I've found nothing on the net about this and none of the natives I've dealt with have a clue, so I thought I'd throw it out here.
The morphology of Russian numerals is very logical, except for the word for "forty", sorok. It is completely unique. My first Russian instructor, Mr Bockstein at DLI, told me it had to do with old magical numerals. I never bothered to press him nor any subsequent instructor further on the matter and it has haunted me since.
Any help out there? Was Doc Bok BSing me?
Russian etymology question
That sounds good, Anders. I vaguely remember an explanation that says that 'sorok' comes from an old Russian word that was used in the market place and referred to a package of something, but that could very well be a folk etymology. I'll see if I can dig up more details, but don't hold your breath.
Spaceman Spiff
"The capacity for humankind to centralize its importance in the grand scheme of things is quite impressive."
- Tim Ward
"The capacity for humankind to centralize its importance in the grand scheme of things is quite impressive."
- Tim Ward
Hi,
Some further information (and an elaboration on the indeed (Byzantian) Greek origin, as Anders wrote) can be obtained from this site.
F
Some further information (and an elaboration on the indeed (Byzantian) Greek origin, as Anders wrote) can be obtained from this site.
F
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- Grand Panjandrum
- Posts: 1464
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- Grand Panjandrum
- Posts: 1464
- Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 3:31 pm
- Location: Botucatu - SP Brazil
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