several
languages have no number system: Andamanese [an Indo-Pacific language
spoken on the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal, with no more than
a few hundred speakers remaining] makes do with two number words,
one and one-plus.  Khoisan languages [the smallest African language
family, but well-known because of their use of "click" consonants;
spoken mostly in southwestern Africa] express one, two, and
occasionally three, but rarely more."

And now, the dual plurals of Old English.  This chart is from _A
History of the English Language_, by Albert C. Baugh and Thomas Cable,
(c) Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1978.  Because i do not have the option of
using the special type-face used in the book, i have used capital
letters to indicate vowels which have a long stroke over them in
the book (indicating a vowel which is pronounced longer than an
unmarked vowel), and a capital TH to indicate the thorn, the first
sound in the modern word "this".

SINGULAR:
N. ic       THU      hE (he)   hEo (she) hit (it)
G. mIn      THIn     his       hiere     his
D. mE       THE      him       hiere     him
A. mE/mec   THE/THec hine      hIe       hit

DUAL:
N. wit      git
G. uncer    incer
D. unc      inc
A. unc      inc

PLURAL:
N. wE       gE                 hIe
G. User/Ure Eower              hiera
D. Us       Eow                him
A. Us/Usic  Eow/Eowic          hIe

N. is nominative, G. is genitive, D. is dative, and A. is accusative.
In the singular, the columns are: first person, second person, third
person masculine, t.p. feminine, and t.p. neuter.  The third column
under "plural" is third person, all genders.  If any of these
words confuse you, look 'em up yerself.

By the way, English still contains one faint trace of this old
system:  the word "both", which is restricted to use as a dual
plural.

You're welcome.

AFU's resident motormouth linguist:
-Cindy Kandolf
 cindy@solan.unit.no
 Trondheim, Norway

We're looking for a little, bewildered girl.

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban