Sobre el origen del numeral “uno” en las lenguas de Eurasia partiendo del vasco

Abstract

The authors take up once more the theory of the origin of the numeral ‘one’ as partitive or half of ‘two’ –initially based on the pairs of body members (hands, feet, eyes, ears, etc.)– and try to establish the semantic link between two (=pair: ‘hands, side’) > half, and the number one as individualised term: eye, ear, etc. They consider that in the Basque language two is etymologically related with one, as a differentiated term meaning other, and put forward the term Basq. erdi ‘half’, linked to *erdi ‘two’, without the incidence of which they find it difficult to explain erdi-tu ‘to give birth’, ‘new mother’ (Latin ‘parire’, ‘pair’).

The authors propose complementing the binomial Basq. erdi ‘two’ (pair) > erdi ‘half’ by adding the simultaneous base > Basq. erdi ‘other’. In this case, one would not come from the etymon ‘half’, but directly from ‘two’, something like ‘a half’.

They extend this information from Basque to other ancient Eurasian languages.