line substantive take the feminine form, and those with a feminine substantive take the masculine form. The common explanation of this strange phenomenon used to be that the primary form of the numeral was an abstract noun in the feminine (cf. § 122 p). This was originally attached in the constr. st. to the word qualified, then came to be also used in apposition to it, and finally was placed after it like an adjective. The consequence of the appositional, and finally adjectival, construction was, that for numerals connected with feminine nouns a special shorter form came to be used, whilst the original forms, with the abstract feminine ending, were used in connexion with masculine nouns, after as well as before them.
On this view the historical process would have been that originally the abstract numerals (like Latin trias, decas, Greek πεντάς, δεκάς, &c.) were placed in the constr. st. before masculines and feminines alike, e.g. שְׁל֫שֶׁת בָּנִים trias filiorum, עֲשֶׂ֫רֶת נָשִׁים decas mulierum. A trace of this earlier usage was seen in the examples mentioned under c, like שְׁל֫שֶׁת נָשִׁים.—Further, it was possible to say שְׁלשָׁה בָנִים trias, sc. filii, as well as בָּנִים שְׁלשָׁה filii, trias. From this second appositional construction it was only a step to the treatment of the abstract numeral as an adjective, filii tres. Similarly the subsequently shortened forms of the abstract numeral, which were used in connexion with feminines, might stand either in the constr. st. before, or in apposition before or after the word numbered, thus שְׁלשׁ בָּנוֹת trias filiarum, or שָׁלשׁ בָּנוֹת trias, sc. filiae, or בָּנוֹת שָׁלשׁ filiae, trias, or adjectivally filiae tres.
A different and much more intelligible explanation of the striking disagreement between the gender of the numeral and that of the word numbered has recently been given by Reckendorf, Die syntaktischen Verhältnisse des Arabischen, pt. ii, Leiden, 1898, p. 265 ff. He also considers that the earliest forms were abstract numerals which were placed in the constr. st. before the noun numbered, the latter depending on them in the genitive. The original form, however, of the abstract numerals from 3 to 9 is not the feminine, but the masculine, used for both genders, as it still is in the tens, 20, 30, &c. The feminine abstract numeral was first distinguished by a special form in the numbers from 13 to 19 (see further, below) when connected with masculines, and this distinction was afterwards extended to the numbers from 3 to 10. This explanation does not affect the view stated above that the appositional and adjectival use of the abstract numerals was only adopted later in addition to their use in the genitive construction.
The differentiation of the numerals (originally of common gender) into masculine and feminine forms in the second decade, was occasioned, according to Reckendorf, by the use of the abstract feminine עֶשְׂרֵה in compounds.
