Reconstruction:Proto-Yeniseian/ɢejVŋʷɬaw

• Proto-Yeniseian: *qak (for Ketic and Kottic, per Vajda-Werner 2022)
• Proto-Yeniseian: *qal, *qel, *qol (“thumb > five”) (for Arinic and Pumpokolic, per Vajda-Werner 2022)
• Proto-Yeniseian: *qak (per Cologne group 2023 & 2024. Pattern: q.3-k.2)

All descendants show reduction of some kind of the complex numeral compound, but the general structure of the original root is preserved in all reflexes except in Ketic.

Composed of *ɢej (“big, large”) +‎ *-Vŋʷ (adjectival suffix) +‎ *ɬaw (“extension, protrusion”), literally “big-thing-extension” (i.e. a thumb). Yeniseian cultures traditionally started counting from their left little fingers to their thumbs, so in finger counting, 'five' would correspond to a thumb.

Although Arin and Pumpokol forms are given as cognates in Bonmann et al. (2023), the very same authors leave them out in their 2024 publication without elaboration. They are included here as adapted from Vajda (2024). Vajda-Werner (2022) assume two different lexical roots instead but posit that 'thumb' and 'five' are related, without any further reconstruction.

*ɢejVŋʷɬaw (plural *ɢejVŋʷɬaw-Vŋ)

1. (anatomy) thumb

• Ketic:
  • Ket: ӄъъль (qʌ́ʌ̀lʲ)
  • Yug: хоʼл (χɔˀl)
• Arinic:
  • ⇒? Arin: qólpas (Uncertain, may be from the unattested Proto-Turkic *kol (“arm, hand”) + *baš (“head”) instead.)

*ɢejVŋʷɬaw (ordinal *ɢejVŋʷɬaw-was-Vŋʷ)

1. (cardinal number) five, 5

• Ketic:
  • Imbak Ket: xájem (Bahta dialect)
  • Imbak Ket: xajem (Eed-Šeš dialect)
  • Imbak Ket: kágam, gágem, kagʲam, nagám
    • Ket: ӄак (qāk)
      • ⇒ Ket: ӄагэаӈ (qáɣɛŋ, qáɣɛaŋ), ӄааӈ (qáàŋ) (counting form used with animate nouns)
      • ⇒ Ket: ӄагам (qaɣam) (counting form used with inanimate nouns)
  • Ostyak Yug: gágem
    • Yug: хак (χāk)
      • ⇒ Yug: хаеӈ (χajeŋ) (counting form used with animate nouns)
      • ⇒ Yug: хае (χáje) (counting form used with inanimate nouns)
• Kottic:
  • Assan: géjg'aŋ (géjgʲaŋ), kega
  • Kott: kéga, kejče, xêgä (xeːgä), qêgä (qeːgä), qagä, kega, xagä
    • ⇒ Kott: keluča (“six, 6”, literally “five-one”)
    • ⇒ Kott: kelîna (keliːna, “seven, 7”, literally “five-two”)
    • ⇒ Kott: xeltóŋa, gheltoŋa (“eight, 8”, literally “five-three”)
    • ⇒ Kott: xelšaga (“nine, 9”, literally “five-four”)
• Arinic:
  • Arin: kala, qala, xala
• Pumpokolic:
  • Pumpokol: chéilang, xéilaŋ, xejlaŋ

• Bonmann, Svenja, Fries, Simon, Korobzow, Natalie, Günther, Laura, Hill, Eugen (2023) “Towards a New Reconstruction of the Proto-Yeniseian Sound System. Part I: Word-Initial Consonants”, in International Journal of Eurasian Linguistics‎^[1], number 5, Brill, →DOI, →ISSN, page 58 of 39-82
• Hill, Eugen, Fries, Simon, Korobzow, Natalie, Günther, Laura, Svenja, Bonmann (2024) “Towards a New Reconstruction of the Proto-Yeniseian Sound System. Part II: Word-Final Consonants”, in International Journal of Eurasian Linguistics‎^[2], number 6, Brill, →DOI, →ISSN, pages 216-293
• Vajda, Edward, Werner, Heinrich (2022) “*qak”, in Comparative-Historical Yeniseian Dictionary (Languages of the World/Dictionaries; 79, 80), Muenchen: LINCOM GmbH, →ISBN, page 628
• Vajda, Edward, Werner, Heinrich (2022) “*qal/*qel/*qol”, in Comparative-Historical Yeniseian Dictionary (Languages of the World/Dictionaries; 79, 80), Muenchen: LINCOM GmbH, →ISBN, page 629
• Vajda, Edward, Werner, Heinrich (2022) “*qɔˀl (2)”, in Comparative-Historical Yeniseian Dictionary (Languages of the World/Dictionaries; 79, 80), Muenchen: LINCOM GmbH, →ISBN, page 685
• Vajda, Edward (2024) The Languages and Linguistics of Northern Asia: Language Families (The World of Linguistics [WOL]; 10.1)‎^[3], volume 1, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton, →DOI, →ISBN, page 440
• Werner, Heinrich (2002) “¹qaˑk”, in Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der Jenissej-Sprachen, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, →ISBN, page 80
• Werner, Heinrich (2005) “five”, in Die Jenissej-Sprachen des 18. Jahrhunderts, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, →ISBN, page 296