Nyelvtudományi közlemények 91. kötet (1990)

208 TRYGGVE SKOLD
en fimfta tigar "he had 8 winters in the fifth decade" (Menninger 1969. 27).
Now Reuter (1933. 370ff), and after him Menninger (1969. 80, 112), assume
that this way of counting was borrowed by the Finns. Reuter holds
the view that it was carried by trade to the Ostyaks and even farther east
(cf. also Bergsland 1953. 52). In Finnish, 24 can alternatively be rendered
as neljä kolmatta [kymmentä], thus "4 from the third [ten]". Overcounting
is obligatory in the numerals 11-19, e.g. yksi toista [kymmentä] i.e. "one
from the second [ten]", usually written yksitoista, etc. In still another respect,
influence from the Baltic or Germanic peoples could be assumed. In
Finnish, the numeral of a plurale tantum is put in the plural, in agreement
with the head-word. The "classic" example, occurring in most primers and
grammars, is kahdet häät 'two weddings', in inessiv e.g. ainoastaan kaksissa
häissä 'at only two weddings' (see e.g. Denison 1957. 71, Collinder I960. 236,
A. Seppänen 1983. 167, 169). This pattern is of course in contradiction with
the whole way of thinking of the Fenno-Ugric languages, where the numerals
and their head-words are treated as singular, and where the plural as
such is suspect. It is therefore natural to look upon this construction as a
caique on the corresponding patterns in the neighbouring Indo-European
languages (see Ravila 1941. 61, Ingo 1978. 56f, 256f; for the Indo-European
pattern cf. Brugmann-Delbriick 1911. 80, Löfstedt 1958. 100 ff, 218ÍF, Stang
1966.284).
I could also, en passant, remind the reader of the following: that it is a
matter of discussion if we have any numerals at all common to the Samoyedic
and the Fenno-Ugric languages (see e.g. Donner 1933, Rostek 1937. 112f,
Ross 1944. 91f, Kovács 1960 1960. 128), that only the numerals 1-6 are
common to the Fenno-Ugric languages (see e.g. Ross 1944. 91, Bergsland
1953. 47, 53, Kovács 1958. 346, E. Itkonen 1973. 334), and that some of the
higher numerals are loan-words from the Indo-European languages.
I have assumed, in an earlier paper, that the whole decimal system as
such was borrowed by the Fenno-Ugrians from the Indo-Europeans (T. Sköld
1985. 100). After having studied some works on counting in general, I am
now more inclined to suppose that the decimal system is indigenous among
the Fenno-Ugrians, for it is a very common system in the languages of
the world (see e.g. Hagstroem 1931. 25, 32, Kovács 1958. 347, Szemerényi
1960. VIII, Menninger 1969.112, cf. however Kovács 1958.352). The fact
that some of the words for 10 in the Fenno-Ugric languages are borrowed,
however, speaks in another direction (see T. Sköld 1985).
From the traits I have just treated, it is obvious that there has been a
heavy impact on the Finnish numeral system from the neighbouring Indo-
European languages. Based on this, I think it is fair to assume that the
Nyelvtudományi Közlemények 91. 1990.