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Historical Linguistics 2022: Selected papers from the 25th International Conference on Historical Linguistics, Oxford, 1–5 August 2022
Edited by Holly Kennard, Emily Lindsay-Smith, Aditi Lahiri and Martin Maiden
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 369] 2025
► pp. 295–305

The history of numerals as a history of East African languages

| Leiden University Centre for Linguistics
The paper discusses a shift in the number system of Proto-Tanzanian Cushitic from the word for “three” to mean “four”, and the one for “two” to mean “three”. This shift was brought about by contact between an incoming group of northern Cushitic speakers and the already present group of Tanzanian Cushitic speakers due to similarity in form between the words for “four” in Tanzanian Cushitic and “three” for in the incoming group. This shift pulled the word for “two” to fill the gap of the old “three” and triggered the innovation of a new internally derived word for “two”. This scenario provides a more intricate view on the Cushitic migration from Ethiopia to Tanzania. Kw’adza joins the rest of Tanzanian Cushitic undergoing this complex and unique set of shifts, but Aasa does not.
Keywords: Cushitic, numbers, semantic change, subclassification
Article outline
  • 1.Semantic shift in the Tanzanian Cushitic Numerals
  • 2.A ‘Khoisan’ form for “four” in the Tanzanian Rift valley languages
  • 3.Summary and conclusion
  • Author queries
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
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