Re: numeration system
| From: | Thomas R. Wier <trwier@...> |
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| Date: | Thursday, December 16, 2004, 5:37 |
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Tristan wrote:
> Unlike the American system, we don't touch our country code with a
> ten-foot pole, unless you add a number your mobile phone gives you.
Strictly speaking, it isn't our country code, since Canadians use
the same system. From the US, one needn't dial a country code to
call a Canadian number.
> I thought MnE 'two' /tu:/ < ME 'two' /to:/ < 'two' /twO:/ < OE 'twa'
> /twa:/ < PG *twaI, cf 'who' /hu:/ < OE 'hwa' /hwa:/. That was just a
> guess, but German zwei and Icelandic tveir seem to suggest a PG form of
> *twai- IIRC.
I'm no expert on English historical phonology, but I had been under
the impression that the loss of /w/ was before /u/, not a lower vowel,
and that this had happened twice in the language: 'how' /h&u/ <
EMidE 'how' /hu:/ < OE 'hu:' /hu:/ < Pre-OE *hwu:, BUT ModE 'who' /hu/
LMidE 'who' /hwu:/ < EMidE 'who' /hwo:/ < OE 'hwa' /hwa:/. No?
=========================================================================
Thomas Wier "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally,
Dept. of Linguistics because our secret police don't get it right
University of Chicago half the time." -- octogenarian Sheikh Zayed of
1010 E. 59th Street Abu Dhabi, to a French reporter.
Chicago, IL 60637
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