The history of number words in the world's languages—what have we learnt so far?

Abstract

For over 100 years, researchers from various disciplines have been enthralled and occupied by the study of number words. This article discusses implications for the study of deep history and human evolution that arise from this body of work. Phylogenetic modelling shows that low-limit number words are preserved across thousands of years, a pattern consistently observed in several language families. Cross-linguistic frequencies of use and experimental studies also point to widespread homogeneity in the use of number words. Yet linguistic typology and field documentation reports caution against positing a privileged linguistic category for number words, showing a wealth of variation in how number words are encoded across the world. In contrast with low-limit numbers, the higher numbers are characterized by a rapid and morphologically consistent pattern of expansion, and behave like grammatical phrasal units, following language-internal rules. Taken together, the evidence suggests that numbers are at the cross-roads of language history. For languages that do have productive and consistent number systems, numerals one to five are among the most reliable available linguistic fossils of deep history, defying change yet still bearing the marks of the past, while higher numbers emerge as innovative tools looking to the future, derived using language-internal patterns and created to meet the needs of modern speakers. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Reconstructing prehistoric languages’.

Indo-European loanwords and exchange in Bronze Age Central and East Asia

“…I consequently suggest that this borrowing is an Uralo-Turkic phenomenon, transferred at an early stage of contact with the language of Afanasievo; this word was possibly borrowed further into Old Chinese, perhaps through the language of the local cosmopolitan people of the Tarim Basin (Zhang et al, 2021 ). As an exclusively linguistic contribution, early Neolithic and Bronze Age exchanges across Eurasia saw a rapid spread of a formalised decimal system, mostly grammaticalising former idiosyncratic counting practices, but also borrowing foreign numerals, in particular ‘seven’ (Calude, 2021 ; Mallory & Adams, 1997 : 398; Helimski, 2001 : 190–192; Janhunen 2012 ; Bjørn, 2020 , 2017 : 141). It is very likely that the precipitation of the numeral systems across Eurasia is tied to increased exchange, no doubt to a large extent with the new precious metals (Mei, 2003 ), ultimately an extension of the Balkan–Carpatho metallurgical network, reaching the Volga in the fifth millennium BC (Cunliffe, 2008 : 154–156; Goody, 2012 : 167–168; Rehren et al, 2021 : 7).…”

Information Theory Opens New Dimensions in Experimental Studies of Animal Behaviour and Communication

“…In modern human languages, the length of the code word of a number j is approximately proportional to log j (for large j ), and the modern numeration system results from a long and complicated development. However, the concept of a linear number line appears to be a cultural invention that fails to develop in the absence of formal education [ 135 ] (see review in [ 137 ]).…”

Reconstructing prehistoric languages

“…While two other papers touch on the properties of earliest grammars and vocabularies (Hartman & Pleyer [7] and Benítez-Burraco & Progovac [8]), the contributions by Calude [9] and by Gil [10] focus most directly on these questions. Calude provides an overview of the research on number words, concluding that numerals 1–5 are the most stable across cultures, often being preserved for thousands of years, and that they are thus the ones that should be reconstructed for prehistoric languages, while higher numerals have emerged as an innovative tool in more recent times.…”