OP LANGUAGES. 



93 



CHAPTEE IX. 



ON NUMBER. 



The mode in which languages express plurality, though 

 not so important a feature as gender in the development of 

 a dialect, still attracts a great deal of interest. The cause of 

 plurality lies in the diversity of number. The latter being 

 known, the most important item of information is supplied, 

 and the form of the word need not be altered in order to 

 agree with the sense implied by the numeral, or the adjective, 

 which denotes definite or indefinite number. Many languages, 

 e.g., the Malayan, Fijian, Yoruba and Californian possess no 

 plural forms at all, and even languages which own such, do 

 not use them always after numerals. This is the case with 

 Bengali, where the nouns are joined in the singular to 

 numerals, as dasajana ten persons, bdro dsana twelve seats, 

 aneka loka many people. Hebrew nouns as yom day, shanah 

 year, %sh man, follow the numerals from 11 to 19 occa- 

 sionally in the singular, viz., arb'ddh 'dsar yom fourteen days, 

 if the ordinals between 20 and 90 precede the noun, the latter 

 follows, as a rule, in the singular : 'esrim 'ir twenty towns, 

 shetayim vesishsMm shdndh sixty- two years, &c. Grerman words 

 used as a means of counting, measuring or weighing, retain 

 the singular when joined with a definite or indefinite nume- 

 ral ; as Mann " man," zivblf (viele) Mann Soldaten, twelve 

 (many) soldiers, %ehn Stuck ten pieces, seeks Paar Strumpfe six 

 pairs of stockings, drei Buck Papier three quires of paper, funf 

 (mehrere) MassWein five (many) quarts of wine, vier (einige) 

 Glass Bier four (some) glasses of beer ; Fuss foot, Zoll inch, 

 Centner hundred- weight, Pfund pound, Loth ounce, TJhr in 

 sieben TJhr seven o'clock. The English language recognizes 

 the same rule in such words as foot, horse and people (twenty 

 foot, fifteen horse, many people). 



