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Analogical Consonant Lengthening in Numerals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2026

Ralph L. Ward
Ralph L. Ward*
Affiliation:
Yale University
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Abstract

[Greek ἐννἐα and Latin quattuor have proved difficult to explain. After an examination of the explanations offered hitherto, the theory is advanced that the -vv- and -tt- of these words are instances of lengthening caused by the analogy of other numbers used in series with them.]

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 24 , Issue 1: January-March , March 1948 , pp. 51 - 55
Copyright
Copyright © 1948 Linguistic Society of America

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References

1 For full forms and literature see WP 1.128; Boisacq, Dict. Étym. 254–5; and Schwyzer, Griech. Gram. 2.590–1.

2 Hübschmann, Armen. Gram. 1.450.

3 I follow Schwyzer (Griech. Gram. 2.591) in regarding Att.-Ion. ἐνϵήκovτα as a secondary development from earlier ἐνήκovτa (= the Phocian form).

4 Only F. de Saussure (Mélanges Graux 743 [Paris, 1887]) and H. Ehrlich (Zur indogermanischen Sprachgeschichte 36–40 [Königsberg, 1910]) differ radically from other Indo-Europeanists in that they start from a quadrisyllabic base *enenewen.

5 Morphologische Untersuchungen auf dem Gebiete der indogermanischen Sprachen 1.123 (Leipzig, 1878).

6 Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der indogermanischen Sprachen3 1.128 (1874–76).

7 Quaestiones Epicae 105–6 (Gütersloh, 1892).

8 Mémoires de la Société de Linguistique de Paris 8.303.

9 Mémoires de la Société de Linguistique de Paris 8.303. I do not find the form διáπϵvτϵ attested anywhere.

10 For this information I am indebted to Professor Albrecht Goetze.

11 It was only after I had arrived at this conclusion, that I noticed, in Lang. 17.87, that W. H. Austin posits *'ъnewn for Indo-Hittite.

12 For a brief discussion of the general subject of contamination in the history of numerals cf. L. Bloomfield, Language 422–3 (New York, 1933).

13 C. D. Buck, Comp. Gram. 214.

14 R. G. Kent, Sounds of Latin2 141.

15 F. Sommer, Hdb.2 424–5.

16 For full forms and literature see WP 1.512 and Ernout-Meillet, Dict. Étym. 835–7.