From: Jan van Steenbergen (ijzeren_jan@yahoo.co.uk)
Date: Mon May 12 2003 - 16:38:47 EST
--- Anton Sherwood skrzypszy:
> The works of Rabelais(?) include <Quart Livre> and <Quint Livre>,
> implying that early modern French had <quint> /kE~/ vs <cinq> /sE~/.
>
> But perhaps <quart> and <quint> are learned forms rather than vernacular.
AFAIK the ending -ième was added relatively late. The ending itself was
inherited into higher numbers (10 and higher). Probably because pronunciation
had developed in such way that cardinals and ordinals became difficult to
distinguish.
Jan
=====
"Originality is the art of concealing your source." - Franklin P. Jones
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