- Hirt's reconstructed IE *dékmt is not at all necessary. The Germanic form is dealt with in the following pages. Armenian ewt'n ‘7’ and tasn ‘10’ accord perfectly with the assumption that (*-ṃ>) *-n>*-an>-n (by post-tonic syncope) in Armenian. IE *dḱmtóm is adequately split *dḱm-tóm; all forms in *-t- are easily explained as old suffixial forms, frequently reshaped in detail of stem-type. If Hirt were right it is strange we get Skt. dàça, and not *dàçat; from the pattern of Skt. finals it is far easier to explain forms like daç´t as suffixial than to allege loss in the case of dàça; çat proves nothing—shifting of stem-type is common in the Indie numerals, loss of a final unclustered t hard to believe. Besides, if we regard the t-forms as suffixial, we have the characteristic numeral suffix *-ṃ, whatever significance this may once have had; it is noteworthy that the only number to break the series, ‘8’ (*oḱtó:u, or *HoḱtóHw, cf. ‘20’ below), is a striking dual, an exact multiple of the highest inflected number and therefore not just a haphazard break in the series. Also, if we deprive ourselves of the final *-ṃ here, there is no good source for the analogy *newn > *newm, if that actually was the case. The suffixial *-ṃ is further supported by the forms from *deḱu- (cf. Goth, -tigu-), thus giving a very old-layer base *deḱ-; it is conceivable that here we may have a very ancient case of heteroclysis in *-m parallel to *-n, *-r, *-l, *-y. If the form was *dékmt it is further strange that, in light of the frequent ordinal and derivative suffixes in *-t-, we have no forms showing reflexes of IE */tt/ [tst].
- Incidentally, I write *dḱmtóm above to explain the series *semdḱmtóm>*sed´mtóm > *sekmtóm>ἑ𝛞ατóυ. The cluster posited gets rid of the first *m, which otherwise ought to give *ἑ𝛄кαóυ. The treatment *dḱ>k is paralleled in f(e)íкατι: Lat. vīginti (with assimilatory voicing and compensatory lengthening) < *Hwi-dḱm-ti (or *Hwy-dḱm-tý(:)). The laryngeal is attested by Tocharian B ікə𝛑 (<*yікə𝛑) beside Toch A. wiki, and shows up in the length of the diphthong of the nominative dual, as exemplified in ‘8’ above.
- Variant forms must be assumed for ‘4’ at some time or other in view of the West Gmc. forms (e.g. OE fēower, OHG fior), which ostensibly show *3, against, e.g., Go .fidwor, which shows what we should expect from other IE evidence.
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