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

[Rory M Larson]

John wrote:
> I also wonder about the *s^aak- element that is so common in Siouan
higher
> digits.  Could it be *s^aak < **kyaak?

I've wondered about that too.  It seems that most of the
"higher digit" formants in series that count up must
effectively mean 'five+', however they may actually be
derived.

When I first started looking at Siouan languages around
1990, I tried comparing vocabulary lists from six languages
for which I was then able to get some material: Omaha, Osage,
Lakhota, IO, Biloxi and Hidatsa.  I found that the first four
were fairly close, with Biloxi more distant and Hidatsa
hardly recognizable as being related.  One thing that struck
me at the time was that the word for 'hand' had been replaced
in the (MVS) group: in Hidatsa and Biloxi, and presumably PS,
'hand' had been something like *s^aki or *s^ake.  In MVS,
however, 'hand' was *naNpe, while the *s^aki/*s^ake term
had moved on to mean 'nail', 'claw', 'hoof' or 'talon'.
Am I remembering this right?

Anyway, if 'hand' was originally *s^aki/*s^ake, might that
not be the derivation of the *s^aak- we find in some of the
higher order numbers?  It would be an obvious choice for
the 'five+' requirement.  The problem is that this is
also the only "higher digit" formant that pairs with things
that don't look anything like Siouan 'one', 'two' or 'three'.
We would seem to need a "lower digit" counting system
something like:

  1 = *pe
  2 = *owiN/*owaN
  3 = *rog^aN/*yog^aN

I don't suppose anybody knows of any numerical system
comparable to that, either inside or outside of Siouan?
Given how widespread the *s^aak- terms are, the original
formation of these should be pretty old.

Rory