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dataflow 2 hours ago

Arabic has dual subject pronouns. I wonder if the concept developed independently or if there was any influence somehow?

Two9A an hour ago | parent [-]

Arabic is on the Semitic branch of the hypothesised proto-Indo-European language, which has dual number: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_(grammatical_number)

So you'd expect to see languages from western Europe to south Asia that either have the dual concept, or have an attested ancestor that did.

eigenspace an hour ago | parent | next [-]

The Semitic language family is not part of the proto-indo-european language family. It's from the Afroasiatic family

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semitic_languages

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afroasiatic_languages

another-dave an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Within Indo-European languages, Irish has the concept of the dual. It's used with things that come in pairs like "mo dhá láimh" - my two hands.

Interestingly, to say one-handed you'd say "leath-lámh", where _leath_ means half, so half the <thing that's usually one of a pair>.

mathieuh an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

Semitic languages are Afroasiatic, not Indoeuropean.