Universal 560:
- Original
- If an atomic numeral expression is borrowed from one language into another, all higher atomic expressions are borrowed.
- Standardized
- IF an atomic numeral expression is borrowed from one language into another, THEN all higher atomic expressions are borrowed.
- Keywords
- numeral, borrowing
- Domain
- lexicon
- Type
- implication
- Status
- diachronic
- Quality
- absolute
- Basis
- 56 languages mentioned in Greenberg 1978a
- Source
- Greenberg 1978a: 289 (#54)
- Counterexamples
1. ATOM = lexically expressed number.2. For example, in Tupi (Tupi), indigenous numerals are found for 1-3 and Portuguese (Indo-European) terms for 4-20. However, 21 is “vinte mocoi cembyra” ‘twenty (Portuguese), one (Tupi), on-top (Tupi)’, and so for all complex numbers over 20, with Portuguese borrowing for the digits 4-9 only. A similar case is found in Kui (Dravidian), in which Indo-Aryan numerals are borrowed from Oriya (Indic) for 3-20, while above 20 the odd numbers for ‘one’ and ‘two’ continue to be Dravidian.