In James Joyce - A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man, he says

—But he, Temple said, pointing to Cranly, he is a ballocks, too, like
me. Only he doesn’t know it. And that’s the only difference I see.

A burst of laughter covered his words. But he turned again to Stephen
and said with a sudden eagerness:

—That word is a most interesting word. That’s the only English dual
number. Did you know?

—Is it? Stephen said vaguely.

Having studied Ancient Greek many years ago, I know about the Singular, Dual and Plural.  But is James Joyce right?

[quote author=HectorInspector link=board=grammar;num=1085145431;start=0#0 date=05/21/04 at 09:17:11]But he, Temple said, pointing to Cranly, he is a ballocks, too, like me.

That’s the only English dual number. Did you know?

Maybe it’s not the only dual.  You guys have dice as in game of dice.  In order to play the game, you need two of them but few seem to be aware that dice has an obsolete [s] plural[/s] singular die.

If you hear someone say, "I want a die" [very short a], which is your choice?
1. Report him to a doctor as a case of suicidal ideation,
2. Give him a cubic random number generator.

In Old English the dual number is preserved only in two pronouns:

  wit   =   ‘we two’
  git   =   ‘you two’

Everything else comes as singular or plural, and these two dual pronouns always use plural verbs.

‘Ballocks’ is clearly plural, as is ‘dice’ (that’s just spelt oddly). A bealluc is a little ball in Old English. Its plural is used to refer to the testes, which generally come in pairs, but are still gramatically plural.

Was he just talking proverbials?

- Garzo.

[quote author=Garzo link=board=grammar;num=1085145431;start=0#2 date=05/21/04 at 17:10:07]In Old English the dual number is preserved only in two pronouns:

  wit   =   ‘we two’
  git   =   ‘you two’

Everything else comes as singular or plural, and these two dual pronouns always use plural verbs.

‘Ballocks’ is clearly plural, as is ‘dice’ (that’s just spelt oddly). A bealluc is a little ball in Old English. Its plural is used to refer to the testes, which generally come in pairs, but are still gramatically plural.

Was he just talking proverbials?

- Garzo.

So "what’s the matter wit you?" and "go on and git on out of here" just got very ambivalent, eh?

Perry

I wonder how many people grew up thinking that  "the die is cast" meant "the dye is set."  (like I did)

Garzo:

‘Ballocks’ is clearly plural, as is ‘dice’ (that’s just spelt oddly). A bealluc is a little ball in Old English. Its plural is used to refer to the testes, which generally come in pairs, but are still gramatically plural.

I agree!  Even "the twins" is a normal plural!

Garzo:

In Old English the dual number is preserved only in two pronouns:
  wit   =   ‘we two’
  git   =   ‘you two’

I remember seeing these spelled (perhaps in a phonetic representation) as ‘wit[sup]w[/sup]’ and ‘yit[sup]w[/sup]’ and I was wondering if this labialization in Old English extended to some remnant forms like "t[sup]w[/sup]o" and "s[sup]w[/sup]ord" or even "ans[sup]w[/sup]er."

Sitran

I wonder how many people grew up thinking that  "the die is cast" meant "the dye is set."  (like I did)

I have always known/felt that the die is cast means the "mold has been formed"; and not that a die has, or pair of dice have, been thrown.

die (n.) - c.1330 (as a plural), from O.Fr. de, of uncertain origin, perhaps from L. datum "given," pp. of dare, which, in addition to "give," had a secondary sense of "to play" (as a chess piece); or else from "what is given" (by chance or Fortune). Sense of "stamping block or tool" first recorded 1699.

However, the Hebrew equivalent expression literally means that "the lot has fallen".

Perry

PS:  A dye might still run in the wash, even after it has set.

in Hebrew tradition, were there not lots thrown for ‘direction’ or ‘guidance’?

Rarely.  But the Jews of Persis were almost destroyed by the plot made by Haman, the advisor to King Ahasverosh, who convinced the King, "There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your realm. Their laws are different from those of every other people’s, and they do not observe the king’s laws; therefore it is not befitting the king to tolerate them.".  He used lots to choose the date for his planned masacre (which was prevented by the better advice given to the King by Esther his Queen).

[quote author=Sitran link=board=grammar;num=1085145431;start=0#4 date=05/21/04 at 20:54:56]I remember seeing these spelled (perhaps in a phonetic representation) as ‘wit[sup]w[/sup]’ and ‘yit[sup]w[/sup]’ and I was wondering if this labialization in Old English extended to some remnant forms like "t[sup]w[/sup]o" and "s[sup]w[/sup]ord" or even "ans[sup]w[/sup]er."

Two, sword and answer all had a pronounced w in Old English. I’ve never heard of this with the dual pronouns. The g in git is pronounced as a y (sorry, Katy). The oblique declension of wit is unc(er), and of git, inc(er).

Alea iacta est.—"The die is cast!" (Said by Julius Caesar when he crossed the Rubicon, contrary to law.)

Sitran

From the Analects of Confucius (chapter 17 jookahen)

The Master said, "Hard is it to deal with who will stuff himself with food the whole day, without applying his mind to anything good! Are there not gamesters and chess players? To be one of these would still be better than doing nothing at all." http://classics.mit.edu/Confucius/analects.4.4.html

Surprise, surprise.  Mr. Moral recommends his disciples to gamble!  But before monetary economy developed to the scale of today’s societies, gambling was a sacred augury to weigh up divine will.  In today’s brave new world of gambling you are either rewarded by or made to donate to, the discerning Mammon.

Here you are, Katy.

www.crystalinks.com/urim.html

There was a post a few days back about the Syriac word shlomo, ‘peace’. I discovered that the Syriac for Urim and Thummim is Nahiro w-Shalmo, or ‘light and perfection’. At least the Syriac is easier to translate than the Hebrew. The usual definition is ‘light and perfection’, but it more likely means ‘light and dark’ or ‘luciferic and tenbrific’.

That reminds me of George Hebert’s poem Aaron:

[center]Holiness on the head,
Light and perfections on the breast,
Harmonious bells below, raising the dead
To lead them unto life and rest:
Thus are true Aarons drest.

Profaneness in my head,
Defects and darkness in my breast,
A noise of passions ringing me for dead
Unto a place where is no rest:
Poor priest, thus am I drest.

Only another head
I have, another heart and breast,
Another music, making live, not dead,
Without whom I could have no rest:
In him I am well drest.

Christ is my only head,
My alone-only heart and breast,
My only music, striking me ev’n dead,
That to the old man I may rest,
And be in him new-drest.

So, holy in my head,
Perfect and light in my dear breast,
My doctrine tun’d by Christ (who is not dead,
But lives in me while I do rest),
Come people; Aaron’s drest. [/center]

pas de deux

Pass de deus, please…