Inflected Numerals

[ROOD DAVID S]

In Lakhota the numberals inflect just like stative verbs:
	uNyamni pi 'there are three of us'
	nitona pi he? 'How many of you are there?
	Hena zaptaN 'There are five of them (inanimate)'
	
	David

David S. Rood
Dept. of Linguistics
Univ. of Colorado
Campus Box 295
Boulder, CO 80309-0295
USA
rood at colorado.edu

On Thu, 9 Dec 1999, Koontz John E wrote:

> I've been rather busy with a move (just within town in Louisville).
> I'd like to welcome all the various new subscribers and encourage them to
> submit their comments and queries.
>
> In fact, I have a question of my own!  A recent query on Linguist
> regarding implicational universals in inflection of general nominals vs.
> numerals reminded me that I had had trouble finding examples of personal
> inflection of numerals in the Omaha-Ponca texts, even though third person
> forms exist there.  Are there Siouan languages in which numerals can take
> personal inflection?  With so many students of Dhegiha on the list, I
> guess I can actually ask, too, whether Omaha-Ponca is one of them.
>
> The question on Linguist took it for granted, I think, that numerals are a
> kind of nominal, based on the Indo-European model.  If numerals are
> actually verbs instead in a given language, it's not so interesting that
> they might be inflected even if other nominals are not.  However, it did
> seem an interesting question to me, whether Siouan numerals are verbal
> enough to permit them being inflected in the first, second, or inclusive
> persons.
>
>
>