As someone with a Ph.D. in linguistics (Univ. of Texas at Austin 1974), I found this essay very interesting. The dual number fascinates me. It has been lost in English except in a few cases, e.g., "both" vs. "all." "I hope eventually to have read all of Dr. Brands' books," as opposed to "I've read both of Dr. Firefly's books," which means the latter only wrote two books. "Twice" means "two times." However, "thrice" only occurs in the King James Bible ( . . . thou shalt deny me thrice.").
As someone with a Ph.D. in linguistics (Univ. of Texas at Austin 1974), I found this essay very interesting. The dual number fascinates me. It has been lost in English except in a few cases, e.g., "both" vs. "all." "I hope eventually to have read all of Dr. Brands' books," as opposed to "I've read both of Dr. Firefly's books," which means the latter only wrote two books. "Twice" means "two times." However, "thrice" only occurs in the King James Bible ( . . . thou shalt deny me thrice.").
"The earth has several planets?" Solar System. 😉
Quite so. I was still in pre-Copernican mode when I wrote that.