twoth

[Laurence Horn]

At 10:13 PM +0800 1/28/08, LanDi Liu wrote:
>Chinese has  $BBhQ\ (B, di4ji3.  "di4 is an ordinal marker, like
>English "-th", and
>"ji3" means how many.
>
>I think Japanese has one too, but I can't remember what it is, and my books
>are in another room where someone is sleeping at the moment.

That link I mentioned last week,
http://forum.wordreference.com/archive/index.php/t-418730.html,
contains nominations of "which-th" candidates in these and many other
languages.

LH

>I think I've heard kids say "what-th", and may have said it myself.
>
>Randy
>
>On Jan 24, 2008 10:10 PM, Mark Mandel <thnidu at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>  -----------------------
>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  Poster:       Mark Mandel <thnidu at GMAIL.COM>
>>  Subject:      Re: twoth
>>
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>  How common is it in natural languages to have an ordinal interrogative
>>  word?
>>  Esperanto has "kioma", derived by adjectivizing "kiom"  'how much/many"?
>>
>>  m a m
>>
>>  On Jan 17, 2008 8:48 PM, Bill Le May <blemay0 at mchsi.com> wrote:
>>
>>  > > -----Original Message-----
>>  > > From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
>>  Behalf
>>  > > Of Joel S. Berson
>>  > > Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2008 10:42 AM
>>  > > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>  > > Subject: Re: twoth
>>  >
>>  > > Thank heaven this is not likely to lead to oneth and thirdth.  (If I
>>  > > come across speakers of these, I won't stand too close.)
>>  >
>>  > In childhood I remember saying "what-th". Wondering the day of the
>>  month,
>>  > I
>>  > would ask a parent "what day is it" and inevitably get an answer like
>>  > "Wednesday". Frustrated, I'd reply, "No, I mean today is that what-th of
>>  > January?"
>>  >
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>
>
>
>--
>Randy Alexander
>Jilin City, China
>
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>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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