Rara #115

Legacy number: 115

 Number  115
 Phenomenon  stem suppletion of 'two', as the only numeral, depending on the use of the numeral for counting or for quantifying a noun
 Found in  Maltese (Semitic, Afroasiatic); Chinese (Sinitic, Sino-Tibetan)
 Domain  morphology: inflection — suppletion
 Type  rarissimum
 Keywords  numeral
 Source  Hurford, James R. (2002). The interaction between numerals and nouns. In Frans Plank (ed.), Noun Phrase Structure in the Languages of Europe. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
 Violates  none

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Discussion
Notes
German and Basque also have distinct counting and quantifying forms for ?two?, but the stems, zwo and zwei (German) and biga and bi (Basque), are still formally related, unlike tnejn and xew0 in Maltese and Ër and li?ng in Chinese. Such counting/quantifying suppletion seems somewhat more common for ?one?.
Comment
Frans Plank · 21 Sep 2006
German and Basque also have distinct counting and quantifying forms for 'two', but the stems, zwo and zwei (German) and biga and bi (Basque), are still formally related, unlike tnejn and xew0 in Maltese and èr and liâng in Chinese. Such counting/quantifying suppletion seems somewhat more common for 'one'.