French and Gaulish numbers (was: indoeuropean/hand)

[Steven A. Gustafson]

. . . And, reading further, like I didn't have time to yesterday, it
turns out that Thurneysen goes on to review the evidence of Gaulish
numerals in some details; but the highest number in the evidence he
cites is 'forty,' and that is formed on the petru- root.  If higher
Gaulish numbers have been discovered since then, I don't know.  The
irregularities in the eighties and nineties in French numbers would seem
not to be survivals of a -consistent- Gaulish system.

Of course, six score and sixteen years ago, Abraham Lincoln suggested
that this kind of count was not wholly dead in English, at least as a
rhetorical flourish.

--
Steven A. Gustafson, attorney at law
Fox & Cotner:  PHONE (812) 945 9600   FAX (812) 945 9615
http://www.foxcotner.com

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cauponum, propositum assequitur verbo.