Mr Jack Campin didn't believe my theory, and asked me to give him a break, which I have done. During that five year break since 2008, professor Ilija Casule of Macquarie University, Australia, has come up with very convincing evidence that Burushaski is an Indo-European language of the now extinct Anatolian group. Not much is known about those languages, but on Wikipedia's list of numbers in various languges, one to four in Hittite is: as, dan, teries, meyawes. I have revised my theory a little, and now believe that "yan, tan, tethera" stems from an ealier Indo-European invasion from the Anatolian/Balkans region before the Brythonic celts, although it has clearly been strongly influenced by them. Well, I'll stick my head above the parapet, my name is John Merry, I'm a languages graduate (sorry, not linguistics), and I think that professor Casule is right on the mark. Yan, tan tethera, Hittite and Burushaski all have a common, Anatolian origin. The floor is yours, Jack.