Language as a Clue to Prehistory

[Swammerdami]

Japanese has the complication of multiple personal pronouns as a function of social status . . .

Thai:
1s: phom, dichan, chan, ku, nuu
2s: khun, than, kae, thoe

Thai pronouns are much "worse" than this implies. Here, rendered in IPA are the 4 words (khun, than, kae, thoe) lpetrich lists for 'You':
(1) /kʰun˧/ (2) /tʰaːn˥˩/ (3) /kɛː˧/ (4) /tʰɤː˧/

(1) Although /khun/ is the top hit for Google Translate "you," it is mainly heard in the idiom which translates as "thank you."

(2) /than/ is much rarer still and most frequently heard in the idiom "thank you every you (for attending our ceremony)."
The redundancy in this sentence ('you' - /khun/; 'you' - /than/) shows that these are not normal pronouns.
Exception: Both /khun/ and /than/ are frequently heard as honorific prefixes, e.g. "Mister John" or Dear customer."

(3) /kae/ is most often heard as a 3rd-person pronoun. When used as 2nd person it is "(intimate or derogatory)."

(4) /thoe/ -- at my age nobody will address me with this pronoun unless they're flirting with me.

Since /ku/ (/kuː˧/) is listed as 1st-person above, we should include /mueng/ (/mɯŋ˧/) as 2nd-person. (1st- and 2nd-person pronouns occur in pairs.) /ku/ and /mueng/ are used only with intimates or to be very rude. But these are the most ancient pronouns descending from proto-Austric.

I could write more on the topic of Thai pronouns (and probably have) but I'll offer just four more remarks.

(1) My young son used a pronoun pair I was unfamiliar with when playing with friends. These are medieval pronouns he learned from watching TV series set in the past.
(2) My wife talked frequently on the phone with two sisters and three different female friends, all with similar status. She used five different pronoun pairs, one for each of her friends.
(3) I sometimes use /kha-pha-chao/ (/kʰaː˥˩.pʰa˦˥.t͡ɕaːw˥˩/) for my own 'I'. I'm not sure I've ever heard this word spoken except when listening to a legal document being read, but it seems to me to be a good combination of politeness and whimsy.
(4) One of the most common pairs used by close friends is 1st-person /khao/ (/kʰaw˩˩˦/) and 2nd-person /tua-eng/ (/tua̯˧.ʔeːŋ˧/) or just /eng/. Despite their use here as "I" and "You", their ordinary translations are 'he/she/they' and 'myself'. Yes, in this idiom the 3rd-person word becomes 1st-, and 1st- becomes 2nd-.

 

[Swammerdami]

. . . All these initial separations were circa 3500 BC, explaining why it is difficult to create a single tree with only binary fanouts. The remainder of Yamnaya underwent the transition to Satem, separated into a huge range from the Baltic Sea to Afghanistan, leading to Balto-Slavic in the Northwest and Indo-Iranian in the Southeast. (And now-extinct languages like Thracian emerged in the Southwest of Yamnaya.)

Albanian is attested only very recently, so trying to place it exactly is wasted effort. Germanic resulted from creoles involving Corded Ware, Funnel Beaker and Pitted Ware so is also hard to fit onto a clading diagram.

If Protogermanic was a creole in any meaningful sense, it's hard to see why it would retain such a lot of grammatical peculiarities of PIE, like non-null nominative endings (the -us and -os and -as of Latin/Classical Greek/Sanskrit, preserved today only, to the best of my knowledge, in Baltic and - as "-r" - in Icelandic), or one of the best preserved extant ablaut paradigms.

I never gave a proper answer to this.

Corded Ware and Pitted Ware traded for centuries with both cultures remaining intact and distinctly different from each other. Surely(?) a pidgin tongue developed. (Most pidgins today feature a dominating culture and a dominated one, but is that necessary?) The language barriers were exacerbated since Corded Ware (which spread from the Rhine to the Volga) included peoples from Kurgan Waves 1 (R1a, Comb Ceramic, Glob Amphora), 2 (R1b, sibling to Bell Beaker) and 3 (R1a, proto-Baltic). With such large chronological and geographic separations, Corded Ware probably did not have a single common language.

The hypothesized pidgin might have become the lingua franca for much of Scandinavia, northern Germany and the Baltic. The pidgin possibly became a creole, and then an adstratum for the eventual proto-Germanic language.

 

[lpetrich]

1 - I/me -- 2 - you (singular, informal) -- 11 - who -- 12 - what -- 16 - no/not -- 23 - two/pair -- 48 - louse/nit -- 74 - eye -- 77 - tooth -- 78 - tongue (body part) -- 79 - nail (fingernail) -- 90 - heart -- 109 - dead -- 150 - water -- 207 - name

Kartvelian: Georgian (Eurasian, not US):
me, šen, vin // ra, ar, ori // ṭili, tvali, ḳbili // ena, prčxili, guli // ḳvdeba, c̣q̇ali, saxeli . gvari

The pronouns fit the Northern Eurasian M-T pattern, ḳbili "tooth" is like IE *gembh-, and breast: mḳerdi -- like IE *kerd- "heart".

Dravidian: Proto-Dravidian (some of them guessed by me)
yân . nân, nî, yar . evar // ennatu, alla, îr // pên, kan, pal // nakku, okar . kôr, kunta // caH- . ceH-, nîr, pinccar

Now to the issue of Basque and North Caucasian

Basque, Nakh langs, Daghestanian langs
ni, hi . zu, nor // zer, ez, bi // zorri, begi, hortz . hagin // mihi, azazkal, bihotz // hil, ur, izen . deitura
so, ħo, me(la) // x'un . fu . wux, ca . -ac, ši // madza, x'oa . fu . gaga, carg // mott, m'ara, dog // dala, xi, c'i
dun . na . nu, mun . ina . x'u, -- // --, --, k'i- // nac' . ner', ber . ja . x'li, ca . kkacchi . cula // mac', --, -- // xveze . ivc'an . vebk'es, l'im . shchin . shin, c'a

c = ts, x = kh fricative

Appendix: Basque Swadesh list - Wiktionary
Appendix: Nakh Swadesh lists - Wiktionary
Appendix: Daghestanian Swadesh lists - Wiktionary
The Daghestanian list included Kumyk, and as I was collecting its Dolgopolsky list, I noticed how much it resembled Turkic: 1s: ben, 2s: sen, 1: bir, 2: eki, louse: bit, ... A quick search confirmed my impression: it is Turkic.

I find some Basque-Nakh-Daghestanian similarities:
1s *ni, 2s: *hi, not: *ats, tongue: *ma-, name: *c'a

 

[lpetrich]

My main source for Dolgopolsky-list contents: Appendix: Swadesh lists - Wiktionary

Sino-Tibetan:
Mandarin, Old Chinese, Burmese, Tibetan, (guessed protoforms)
wǒ, nǐ, shéi // shénme, bù, èr // shī, yǎnjing, yáchǐ // shé, zhǐjia, xīnzàng // sǐ, shuǐ, míng
nga, na, duk // gga, pa, niC-s // srik, miwk, m-hra // m-lat, ma-kij, sem // sij, hluj, meng
nga, nin, be thu // ba, ma, hni // than, mye'si, thwa // sha, le'the, hna loun // thei, yei, a myi
nga, khyed, su // ga re, ma, gnyis // shig, mig, so //lce, sen mo, -- // shi, chu, ming
nga, na, shu // ga, ma, gni // tag, mik, ta // she . le, ?, ti // shi, kju . ya, ming

Austroasiatic:
Vietnamese, Khmer, (guessed protoforms)
--, --, ai // gi, khong, hai // ran . chay, mat, rang // luoi, mong, tim // chet, nuoc, ten
--, --, neak naa // vey, tei, pii // cay, pneek, tmin // andaat, kracaak day, beh doong // taay, tik, cmueh
ang . a, me . e, n- . m- . k- // k- . m-, m- . k-, pa // cay, mat, rang // p- . t-, ?, niem . tim // chet, tak . um, tem

Kra-Dai:
Thai, Lao, (guessed protoforms)
--, --, khrai // aray, may, soong // len . hao, taa, fan // lin, lep, chai // taay, naam, chuu
khôy, mung, phû dau // î nang, bo, sông // men . hao, tâ, khêw // lîn, lep, chau // tây, nâm, sî
ku, mu, ? // ?, ma, sông // ?, ta, k- . p- // lin, lep, tai // tai, nam, chu

Hmong-Mien:
White Hmong
kuv, koj, leej twg // dabtsi, tsis, ob // tuv, qhov-muag, hniav // nplaig, rau tes, plawv // tuag, dej, npe

 

[lpetrich]

Austronesian:
Indonesian, Tagalog, Malagasy, Maori, Proto-Austronesian
--, --, siapa // apa, bukan, dua // kutu, mata, gigi // lidah, kuku, jantung // mati, air . tirta, nama
ako, ikaw, sino // ano, hindi, dalawa // kuto, mata, ngipin // dila, kuko, puso // patay, tubig, pangalan
aho, ianao, iza // inona, tsy, roa // hao, maso, nify // lela, hoho, fo // maty, rano, anarana
ahau, koe, ko wai // he aha, kâre, rua // kutu, mata, niho // arero, maikuku, manawa // mate, wai, ingoa
(i-)aku, (i-)kaSu, (si-)ima // (na-)nu, adi . ini, duSa // kuCu, maCa, nipan // Sama, --, -- // (ma-)aCay, daNum, ngajan

I included Malagasy and Maori to show how evident their relationship is.


I then considered the Americas, and I found that they have the same problem as the Southeast Asian families that I looked at: a lack of reconstruction work, at least a lack of it that Wiktionary's contributors were aware of or decided to contribute. I've found Proto-Mayan, but there isn't much else. So I'll stick with some members.

Navajo (Na-Dene), Ojibwe (Algonquian), Cherokee (Iroquoian), Lakota (Siouan)
shi, ni, hái // daa, doo, naaki // yaa', anááʼ, awoo' // atsoo', áláshgaan, ajéí // daatsaah, tó, bízhiʼ
niin, giin, awenen // wegonen, gaawiin, niizh // ikwa, shkiinzhig, wiibid // denaniw, shkanzh, -deʼ // nibo, nibi, wiinzh
aya, nihi, gago // gadousdi, nasginigesvna, tali // tiina, agadoli, ganvdogv // ganvgo, --, adanvdo // --, ama, dudov
miyé, niyé, tuwá // táku, šni, núŋpa // héya, ištá, hi // čheží, napšáke, čhaŋté // t’Á, mní, čhažé

Choctaw (Muskogean), Nahuatl (Uto-Aztecan), Proto-Mayan
ano, chishno, kata // nata, kiyo, toklo // issap, nishkin, noti // issolash, ibbak chosh, chokash // illi, oka, hohchifo
ne, te, aquin // tleh, ah, ome // atemitl, ixtli, tlantli // nenepilli, iztitl, yolotli // miqui, atl, tocayitl
?iin, ?at, mak // b'a, ma, ka?-ib' // ?uk', Haty, ?eeh // ?a?q, ʔiSk’aq, -- // kam, Ha?, *b’ih

S Quechua, Guarani
ñuqa, qam, pi // ima, -chu, iskay // usa, ñawi, kiru // qallu, sillu, sunqu // wañuy, unu, suti
che, nde, mávapa // mba'épa, ani . nd i(ri), mokõi // mukyrãna, tesa, tãi // kũ, pyapẽ, ñe'ã // mano, y, éra

 

[lpetrich]

I now come to Afro-Asiatic.

Semitic:
Arabic, Hebrew, Syriac, Akkadian, Ge'ez
ʔanā, ʔanta, man // mā, laā, iṯnān // qamla, ʕayn, sinn // lisān, ẓufr, lubb . qalb // māta, māʔ, ism
ʾănî, ʾattâ, mî // mâ, lōʾ, š'nayim // kinnâ, ʿayin, šên // lâšōn, ṣippōren, lêv // mêθ, mayim, šêm
ʾenâ, ʾat, man // mâ, lâ, trên // qalmâ, ʿaynâ, šennâ . kakkâ // leššânâ, ṭefrâ, lebbâ // mêθ, mayyâ, šmâ
anāku, atta, mannu // mīnu, lā, šinā // uplu, īnu, šinnu // lišānu, ṣupru, libbu // mâtu, mû, šumu
ʾana, ʾanta, mannu // mənt, ʾi, kəlʾetu // qʷəmāl, ʿayn, sən // məlħās . ləsān, ṣəfr, ləbb // --, --, səm

Other Afro-Asiatic:
Coptic (Egyptian), Tarifiyt Berber, Hausa (Chadic), Oromo (Wallagga) (Cushitic), Somali (Cushitic)
anok, ntok, nim // aš, an, ᵊsnau // hlōm, ia, šol . najhe // las, iv, p-hēt . htē // mu, mou, ran
nəšš, šəkk, wi // min, wā, -- // ŧiššəšŧ . infā, ŧit’t’, ŧiɣməsŧ // iřəs, iššā, uř // mməŧ, aman, --
nii, kái, wanda // me, ba, bíyú // kwàlkwátàa, ídòo, hákóoríi // hárshèe, fárcèe, zúucìyáa // mútù, rúwáa, súunáa
ana, si, eeññu // maal, ii'ii, lama // c'inii . injiraan, ija, -- // arraba, qeensa, onnee // du'a, bisaan . madda, maqaa
ani(ga), adi(ga), yaa? // maxaa?, ma, labo // injir, il, ilig // carrab, ciddi, laab . wadne // dhimo . amuud, biyo, magac

It's easy to recognize the Semitic family, but Afro-Asiatic overall is much more difficult to recognize.

 

[lpetrich]

I'll now turn to the Niger-Congo languages, or at least the better-known of them.

Bantu:
Swahili, Zulu, Proto-Bantu
mimi, wewe, nani // nini, si . ha-, mbili // chawa, jicho, jino // ulimi, ukucha, moyo // -fa, maji, jina
ngi- . mina, u- . wena, ubani // yini, a-, -bili // intwala, iso . ihlo, izinyo // ulimi, uzipho, inhiziyo // -fa, amanzi, igama
n-, w-, -- // --, t- . s-, bali . bili // --, jico, jino // limi, jala, tima // ku, jiji, jina

Volta-Niger:
Yoruba, Igbo:
émi, iwo, tani // kini, kò . ki, méjì // iná, ojú. ehín // ahọ́n, --, ọkàn // kú, omi, orúkọ
mu, gi, -- // --, déedéet, abua // igwu, anya, eze // ire, --, obi // --, mmịrị, --

The Bantu ones are recognizably similar, but the Volta-Niger ones are not, and neither looks very similar to Bantu.

Niger-Congo > Atlantic-Congo > Volta-Congo > Volta–Niger, Benue-Congo
Volta–Niger > Yoruba, Igbo
Benue-Congo > Bantoid > Southern Bantoid > Bantu

Appendix: Proto-Bantu concords - Wiktionary -- the pronoun and noun-class prefixes of the Bantu languages -- but for the most part, those are not vocabulary items. The exceptions are the first and second person singular pronouns, and they are stated in a rather incomplete way a lot of Swadesh lists, having only the nominative standalone forms. To get a full picture, one will need standalone oblique forms, and affix forms for possession and verb conjugation.

 

[lpetrich]

I checked on what  Dolgopolsky lis and it uses "I/me" and "you (singular, informal)" for the 1s and 2s pronouns.

The article also linked to a scan of where Aharon Dolgopolsky stated his list. It was in Russian, of course, and it was scanned but not OCRed. I recalled where I first read about that list, and it was in Shevoroshkin & Markey (eds.) - Typology, Relationship, and Time (1986) : Allan R. Bomhard : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive -- that book contains an English translation of AD's paper, and the scan corresponds to book pages 32 - 35.

He uses some abbreviations, and by back-translating, I was able to guess what the full forms were. Here they are with abbreviations and literal translations.

• 1-е лицо ед. числа -- первое лицо единственного числа -- first person of singular number
• 2-е лицо мн. числа -- первое лицо множественного числа -- first person of plural number
• 2-е лицо ед. числа -- второе лицо единственного числа -- second person of singular number
• 2-е лицо мн. числа -- второе лицо множественного числа -- second person of plural number
• 1-е лицо -- первое лицо -- first person
• 2-е лицо -- второе лицо -- second person

So AD was careful enough to be general.

 

[lpetrich]

He examined 140 languages: 64 Indo-European, 4 Dravidian, 12 Daghestanian, 4 Abkhazo-Adyghan, 4 Kartvelian, 7 Semitic, 17 Turkic, 6 Mongolian, 6 Tungusian, 10 Finno-Ugric, and 6 Samoyed.

He next considered A Dictionary of Selected Synonyms in the Principal Indo-European Languages, Buck Carl Darling. He selected only those meanings whose word forms have no more than ten replacements. He considered some additional meanings collected by a colleague of Morris Swadesh, of his eponymous list, and also added what might seem highly stable.

Number of replacements in each family:

• 0 -- '5', '3', '4', '6', 1s
• 1 - 1.5 -- '2', '7', '8'
• 2 - 2.5 -- 2s
• 3 - 3.5 -- 'who'
• 4 - 4.5 -- '10', 1p, '1', 'tongue', 2p, '9'
• 5 - 5.5 -- 'name'
• 6 - 6.5 -- '100', 'what'
• 7 - 7.5 -- 'eye', '20', 'heart'
• 8 - 8.5 -- 'tooth', prohibitive NEG, verbal NEG, 'nit' (louse egg)
• 9 - 9.5 -- 'finger/toe nail', 'louse, 'new moon, crescent moon', 'tear' (from eye)
• 10 - 10.5 -- 'water', 'dead', 'hand'
• 11 - 11.5 -- 'night', 'blood'
• 12 - 12.5 -- 'horn', 'full', 'Sun', 'ear', 'salt'

1s, 2s, 1p, 2p are the personal pronouns. Prohibitive vs. verbal NEG: "Don't chase the cat!" vs. "I'm not chasing the cat".

There is, however, a rather serious omission on AD's part. Both in Russian and in English, who (kto) and what (chto) are both interrogantive and relative pronouns: "Who's chasing the cat?" vs. "She's the one who's chasing the cat". Some languages have different relative pronouns, and English has an alternate one: "She's the one that's chasing the cat". Some languages do not even have relative pronouns but use constructions with participles: "She's the chasing-the-cat one." That is also a literal translation of the order (relative clause), (noun) that some languages use, as opposed to English's order (noun), (relative clause).

Another issue is tongue (body part) vs. tongue (language). In Russian, like in many languages, they are one word: язы́к. The English word itself is from Old French: language: langue -age -- where -age was borrowed into English as a commonly-used suffix that roughly means "collective of" or "some feature of".

 

[lpetrich]

AD continued with eliminating related concepts, like 1p and 2p as often derived from 1s and 2s, '20' as often derived from '2', 'nit" as related to 'louse', etc. and he merged 'who' and 'what', and also the two kinds of negation. He noted that '1' is unstable in many Australian languages, and that many languages of low-tech peoples lack names of numbers greater than 2.

Thus his list. 1s, '2', 2s, who/what, tongue, name, eye, tooth, NEG, finger/toenail, louse, tear (noun), water, dead
My order is the order of appearance in the long Swadesh list.

He then divides consonants into types, by point of articulation, with each type containing different voicings: T, S, P, K, N, M, R, W, J, 0 (0-slash: h-like, no consonant, or initial ng -- I think that H would be better). He put /tS/ and /dZ/ in K.

For 1s and 2s he is careful to consider oblique forms and verb conjugations as well as nominative forms.

AD concluded that there is likely a relationship between Indo-European, Hamito-Semitic, Uralic, Altaic, Chukchi-Kamchatkan, and Kartvelian, but that a relationship between them and Sumerian is much less likely.

 

[lpetrich]

Now for one last Dolgopolsky list, or more properly, three of them, from the Khoisan languages of southern and eastern Africa.

Khoekhoe, Naro, ǃXóõ (the !X is a click)
-ta, -ts . -s, ta(r)i . ham // mâ . ta(r)e, tama, lgam // uri.b/-i/s, mû.s, ǁgû.b // nam.mi/(s) (also l-, t-), ǁgoro.s, ǂgao.b/s // ǁō, ǁgam.mi, ǀon.s (also -e-)
ra, tsi, dìí // dùú, ta, cám̀ // ntcã̱à, tcgáí, xõ̱ó // ta̱m, xo̱rò, tcáó // chàà . xʼóó, tshàa, cgʼõè
n, āh, èh // èh, ǁqhúa . ǁʻàa, ǂnûm // ʘnó̰õ (large) . gǁkxʻóni (small), ǃʻûĩ, ǁqhàã // ʻǀna̰n, --, ǀqʻàn // ǀʻâa, ǃqhàa, ǀàũ

The odd symbols in some of the words are symbols for clicks. Also, these languages seem rather distant from each other.

Click languages | Britannica

While clicks are an extensive and original feature of the Khoisan languages, they have spread through linguistic contacts into a number of other languages of the Bantu and Cushitic groups. These languages are therefore full-fledged click languages but derivatively so. In all click languages, clicks form only a portion—though sometimes the main portion—of the total number of consonants of the language.

...
Clicks are used extensively in the vocabulary of Khoisan languages, and they are the initial sounds in approximately 70 percent of the words.

Bantu speakers spread from W Africa and Cushitic speakers from NE Africa.

Genetic perspectives on the origin of clicks in Bantu languages from southwestern Zambia | European Journal of Human Genetics
and
genomic prehistory of peoples speaking Khoisan languages | Human Molecular Genetics | Oxford Academic and The genomic prehistory of peoples speaking Khoisan languages - PubMed

Khoisan hunter-gatherers have been the largest population throughout most of modern-human demographic history | Nature Communications

Coalescent analysis shows that the Khoisan and their ancestors have been the largest populations since their split with the non-Khoisan population ~100–150 kyr ago. In contrast, the ancestors of the non-Khoisan groups, including Bantu-speakers and non-Africans, experienced population declines after the split and lost more than half of their genetic diversity. Paleoclimate records indicate that the precipitation in southern Africa increased ~80–100 kyr ago while west-central Africa became drier. We hypothesize that these climate differences might be related to the divergent-ancient histories among human populations.

 

[lpetrich]

So humanity may have split

• Southern half of Africa - Khoisan
• Northern half of Africa
  • West Africa: Niger-Congo
  • Central Africa: Nilo-Saharan
  • Northeast Africa and ex-African:
    • Borean
    • Indo-Pacific
    • Australian

The ultimate in such hypotheses is  Proto-Human language or "Proto-World" or "Proto-Sapiens".

John Bengtson and Merritt Ruhlen proposes 27 "global etymologies", including *tik "one, finger, to point out" and *pal "two". I recall from somewhere that MR has a challenge: see if one can derive the opposite: *pal "one, finger, to point out" and *tik "two".

One can do similar statistical tests more broadly. The closest I've seen is

• WALS Online - Feature 136A: M-T Pronouns
• WALS Online - Feature 136B: M in First Person Singular
• WALS Online - Feature 137A: N-M Pronouns
• WALS Online - Feature 137B: M in Second Person Singular

M - T is common in northern Eurasia, rare elsewhere. Likewise, N - M is common in the Americas, even if far from universal there, but rare elsewhere.

BTW, with Dolgopolsky's consonant types, I suggest splitting off the affricates "ts", "ch", ... as C, along with renaming 0-slash as H. Thus, the first person singular pronoun in Proto-Indo-European is nominative H, oblique M, verb conjugation H, M.

• Indo-European -- 1s: nominative H, oblique M, verb conjugation H, M -- 2s: independent T, verb conjugation S
• Uralic -- 1s: M -- 2s: T
• Turkic -- 1s: independent B -- 2s: S
• Mongolian -- 1s: B -- 2s: T, C
• Tungusic -- 1s: B -- 2s: S

Etc.

 

[lpetrich]

Returning to Dolgopolsky's list, one can make an extended one from his counts of replacements.

• 0 -- '5' 26, '3' 24, '4' 25, '6', 1s 1
• 1 -- '2' 23, '7', '8'
• 2 -- 2s 2
• 3 -- 'who' 11
• 4 -- '10', 1p 4, '1' 22, 'tongue' 78, 2p 5, '9'
• 5 -- 'name' 207
• 6 -- '100', 'what' 12
• 7 -- 'eye' 74, '20', 'heart' 90
• 8 -- 'tooth' 77, prohibitive NEG 16, verbal NEG 16, 'nit' (louse egg)
• 9 -- 'finger/toe nail' 79, 'louse' 48, 'new moon, crescent moon', 'tear' (from eye)
• 10 -- 'water' 150, 'dead' 109, 'hand' 83
• 11 -- 'night' 177, 'blood' 64
• 12 -- 'horn' 68, 'full' 182, 'Sun' 147, 'ear' 73, 'salt' 155

Entry n covers n and n + 1/2 -- doubtful cases were scored 1/2.

Sorted by Swadesh-list order

1 1s 0 -- 2 2s 2 -- 4 1p 4 -- 5 2p 4 -- 11 'who' 3 -- 12 'what' 6 -- 16 NEG 8 -- 23 '2' 1 -- 24 '3' 0 -- 25 '4' 0 -- 26 '5' 0 -- 48 'louse' 9 -- 64 'blood' 11 -- 68 'horn' 12 -- 73 'ear' 12 -- 74 'eye' 7 -- 77 'tooth' 8 -- 78 'tongue' 4 -- 79 'finger/toe nail' 9 -- 83 'hand' 10 -- 90 'heart' 7 -- 109 'dead' 10 -- 150 'water' 10 -- 155 'salt' 12 -- 177 'night' 11 -- 182 'full' 12 -- 207 'name' 5

The names of the smallest positive integers are very well conserved in many cases, though they are sometimes borrowed.

1 to 10: 4 1 0 0 0 - 0 1 1 4 4 -- 20: 7, 100: 6

Mark Rosenfelder at zompist.com - The Numbers List -- 1 to 10 only

 

[lpetrich]

Lookin in Mark Rosenfelder's big list:

Proto-Indo-European: 1 *oinos *oikos *sem, 2 *duwō, 3 *treyes, 4 *kwetwores, 5 *penkwe, 6 *sweks, 7 *septṃ, 8 *oktō, 9 *newṇ, 10 *dekṃ

Uralic:
Proto-Finno-Ugric: 1: *ykte, 2: *kakte, 3: *kolm-, 4: *neljä-, 5: *vit(t)e, 6: kut(t)e
Proto-Samoyedic: 1: *op, 2: *kitä, 3: *näkur, 4: *tettə, 5: *səmpəläŋkə, 6: *məktut, 7: *seytwə, 8: *kitä(yn)-tettə, 9: *ämäytumə, 10: *wüət
Combined: 2: *kakte

Old Turkic: 1: bir, 2: iki, 3: üč, 4: tört, 5: beš, 6: altï, 7: yeti, 8: säkiz, 9: toquz, 10: on
Middle Mongolian: 1: niken, 2: ɟirin, 3: gurban, 4: dörben, 5: tabun, 6: ɟirɣuɣan, 7: doloɣan, 8: nayiman, 9: yisün, 10: arban
Proto-Tungusic: 1: *ämün, 2: *žör, 3: *ilan, 4: *dügün, 5: *tuñga, 6: *ñöŋün, 7: *nadan, 8: *žapkun, 9: *xüjägün, 10: *žuwan
Korean: 1: hana, 2: tul, 3: set, 4: net, 5: tasǒt, 6: yǒsǒt, 7: ilgop, 8: yǒdǒl, 9: ahop, 10: yǒl
Old Japanese: 1: pitö, 2: puta, 3: mi, 4: yö, 5: itu, 6: mu, 7: nana, 8: ya, 9: könönö, 10: töwo

Japanese has a pattern:

• 1: pitö, 2: puta,
• 3: mi, 6: mu
• 4: yö, 8: ya

Doubling ~ vowel shifts.

Transeurasian has no reconsrtuctible numerals.

 

[lpetrich]

Proto-Dravidian: 1: *oru, 2: *iru, 3: *muC, 4: *nāl, 5: *cayN, 6: *caṟu, 7: *eṛu, 8: *eṭṭu, 9: *tol., 10: *pat(tu)

Karvelian: Georgian: 1: erti, 2: ori, 3: sami, 4: otx̣i, 5: x̣uti, 6: ekvsi, 7: švidi, 8: rva, 9: cx̣ra, 10: ati

Georgian 4 + Indo-European dual ending: PIE 8

Proto-North-Caucasian: 1: *cHə̆, 2: *q̣Hwǟ, 3: *ś̱wimHV, 4: *hěmq̣ɨ, 5: *f̱ɦä̆, 6: *ʔrǟnƚE, 7: *ʔěrŁ̱ĭ-, 8: *bǖnŁ̱e, 9: *ʔĭlč̣wɨ, 10: *ʔěnc̣E

Basque: 1: bat, 2: bi, 3: hiru, 4: lau, 5: bost, 6: sei, 7: zazpi, 8: zortzi

Proto-Sino-Tibetan: *k-tyig, 2: *k-in-hnis, 3: *k-in-t’um, 4: *p-l-shi, 5: *p-l-ŋa, 6: *t-r’uk, 7: *s-Nis, 8: *t-r’iat, 9: *t-kua

Hardly any resemblance.

 

[lpetrich]

I'll do Southeast Asia:

Proto-Kam-Sui: 1: ʔet D1, 2: ñi B2, 3: sam A1, 4: si B1, 5: ŋo C2, 6: ljok D1, 7: sət D1, 8: pat D1, 9: --, 10: ʑup D2
Proto-Tai: 1: at, 2: ji:h, 3: sa:m, 4: si:h, 5: xe:`, 6: xok, 7: čet, 8: pɛ:t, 9: kao, 10: džip

Proto-Viet-Muong: 1: *moc, 2: *hal, 3: *pa, 4: *pon, 5: *ʔdăm, 6: *khăw, 7: *păy, 8: *t’am, 9: *cin, 10: *mïəl

Proto-Austronesian: 1: *esa/isa, 2: *duSa, 3: *telu, 4: *Sepat, 5: *lima, 6: *enem, 7: *pitu, 8: *walu, 9: *Siwa, 10: *sa-puluq

The form for "10" looks like "one ten", like "one hundred" and "one thousand" in English

Tagalog: 1: isá, 2: dalawá, 3: tatló, 4: ápat, 5: limá, 6: ánim, 7: pitó, 8: waló, 9: siyám, 10: sampû
Indonesian: 1: satu, 2: dua, 3: tiga, 4: empat, 5: lima, 6: enam, 7: tujuh, 8: delapan, 9: sembilan, 10: sepuluh
Malagasy: 1: ráy, 2: róa, 3: télo, 4: éfatra, 5: dímy, 6: énina, 7: fíto, 8: válo, 9: sívy, 10: fólo
Fijian: 1: e dua na, 2: e rua na, 3: e tolu na, 4: e vā na, 5: e lima na, 6: e ono na, 7: e vitu na, 8: e walu na, 9: e ciwa na, 10: e tini na
Samoan: 1: tasi, 2: lua, 3: tolu, 4: fa, 5: lima, 6: ono, 7: fitu, 8: valu, 9: iva, 10: sefulu
Tahitian: 1: tahi, 2: piti, 3: toru, 4: maha, 5: pae, 6: ōno, 7: hitu, 8: va’u, 9: iva, 10: hō’e’ahuru
Maori: 1: ahi, 2: rua, 3: toru, 4: whā, 5: rima, 6: ono, 7: whitu, 8: waru, 9: iwa, 10: tekau
Hawaiian: 1: ‘e-kahi, 2: ‘e-lua, 3: ‘e-kolu, 4: ‘e-hā, 5: ‘e-lima, 6: ‘e-ono, 7: ‘e-hiku, 8: ‘e-walu, 9: ‘e-iwa, 10: ‘umi
Rapa Nui: 1: tahi, 2: rua, 3: toru, 4: ha, 5: rima, 6: ono, 7: hitu, 8: va’u, 9: iva, 10: ’ahuru

All done with Neolithic-level seafaring.

 

[lpetrich]

Now Afro-Asiatic. In the older literature, it was Semito-Hamitic or Hamito-Semitic, after two of the sons of Noah. Indo-European was sometimes named after the third one, making it Japhetic.

Semitic is very easy to recognize.
Akkadian: 1: ištēn, 2: šinā, 3: šalāš, 4: erbe, 5: ḫamiš, 6: šediš, 7: sebe, 8: samāne, 9: tiše, 10: ešer
Arabic: 1: wāḥid, 2: iθnān, 3: θalāθah, 4: ’arba‘ah, 5: χamsah, 6: sittah, 7: sab‘ah, 8: θamāniyyah, 9: tis‘ah, 10: ‘ašarah
Biblical Hebrew: 1: ’aḥat, 2: štayim, 3: šâlôš, 4: ’arba‘, 5: ḥâmêš, 6: šêš, 7: šeba‘, 8: šᵉmôneh, 9: têša‘, 10: ‘eser
Biblical Aramaic: 1: ḥaḏ, 2: tərên, 3: təlāṯā, 4: ʾarbəʿâ, 5: ḥamšâ, 6: šittâ, 7: šiḇʿâ, 8: təmānyâ, 9: tišʿâ, 10: ʿaśrâ
Ge'ez: 1: ʔaħadu, 2: kɨlʔe, 3: šelestu, 4: ʔarba‘ɨttu, 5: xammɨstu, 6: sɨddɨstu, 7: sɛb‘atu, 8: sɛmɛntu, 9: tɛs‘attu, 10: ‘aššɛrtu

Afro-Asiatic much more difficult.
Proto-Semitic: 1: ʔaħad, 2: θin, 3: θalāθ, 4: ?arbaʕ, 5: xamis, 6: sidθ, 7: sabʕ, 8: θamāniy, 9: tisʕ, 10: ʕaɬr
Ancient Egyptian: 1: wuʕʕuw, 2: sinuwwaj, 3: xamtaw, 4: jifṭaw, 5: ṭījaw, 6: saʔsaw, 7: safxaw, 8: xamānaw, 9: pisīčaw, 10: mūčaw
Proto-Berber: 1: yn, 2: sn, 3: krad, 4: okkoz, 5: fuss, 6: fuss d yn, 7: fuss d sn, 8: fuss d krad, 9: aḍàw meraw, 10: meraw
Proto-Eastern-Cushitic: 1: *mitto, 2: *lamo, 3: *sase, 4: *shoole, 5: *omute, 6: *leho, 7: *lamala, 8: *saddzee, 9: *honso, 10: *ton-me

Not much in common.

Semitic, Egyptian, and Berber have in common "2", and Semitic and Egyptian "6" and "7", something that they share with Indo-European and Kartvelian. Why would "6" and "7" be wander words and not "4" or "5" or "8" or "9"?

 

[lpetrich]

Niger-Congo > Atlantic-Congo:
Volta-Niger: Yoruba, Igbo
Benue-Congo: Proto-Bantu
1: ení, 2: èjì, 3: ὲta, 4: ὲrin, 5: àrún, 6: ὲfà, 7: èje, 8: ὲjɔ, 9: ὲsán, 10: ὲwá
1: otu, 2: aboa, 3: atɔ, 4: anô, 5: isɛ, 6: isi, 7: asa, 8: asatɔ, 9: itɛghɛtɛ, 10: iri
1: -mɔ́, 2: *-bàdẹ́ , 3: *-tátọ̀ , 4: *-nà, 5: *-táánɔ̀, 6: --, 7: ==, 8: ==, 9: --, 10: *-kọ́ mì̧

Of these "2", "3", and "4" somewhat resemble each other.

I've skipped over the Americas, New Guinea, and Australia, and I will skip over Kordofanian and Nilo-Saharan. I look at them and I find several different inventions of 1 to 10 in them.

So I'll wrap up with Khoisan.

Most of MR's entries do not go up to 10, but instead to 3 or 4 or 5, with some going out to 2 or 6. This incompleteness is also common in Australia and New Guinea and South America, though less common in Central America and rare in North America.

That aside, Khoisan speakers' present distribution is rather discontinuous, with speakers of most of them living in the eastern part of southern Africa, and speakers of two of them, Hadza and Sandawe, living in eastern Africa a little southeast of Lake Victoria, the big roundish lake. Sandawe is recognizably related to some of the southwestern langs, but Hadza is not, with its speakers genetically closest to the Pygmies of central Africa, known for being short people.

In the SW langs, I find *Xam ~ *Xkam for '2' and *Xnona for '3' where X is some click, though with other forms also present.

 

[lpetrich]

Thinking about Algonquian, I thought about what might make people with Paleolithic technology spread over some land area. Better technology for surviving cold weather? We as a species are not well adapted for cold weather; we don't grow thick fur. But we can make fur coats for ourselves by killing animals that grow thick fur and making coats out of their skins. Another strategy is to collect food during warm weather, food for eating in cold weather, food like  Pemmican -- dried meat in fat.

So I went to  Indigenous languages of the Americas and  Köppen climate classification

In the far north, there is a good fit for some of the  Eskaleut languages These have branching

• 4000 ya: Eskimoan, Aleut
• 1000 ya: Sirenik, Yupik, Inuit

ya = years ago

The Proto-Eskimoan personal pronouns are 1s *vi, 1d *vik, 1p *vit, 2s *alvant, 2d *alptek, 2p *alvcet

d = dual, plural form for two of something

That looks a bit like Northern Eurasian M-T, and there is a further similarity. The dual is -k and the plural is -t.  Eurasiatic languages -- that is also present in Uralic, Tungusic, Nivkh/Gilyak, and Chukchi-Kamchatkan.

Back to climate fits.

The Aleut speakers live on the Aleutian Islands, the Yupik speakers on the west coast of Alaska, and the Inuit speakers on the north coast of North America and the west coast of Greenland. The Inuit speakers live in Köppen type ET: tundra.

 

[lpetrich]

The tundra biome

The arctic is known for its cold, desert-like conditions. The growing season ranges from 50 to 60 days. The average winter temperature is -34° C (-30° F), but the average summer temperature is 3-12° C (37-54° F) which enables this biome to sustain life.

...
All of the plants are adapted to sweeping winds and disturbances of the soil. Plants are short and group together to resist the cold temperatures and are protected by the snow during the winter. They can carry out photosynthesis at low temperatures and low light intensities. The growing seasons are short and most plants reproduce by budding and division rather than sexually by flowering.

...
Animals are adapted to handle long, cold winters and to breed and raise young quickly in the summer. Animals such as mammals and birds also have additional insulation from fat. Many animals hibernate during the winter because food is not abundant. Another alternative is to migrate south in the winter, like birds do. Reptiles and amphibians are few or absent because of the extremely cold temperatures. Because of constant immigration and emigration, the population continually oscillates.

The Inuit people got around this low productivity of land by catching lots of fish and seals and the like.

It's an impressive feat, living in such a hostile climate with Paleolithic technology -- Old Stone Age technology. Neolithic technology is New Stone Age, with agriculture.