[Multilingual Monday] One And Only One
Today we take a look at the number "one", which doesn't sound like much of an article, admittedly. :: laugh :: However, in different language the number "one" is distinct from other the other numerals. To clarify what I mean, we'll take a look at "one" in Hebrew. Like the other numerals, in Hebrew there are both masculine and feminine forms of the number for masculine and feminine nouns -- look at three. "Bear" is masculine, and thus "three bears" becomes שלוש דובים, shlosha dubim, and "minute' is feminine, so "three minutes" becomes shalosh dakot, שלוש דקות. Shlosha/shalosh, "three", comes before the noun they modify. However, look what happens with these same nouns, but with the number one:
דוב אחד, dov exad
דקה אהת daka axat
In this case the number one, which is considered a "true adjective", comes AFTER the noun it modifies, like all other adjectives in the Hebrew language. Interestingly, with "one" acting as an adjective, it would imply that the others are not, at least in Hebrew. This also applies in Arabic -- see رجل واحد, rajul waahid, "One man", compared to عشرون رجلاً, a3shiruun rajulaan, "twenty men", with rajul/rajulaan being "man/men". Interestingly, though Amharic is also a Semitic language, this flip-flop of word order doesn't happen here. That being said, Amharic numbers do not adjust for gender as they do in Hebrew and Arabic. All, of course, except "one" -- አንድ, and, is used for masculine nouns, and feminine nouns get አንዲት, andit.
Curiously enougjh, Basque DOES swap word-order when it comes to "one". Though Basque's word order is fairly free, thanks to noun declensions indicating all sorts of grammatical functions that are indicateed in English and various Romance languages by word order and prepositions. That being said, numbers come before the noun, except for "one", just as in Hebrew:
kafesne - mikly coffee
kafesne bat - one milky coffee
bi kafesne - two milky coffees
lau kafesne - four milky coffees
I'd love to hear about more unique features of the number "one" in all sorts of languages, be it in use, word order, or something else that makes it stand out from other digits.
דוב אחד, dov exad
דקה אהת daka axat
In this case the number one, which is considered a "true adjective", comes AFTER the noun it modifies, like all other adjectives in the Hebrew language. Interestingly, with "one" acting as an adjective, it would imply that the others are not, at least in Hebrew. This also applies in Arabic -- see رجل واحد, rajul waahid, "One man", compared to عشرون رجلاً, a3shiruun rajulaan, "twenty men", with rajul/rajulaan being "man/men". Interestingly, though Amharic is also a Semitic language, this flip-flop of word order doesn't happen here. That being said, Amharic numbers do not adjust for gender as they do in Hebrew and Arabic. All, of course, except "one" -- አንድ, and, is used for masculine nouns, and feminine nouns get አንዲት, andit.
Curiously enougjh, Basque DOES swap word-order when it comes to "one". Though Basque's word order is fairly free, thanks to noun declensions indicating all sorts of grammatical functions that are indicateed in English and various Romance languages by word order and prepositions. That being said, numbers come before the noun, except for "one", just as in Hebrew:
kafesne - mikly coffee
kafesne bat - one milky coffee
bi kafesne - two milky coffees
lau kafesne - four milky coffees
I'd love to hear about more unique features of the number "one" in all sorts of languages, be it in use, word order, or something else that makes it stand out from other digits.