Dozenal Number Words from Metric Prefixes

In the decimal metric prefixes, there are deci- for a fractional tenth and deca- for ten. These imply a common morpheme dec for ten and variation of the vowel to -a- for a positive exponent and to -i- for a negative exponent or reciprocal.

For the purpose of a dozenal derivation of numbers, I decide to interpret these metric prefixes differently. The syllables -ca- and -ci- are considered to represent twelve and its reciprocal respectively, while the syllable de is considered to be derived from a word for the number two in Indo-European languages, and in the prefix deca means the two units before twelve, in the style of subtractive numeration analogous to that notated in Roman numerals. The vowel in the syllable for the number or base twelve when it is just a plain number not in a unit prefix with a positive or negative exponent is reconstructed as e. In forming a syllable for the base in prefixes modelled on the metric prefixes, it is apparent that there is no need for the base number morpheme syllables to be more than two letters long.

Table of Number Word Names Constructed Denominationally                             

Number	Constructed Name	Derivations (Language)
one	hen	hen (Greek)
two	do	(Proto-Indo-European)
three	tschri	(Proto-Indo-European)
four	dosi
five	hensi	quint (Romance)
six	si	six (English)
seven	sihen	seven (English)
eight	sido	ostò (Calabrian); *aśtō (Proto-Balto-Slavic); *aštā́ (Proto-Indo-Iranian); aṣṭa (Sanskrit)
nine	sitschri	psit (Coptic)
ten	doce	dece (Latin vulgar)
eleven	hence	once (Spanish)
twelve	ce
thirteen	cehen

References:

• https://dozenal.forumotion.com/t26-proto-indo-european-numbers
  
• https://dozenal.forumotion.com/t56-dozenal-roman-numerals
  
• https://handwiki.org/wiki/List_of_numbers_in_various_languages
  

The Syllable for One
The English words seven and eleven both contain the syllable ven, which is similar to the syllable pen in Indo-European words for the number five. Since these numbers differ from the denominations twelve or its half six by one unit, this implies a more labialised consonant initial in the syllable for the number one than in the Greek word hen for one. In the English word for one, there is in pronunciation initial consonantal labialisation, best represented by the consonantal letter w. In combination with a guttural h or q found in hen or quint, a suitable phoneme for the initial consonant of the syllable for the number one would be an unvoiced or partially fricative or sonorant labial. There is no single letter to represent such a phoneme in the English version of the Roman alphabet readily available on a keyboard, but a digraphic rendition of it could be hw. The closest single letter to it in English would probably be f. This makes the denominationally constructed number names even closer to their words in English and other Indo-European languages.

Word for Four
The denominationally constructed word for the number four does not have counterparts in the Indo-European languages, but it could be expected that words for the smallest subitisable numbers would have arisen in prehistoric languages before words for larger numbers were devised from them using a numerical base. Analogously, in Roman numerals, the number four is still sometimes written as IIII instead of being constructed as IV by subtraction of one unit from five. Thus, it might happen that the word for the number four would remain related to earlier Indo-European words similar to kuetuor instead of being constructed denominationally as dosi from two units to six.

Syllable for Twelfth
In Latin words for twelfth fractions, a syllable for a twelfth is unx, as attested in quincunx for five twelfths, septunx for seven twelfths, and decunx for ten twelfths. The consonant x could be considered related to that in the syllable ca of deca. Unx for twelfth suggests an alternative construction of a technical term for base twelve as unxial. This would contrast and disambiguate the base twelve word from the word uncial that has other implications in English. A word for twelve itself might be backformed as unxe or unxa.

Power Terms Derived from Decimal Metric Prefixes
The syllables of the older decimal metric prefixes can be analysed for morphemes for construction of prefixes for orders of magnitude and their bases.

In the older decimal metric prefixes, the terminal vowel is not fronted in prefixes of positive exponents, while it is a high fronted -i vowel in prefixes of negative exponents, whereas in the newer decimal metric prefixes of positive exponents the terminal vowel is the letter -a, while in prefixes of negative exponents it is the vowel -o. Merging the old and new prefix tendencies, for the terminal vowels I choose -oa or just -a for positive exponents and -io or just -o for negative exponents.

The second syllables tend to produce consistent consonants correlated to the absolute magnitudes of the exponents. These consonants can thus be interpreted as representing the ordinate numbers; c for one the first, t for two the second, l for three the third, r or i for four the fourth, and k for six the sixth.

Constructions are attempted for the first syllables from the prefixes of the positive and negative exponents by merging them phonetically. The first syllables for the second order when merged could be represented by the syllable hun- from the English word hundred. The initial letter v for the third order has reference to the initial letter of the word volume of three dimensions.

The initial consonant m- of the first syllables for the fourth and sixth orders suggests that these are considered to be the first in short or long scale power terms, from the Greek mono- for one, while the second and third terms of these scales would start with b- and tr-, as in the million, billion, and trillion decimal words.

I also made syllables from the polynomial order terms linear, square, cubic, quartic, and so on. They do not really belong to derivation from decimal metric prefixes, but they are an attempt to make the first syllables systematic and it is interesting to see how they could combine with the second syllables. The syllable squa- from square in combination with the consonant t also for the second order evokes the English word squat for flattened, which is appropriate for two-dimensional.

Table of Analysed Decimal Metric Prefixes and Constructed Syllables

Order	Metric Prefix		1st Syllable		1st Syllable Constructed		2nd Syllable		2nd Syllable Constructed
	+	-	+	-			+	-	+	-
1	deca-	deci-	de-	de-	de-	lin-	-ca	-ci	-ca	-cio
2	hecto-	centi-	hec-	cen-	chen-	squa-	-to	-ti	-ta	-tio
3	kilo-	milli-	ki-	mil-	vi-	cub-	-lo	-li	-la	-lio
4	myria-	(*myrio-)	myr-	myr-	myr-	quart-	-(r)ia	-(r)io	-(r)ia	-(r)io
6	mega-	micro-	me-	mi-	mei-	sext-	-ga	-cro	-ka	-kio

Reference

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_numerals