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From: alderson@netcom.com (Richard M. Alderson III)
Subject: Re: Eleven & Twelve
In-Reply-To: mrrosa@eden.rutgers.edu's message of 7 Feb 1995 04:34:12 GMT
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Date: Tue, 7 Feb 1995 19:40:03 GMT
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In article <3h6t84$ffu@igor.rutgers.edu> mrrosa@eden.rutgers.edu (Mark Rosa)
writes:

>As I recall, 'eleven' and 'twelve' come from 'ein-lif' and 'zwei-lif' meaning
>one- and two-left (over), approximately, in old Norse.

Close, but not quite accurate on a couple of points.

The protoforms are *ain-li:f- and *twa-li:f-, and are common Germanic.

The form "zwei" is High German, rather than Old Norse, and would not produce a
"t" in the other Germanic languages if it *were* borrowed.
-- 
Rich Alderson		[Tolkien quote temporarily removed in favour of
alderson@netcom.com	 proselytizing comment below --rma]

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