Originally Posted by
Novi Pazar
Albanian numbers – njëzet (one times ten) = twenty!
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1×10 = 20; 2×10 = 40
If you think this calculation is wrong, go to Albania and you find it
all okay!
Albanian is the only language in the world where twenty is not two times
ten but one times ten!
One of the key evidences that Albanians borrowed foreign words
according to their hearing and (mis)understanding are the Albanian
numbers.
Number one is një and this number is in accordance with the other
IE languages.
Number 'ten' is 'dhjetë' – OK
Number 'eleven' is 'njëmbëdhjetë' (borrowed Slavic structure 'jedan-na-
deset', 'dva-na-deset' one-on-ten, two-on-ten; Albanian twelve is
'dymbëdhjetë').
Tridhjetë is thirty in Albanian (Serbian tri-deset – tree times ten)
and it is correct;
Now we are encountering the serious difficulties; namely, Albanian
twenty is not dy-dhjetë (dy = two; two time ten) as we could have
normally expected but një-zet; i.e. one time ten!
In Albanian 1×10 = 20 (interesting, is it not?!)
It seems, Albanians borrowed Serbian/Slavic 'deset' (ten; not Romance
dec-, dez-, dix-) and the suffix -zet confirms it very picturesquely;
like in Serbian colloquial 'dva'set', 'tri'set' instead of dva-de-set,
tri-de-set (twenty, thirty).
Finally, in Albanian two time ten is forty (2×10=40)
Albanian dyzet (forty); i.e. dy (two) time -zet (ten) is dyzet
(forty).
Nevertheless, Albanians seem to have noted that 'dyzet' might be
incorrectly acquired, and they added 'katërdhjetë' – just in case
The
Romanian and Latin siffixes -zece and -ginti (Rom.
două-zeci or Lat. d/vi-ginti) and Albanian -zet
could represent only number ten. Albanian zot means god or
host/ess (that
word was derived from the same Gon basis as Germanic got or Serbian
gazda /master/; Albanian zotëri gentleman; cf. Greek ισοθεος/isotheos
godlike; Σωτήρος/Soteros Christ; Latin Saturnus) and the fact is that
it sprang from the same Ur-basis as -zet. Nevertheless, it does not
mean that -zet and zot have anything in common semantically.
For instance, the Serbian word zet (son in law) is also Gon
"product"; i.e. it is a shortened form of the word doma-ćin or doma-
zet (Greek δαμαζω/domazo gain the mastery over, owerpower). Abdullah's
proposed tw- assibilation is a nice try but it cannot be applied in
this specific case in the way he'd like it to be. Of course, something
similar is possible, like in Romanian dece => zece transformation, but
thus we are going back to the number TEN again – not twenty.
This Albanian -zet reminds me to the Albanian word motër which means
"sister" instead of "mother". Other IE languages are associating word
"mater" (mother) with 'maturity' (Serbian mater mother, mator old,
mudar sagacious, matori father) and it clearly shows that something
unusual is going on when Albanian language is in question.
The most close word to Albanian njëzet (twenty) is Welsh ugain
(twenty); Welsh also used vigesimal system (deugain is forty /two
twenty/). Probably one would say that deugain is a counterpart to
Albanian dyzet (forty), and I must admit it sounds similar, at least
at first sight.
Nevertheless, we are going to see that Welsh ugain originated from
Latin viginti (twenty). Latin viginti is the same as Dutch twintig or
English twenty or Russian dvádtsat’ with the initial dental being lost
(cf. double, Latin duplo and prefix bi- /blix doubled thread; blix
from dublix/duplex/). It means that twenty is composed from two+gant/
sant in all IE languages. Greek είκοσι(twenty) also comes from the
same basis (d/va-kant, Latin viginti); i.e. from d/ewi-kosi.
Albanian: dhjetë
Basque: hamar
Breton: dek
Catalan: deu
Cornish: dek
Corsican: deci
Croatian: deset
Czech: deset
Danish: ti
Dutch: tien
French: dix
Frisian: tsien
German: zehn
Greek: δέκα (déka)
Gujarati: દશ (daśa)
Hindi: दस (das)
Hungarian: tíz
Icelandic: tíu
Irish: deich
Italian: dieci
Komi: das (das)
Kurdish: deh
Latin: decem, X
Latvian: desmit
Norwegian: ti
Novial: dek
Occitan: dètz
Old English: tīen, tēn
Persian: دَه (dæh)
Polish: dziesięć
Portuguese: dez
Punjabi: ਦਸ (das)
Romanian: zece
Romany: desh
Russian: desяtь (désjat’)
Sanskrit: (dashan), दश (daśa)
Scots Gaelic: deich
Serbian deset
Sindhi: ڏَهَه (daha)
Slovak: desať
Slovene: deset
Spanish: diez
Swedish: tio (^)
Welsh: deg
Albanian njëzet
Breton: ugent
Bulgarian: dvadeset (dvadeset)
Croatian: dvadeset
Czech: dvacet
Danish: tyve
Dutch: twintig f.
Frisian: tweintich
German: zwanzig f.
Greek: είκοσι (eíkosi)
Indonesian: dua puluh
Irish: fiche, g.s. fichead
Italian: venti m.
Latin: viginti
Latvian: divdesmit
Manx: feed
Norwegian: tjue
Novial: duanti
Polish: dwadzieścia
Portuguese: vinte
Romanian: douăzeci
Russian: dvadcatь (dvádtsat’)
Sanskrit: vimshatí
Scottish Gaelic: fichead
Serbian: dvadeset
Slovak: dvajset
Slovene: dvajset
Spanish: veinte
Swedish: tjugo
Ukrainian: dvaйcяtь (dvajtsjat’)
Welsh: ugain (vigesimal, traditional), dau ddeg m (decimal), dwy ddeg
f (decimal)
Albanian is IE language thanks to the IE borrowing, which have
occupied more than 90% of they modern vocabulary. I never claimed that
Albanian is not IE but I told that Albanian was not IE language by its
origin.
Romanian două-zeci or Latin d/vi-ginti and Albanian -zet could
represent only number ten. Albanian 'zot' means god or host/ess (that
word was derived from the same Gon basis as Germanic got or Serbian
gazda /master/; Albanian zotëri gentleman; cf. Greek ισοθεος/isotheos
godlike; Σωτήρος/Soteros Christ; Latin Saturnus) and the fact is that
it sprang from the same ur-basis as -zet. Nevertheless, it does not
mean that -zet and zot have anything in common semantically.
For instance, the Serbian word zet (son in law) is also Gon
"product"; i.e. it is a shortened form of the word doma-ćin or doma-
zet (Greek δαμαζω/domazo gain the mastery over, owerpower). Abdullah's
proposed tw- assibilation is a nice try but it cannot be applied in
this specific case in the way he'd like it to be. Of course, something
similar is possible, like in Romanian dece => zece transformation, but
thus we are going back to the number TEN again – not twenty.
There is a Tosk Albanian word zjétë (ten) instaed of Gheg dhet (ten) and standard Albanian dhjetë. Now we can additionally confirm that Tosk zjétë means "ten", especially if we compare that word with the Romanian word zece (ten).
This Albanian -zet reminds me to the Albanian word motër which means
"sister" instead of "mother". Other IE languages are associating word
'mater' (mother) with 'maturity' (Serbian mater mother, mator old,
mudar sagacious, matori father) and it clearly shows that something
unusual is going on when Albanian language is in question.
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