LINGUIST List 11.1316

Tue Jun 13 2000

Qs: Lang/Children's Rhyme, Numbers/Crosslinguistic

Editor for this issue: Karen Milligan <karenlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Dawn M Ash, Family children's rhyme of unknown language
2. Vincent DeCaen, numbers crosslinguistically?

Dear linguists,

I am a linguistics student at MIT. There is a ditty in my family that
has been told from mother to child at least as far back as my
grandmother's grandmother, back in Milejczyce (pronounced Mileychich),
Russia, a small twon near Bialystok. Our family spoke Yiddish, but
this ditty is certainly not Yiddish, although it may have originally
been, having been misheard/misrepeated by the children when they grew
up (perhaps?). The ditty is said almost in a singing fashion, and is
accompanied by a certain way of tickling the child's hand. If anyone
can help me identify the language, I would appreciate it greatly.

Saku navu ranu
Kachkih navu drilla
Dimetele (x5 or so).

Thanks,
Dawn Ash
dmashmit.edu

is there a reference work on number systems 1-20 crosslinguistically? i'm
especially interested in systems where 6-9 are represented compositionally
as 5+1, 5+2, 5+3. also, i'd be interested to know if basque 6-9 have
ever been analyzed this way, suffix -tzi < *ortzi, cf. bortz "five".
thanks.
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Dr Vincent DeCaen <decaenchass.utoronto.ca>
c/o Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, 4 Bancroft Ave., 2d floor
University of Toronto, Toronto ON, CANADA, M5S 1A1

Hebrew Syntax Encoding Initiative, www.chass.utoronto.ca/~decaen/hsei/
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