Yan Tan Tethera
Yan Tan Tethera is the best known name for a counting system (often called the North Country Score ) that shepherds in remote areas of Britain used to count their sheep until recently .
Distribution and origin
The system is largely out of use today, but is well documented in folklore works of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It is said to have been used not only for counting sheep, but also stitches when knitting , and also in children's games as a counting rhyme (such as the better known eeny meeny miney mo or German “ene, mene, mu”).
This system is remarkable, on the one hand, because some of the numerals may have preserved relics of the now extinct Cumbrian language. Much evidence of the counting system comes from Yorkshire , Durham , Cumberland and Lancashire in northern England, where this Celtic language was spoken until the 11th century before it was superseded by English. In the numerals of the special language of the shepherds, some of the few relics of this Celtic substrate are preserved, but have changed regionally to varying degrees over the centuries, so that a reconstruction of their original Cumbrian sound form is difficult.
The main reason for such a contamination is the mnemonic purpose of the counting system, which, with rhyme and metrics , should make it easier to remember certain quantities. The words for 1 and 2, ( yan, tan ) are probably modifications that were made for the sake of rhyme (compare the words in modern Welsh: un, dur ), the word for the number 3 was probably originally like his Corresponds in the living Celtic languages monosyllabic (Welsh tri ), but was adjusted to the dactylic verse of the word for 4, pethera (which in turn is obviously cognate with Welsh pedwar ). Other words like thick (10) and bumfit (15), on the other hand, represent semantic corruptions of Celtic Etyma (compare Welsh deg, pymtheg ).
Against the Cumbrian original hypothesis it has been objected that the counting system could not have been introduced until the late Middle Ages by wandering shepherds from Wales or Scotland to the north of England. However, since it was passed down exclusively orally for centuries - the first written evidence dates back to the 18th century - this question can hardly be answered. It only seems certain that the numerals are of Celtic origin.
Regional counting systems
On the other hand, the system is remarkable because some local variants are not based exclusively on a decimal system like the languages spoken in Great Britain today (including the Celtic) , but rather rely on a prenumeric system to represent some numbers, which does not represent the numerical value in absolute terms, but relationally , i.e. their position in relation to other numerical values. The system is based on a matrix of tetrads (groups of four), elsewhere on a matrix of pentads (groups of five), as Hunter (1927) established.
The following are the words for the Hunter values 1-20. This system does not produce higher numbers; After a shepherd had counted twenty sheep, he cut a notch in a notch and counted the next twenty animals. This fact is in turn interpreted as a relic of a vigesimal system , as it can still be found today in Breton , Welsh , but also in French ( quatre-vingt, "four [times] twenty," ie 80).
| Epping Forest | Wensleydale | Knaresboro | Rathmel | Wales | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | in | yahn | yan | aen | yan |
| 2 | tin | jyahn | tan | taen | tan |
| 3 | tethera | tether | tethera | tethera | tethera |
| 4th | fethera | mether | methera | fethera | pethera |
| 5 | fips | mumph | pimp | fubs | pimp |
| 6th | lethera | hither | sittera | aather | sethera |
| 7th | methera | lither | littera | läather | lethera |
| 8th | co | auver | over | quother | hovera |
| 9 | debera | permanent | dorer | quether | covers |
| 10 | thick | thick | thick | dugs | dik |
| 11 | in thick | yahn dick | yan dick | aen a dugs | yan-a-dick |
| 12 | tin thick | tyahn dick | tan thick | taen a dugs | tan-a-dick |
| 13 | tethera dick | tether thick | tethera dick | tethera dugs | tethera dik |
| 14th | lethera dick | mether thick | methera thick | fethera dugs | pethera dik |
| 15th | bumfit | mimphit | jiggit | buon | bumfit |
| 16 | in a bumfit | yahn a mimphit | yan a jiggit | aen a buon | yan-a-bumfit |
| 17th | tin a bumfit | tyahn a mimphit | tan a jiggit | taen a buon | tan-a-bumfit |
| 18th | lethera bumfit | tether a mimphit | tethera jiggit | tethera buon | tethera bumfit |
| 19th | methera bumfit | mether a mimphit | methera jiggit | fethera buon | pethera bumfit |
| 20th | gigot | jigit | brumfit | gunagun | figgit |
For someone used to the decimal system it is not difficult to understand the Welsh counting system: While the numbers 1–10 and the numbers 15 and 20, which are divisible by 5, are based on basic words, the word for 14 is formed by adding:
4 (pethera) + 10 (dik) = 14 (pethera dik)
the word for 19 accordingly as
4 (pethera) + 15 (bumfit) = 19 (pethera bumfit)
The distribution of the lexemes lethera and methera (and their regional sound forms), on the other hand, seems paradoxical: In Wensleydale , methera stands for the value 4, in Epping Forest, however, for the value 7; while lethera corresponds to the value 7 in all other regions, in Epping Forest it stands for the value 6. These inconsistencies are particularly noticeable in compound numerals: the value 14 in Epping Forest is called lethera thick , in Knaresboro, however, methera thick. According to Justus (1999), this apparent paradox is explained by the fact that, unlike the words for the values 1, 2, and 3 , lethera and methera have no inherent numerical value, but rather have a relational meaning, i.e. indicate a relationship to another value. The Epping Forest system was apparently based on a matrix of five tetrads:
(4) 4 (+4) 8 (+4) 12 (+4) 16 (+4) 20
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
(fethera) (co) (?) (?) (gigot)
The values divisible by four originally had basic, i.e. not derived, names. In the case of 12 and 16, however, these have been replaced by compound terms based on addition, but must still be "considered" as fixed points in the matrix. In this system, lethera does not denote the value 2, but denotes "the half [of a tetrad] added", so it should appear regularly in the denominations of the numerical values 6, 10, 14, 18. However, due to contamination or collision with pentadic systems, the designation for the ten has been replaced by a basic word, and in the case of the 14 and the 16 the lexeme lethera appears , but the second part of the compound refers to the fixed points of a pentadic system (10 - thick, 15 - bumfit). If one assumes the meaning "[one] on top of that" for the lexeme methera , then the distribution of lethera and methera in the tetradic system of Epping Forest becomes clear:
(4) 4 (+4) 8 (+4) 12 (+4) 16 (+4) 20
- - - - - L M - - - - - - L - - - L M -
(fethera) (co) (?) (?) (gigot)
The systems of Wensleydale, Knaresboro and Rathmel, however, are based on a pentadic structure:
(5) 5 (+5) 10 (+5) 15 (+5) 20
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
(mumph) (dick) (mimphit) (jigit)
With the switch to a pentadic system, there was also a reinterpretation of lethera and methera . lethera was problematic when applied to a pentadic system because the value 5 cannot be divided into two natural numbers. The lexeme therefore only appears in these systems in the place of the 7 in the sense of “one and a half pentads”, corresponding to the rounded numerical value 7. The values 12 and 17, on the other hand, are denoted by compounds that are created by adding the pentadic fixed points with the number word for 2 are formed. The meaning of methera , however, shifted from "on top of that / more" to "the penultimate [of the pentad]":
(5) 5 (+5) 10 (+5) 15 (+5) 20
- - - M - - L - - - - - - M - - - - M -
(mumph) (dick) (mimphit) (jigit)
Hunter interpreted the original Tetradic system as a Goidelic substratum, which was then overlaid by a British pentad system as a result of the Celtic settlement movements. In the absence of written sources, however, the theses presented cannot be finally checked. The North Country Score is by no means the only non-decimal counting system in English, for example the division of the pound sterling into 20 shillings of 12 pence each of 4 farthings followed a similarly aberrant pattern until 1971. In the English language, relational quantities are also used in fixed expressions such as half again as much (“one and a half times as much”).
literature
- GH Hunter: Ancient Tales in Aryan Numeration. In: Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archeology and Natural History. 1927, ZDB -ID 17347-2 , pp. 338-344.
- Michael Barry: Traditional Enumeration in the North Country. In: Folk Life 7, 1969, ISSN 0430-8778 , pp. 75-91.
- Carol F. Justus: Pre-decimal Structures in Counting and Metrology. In: Jadranka Gvozdanović (Ed.): Numeral Types and Changes Worldwide. Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin et al. 1999, ISBN 3-11-016113-3 ( Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs 118).