If
this theory be correct, we should expect to find finger names for numerals
beginning not lower than 3, and oftener with 5 than with any other number.
The highest authority has ventured the assertion that all numeral words
have their origin in the names of the fingers;[69] substantially the same
conclusion was reached by Professor Pott, of Halle, whose work on numeral
nomenclature led him deeply into the study of the origin of these words.
But we have abundant evidence at hand to show that, universal as finger
counting has been, finger origin for numeral words has by no means been
universal. That it is more frequently met with than any other origin is
unquestionably true; but in many instances, which will be more fully
considered in the following chapter, we find strictly non-digital
derivations, especially in the case of the lowest members of the scale. But
in nearly all languages the origin of the words for 1, 2, 3, and 4 are so
entirely unknown that speculation respecting them is almost useless.
An excellent illustration of the ordinary method of formation which obtains
among number scales is furnished by the Eskimos of Point Barrow,[70] who
have pure numeral words up to 5, and then begin a systematic course of word
formation from the names of their fingers. If the names of the first five
numerals are of finger origin, they have so completely lost their original
form, or else the names of the fingers themselves have so changed, that no
resemblance is now to be detected between them.
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