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--- 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 __________________________________________________ Yahoo! Plus For a better Internet experience http://www.yahoo.co.uk/btoffer