Companion Terms for 7 and 8 (Re: 'eight' some more)

[Koontz John E]

On Tue, 11 May 2004, Michael Mccafferty wrote:
> From another language family: the Uto-Aztecan language Nahuatl has a
> vegisimal system, based on 20, which represents the counting of ten
> fingers and *ten toes*. Unfortunately, I don't know how counting is
> performed physically. ...

Presumably a good deal of hopping occurs during the teens.

> However, the numbers go like this, in translation:
> aside-one    6
> aside-two    7
> aside-three  8
> aside-four   9

This sounds like it might involve holding the counted fingers in a
different zone than usual, somewhat like my original suggestion that
Siouan *(h)pa- and *hpe might involve holding the hand in a different
place, e.g., near the head.

Or it might refer to something like counting "beside" the already counted
hand.