Yan Tan Tethera

Yan Tan Tethera is the most famous name of a counting system (often called North Country Score), with the shepherds in remote areas of the UK counted their sheep until the recent past.

Distribution and origin

The system is now largely out of use, but is well documented in ethnographic work of the late 19th and early 20th century. It is not only used for counting sheep, but also of stitches in knitting, was also handed a nursery rhyme (such as the better-known eeny meeny miney mo or German " ene, mene, mu" ).

Remarkably, this system is firstly because have in some of the number words may receive relics of the now-extinct Cumbrian language. The evidence for the counting system mainly come from Lincolnshire and Yorkshire in northern England, where in the 11th century, this Celtic language was spoken before it was supplanted by English. In the number of words of the special language of the shepherd is therefore one of the few relics got this Celtic substrate, but were transformed over the centuries regionally in varying degrees, so that is a reconstruction of their original Cumbrian sound shape difficult.

The reasons for such contamination is mainly the mnemonic purpose of the counting system, which should help with rhyme and meter, especially memorizing certain quantities. To provide the words for 1 and 2, ( yan tan ) probably represent modifications that have been made willing to rhyme ( contrast, compare the words in modern Welsh: un, dau ), the word for the number 3 was probably originally as his counterparts in the living Celtic languages ​​monosyllabic (Welsh tri), but was aligned with the dactylic metrical foot of the word for 4, pethera ( which in turn is cognate with Welsh pedwar ). Other words such as fat (10) and bumfit (15 ), however, provide semantic malapropisms Celtic Etyma is (compare Welsh deg, pymtheg ).

Against the Cumbrian origin hypothesis has been argued that the counting system could also have been introduced only in the late Middle Ages by wandering shepherds from Wales or Scotland to Northern England. Since it was passed down through the centuries but only verbally - the first written evidence dating to the 18th century - this question can hardly be answered. Sure seems that the number words of Celtic origin are.

Regional counting systems

Noteworthy is the system to another, because some local variants do not (including Celtic ) build as the spoken today in the United Kingdom Languages ​​exclusively on a decimal system, but to represent draw some numbers on a pränumerisches system that represents the numeric value not absolute but relational, thus indicating their position in relation to other numerical values. The system employs an array of tetrads ( groups of four ), elsewhere one of pentads ( five groups), as applicable Hunter (1927 ) noted.

The following words are given the values ​​from 1 to 20 Hunter. Higher numbers are not formed with this system; after a shepherd counted twenty sheep, he cut a notch in a notched timber and counted the next twenty animals. This fact in turn is interpreted as a relic of a Vigesimalsystems, as it partly still in Breton, Welsh, but also in French today ( quatre vingt, " four [ times ] twenty, " ie 80) place.

A man accustomed to the decimal system it is not difficult to tap into the Welsh Zählssystem. While the numbers 1-10 and the divisible by 5 numbers 15 and 20 are based on undergraduate words, the word for 14 is formed by an addition:

4 ( pethera ) 10 ( dik ) = 14 ( pethera dik ) the word for 19 in accordance with the

4 ( pethera ) 15 ( bumfit ) = 19 ( pethera bumfit ) The distribution of lexemes lethera and Methera ( and their regional According to figures ), however, seems paradoxical: So is Methera in Wensleydale the value to 4, in Epping Forest, however, for the value 7; lethera while in all other regions corresponds to the value 7, it is in Epping Forest for the value 6 are particularly striking inconsistencies in these composite number words: is the name of the value 14 in Epping Forest lethera thick, in contrast Knaresboro Methera thick. This apparent paradox is explained by Justus (1999 ) in that lethera and Methera unlike the words for the values ​​1, 2, and 3 have no inherent numerical value, but have relational significance, thus indicating a relationship with a different value. The system of Epping Forest apparently was based on a matrix of five tetrads:

(4 ) 4 ( 4 ) 8 ( 4) 12 ( 4) 16 ( 4) 20 --------------------       ( fethera ) (co ) (? ) (?) ( gigot ) The divisible by four values ​​had originally undergraduate, thus not derived names. In the case of 12 and 16, these have been replaced with composite, based on addition of names, but must continue to be " thought along " as fixed points of the matrix. lethera referred to in this system is not set to 2, but called " half [ of a tetrad ] added ," should therefore regularly appear in the terms of the numerical values ​​of 6, 10, 14, 18. Due to contamination or collision with penta sized systems, the term for the Ten has been replaced with an undergraduate Word, and in the case of true 14 and 16 appear lethera the lexeme, but refers to the second part of the compound word on the fixed points of a penta Indian system (10 - thick, 15 - bumfit ). Substituting for the lexeme Methera the importance of " [ a ] bargain " forward, then open up the distribution of lethera and Methera in tetradic system of Epping Forest:

(4 ) 4 ( 4 ) 8 ( 4) 12 ( 4) 16 ( 4) 20 ----- LM ------ L --- LM -       ( fethera ) (co ) (? ) (?) ( gigot ) The systems of Wensleydale, Knaresboro and Rathmel is, however, a penta sized structure based on:

(5 ) 5 ( 5 ) 10 ( 5 ) 15 ( 5) 20 --------------------          ( mumph ) ( thick) ( mimphit ) ( jigit ) With the conversion to a penta -indian system was accompanied by a reinterpretation of lethera and Methera. lethera was problematic in application to a penta -indian system, since the value 5 can not be divided into two natural numbers. Consequently, the lexeme appears in these systems nurmehr at the point of 7 in terms of " one and a half pentads ," according to the rounded numerical value 7 The values ​​12 and 17 are, however, referred to as compound words, by additions of penta Indian fixed points with the numeral 2 are formed. The importance of Methera shifted, however, of " the bargain / more " to " the penultimate [ the pentad ] ":

(5 ) 5 ( 5 ) 10 ( 5 ) 15 ( 5) 20 --- M - L ------ M ---- M -          ( mumph ) ( thick) ( mimphit ) ( jigit ) Hunter pointing the original tetradic system as goidelisches substrate, which was then superimposed as a result of Celtic settlement movements of a Britannic Pentadensystem. In the absence of written sources, however, the presented hypotheses can not be verified last valid. However, the North Country score is by no means the only non-decimal counting system in English is, such as followed the division of the pound sterling in 20 shillings each 12 pence each with 4 Farthings until 1971 a similar aberrant pattern. Relational amount of information can be found in the English language also in fixed phrases such as helped again as much ( " one and a half times as much").

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