The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #11483   Message #4030718
Posted By: GUEST,Theoriser
28-Jan-20 - 05:17 AM
Thread Name: Yan Tan Tethera - more words in the count?
Subject: RE: Yan Tan Tethera - more words in the count?
I've pondered the numbers for a long while, wondering how they came to be as they are. Something has occurred to me which I should have noticed earlier. One to four are purely Anatolian, five to ten are mixed, and the numbers above ten are Brythonic. This is a well recognised linguistic phenomenon when one culture is overwhelmed by another. In the Brahui language of Pakistan, one to three are Dravidian and the higher numbers are Indo-Iranian, and several South American languages have one to five in Native American and the higher numbers in Spanish. What seems to have happened is that the semi-numerate, less advanced Bronze age people were taken over by the fully numerate Iron age celts with their superior weapons.