Cardinal numbers and gender

[Matthew Longhorn]

I am slowly working my way through practico and van pelt and came across this when doing their chapter on numbers

With numbers three through ten, there is no change in spelling, except to indicate gender and state. Like number two, these numbers are classified as nouns but they do not agree in gender with the other nouns to which they are related. In other words, masculine numbers can be used with feminine nouns and feminine numbers can be used with masculine nouns. Note also that while the numbers are singular in form, the nouns are plural.

This lack of gender agreement is a touch surprising to me - is there some rule that governs this?

[Matthew Longhorn]

Just realised I have some reference grammars.
Juon and Muraoka call it the law of dissymetry

A most remarkable peculiarity of the numerals 3–10, which goes back to Common Semitic, is that the feminine collective is used with masculine nouns and the masculine collective with feminine nouns

French is said to copy the Semitic usage in expressions such as une dizaine d’hommes and un dizain de femmes. This peculiar usage has not yet been explained satisfactorily. The phenomenon seems to have something to do with linguistic psychology, and perhaps we should see here mainly an aesthetic tendency towards dissymmetry. This is in essence the reason suggested by Schultens long ago: “non injucunda connubia”! Another explanation of reflex kind is that the language may have wished thus to lay greater emphasis on the substantival character of these numerals (cf. P. Joüon in MUSJ 6 [1913] 134ff.). The rule in Hebrew is meticulously observed, so that from the masculine or feminine form of the numeral one can infer the feminine or masculine gender of the noun (cf. § 89 a) ! Exceptions are rare (e.g. שְׁל֫שֶׁת נָשִׁים Gn 7.13; שְׁל֫שֶׁת כִּכְּרוֹת לֶ֫חֶם 1Sm 10.3; שְׁלשֶׁת אַחְיֹתֵיהֶם Job 1.4) and may be scribal errors. The principal form is the feminine form: it is this that is used, e.g. in Arabic—the reverse in Modern Hebrew—to express the number in an absolute fashion, e.g. in “3 is half of 6” (cf. § o); consequently the masculine form can be deduced from it. On the choice of the form in cases of the neuter, cf. § 152 g

[Glenn Dean]

I just happen to be translating 1 Sam 1:8 and came across the number "10" (i.e. at the end of the verse it says "am I not more good to you than 10 sons?). What I found interesting is that the word used in 1 Sam 1:8 is מֵעֲשָׂרָה . Practico & Pelt lists this as "fs" (just as it says in the textbook "numbers 3 thru 10 can be used interchangeably" so you have the feminine number "10" with the masculine noun "sons". BUT, if you go to BibleHub it indicates the number "10" as being "ms" (so it appears either P&P or BH is in error??????)

Glenn

[Jason Hare]

I hate hate hate that they call numbers masculine and feminine. LOL

I can't count how many times I've told someone that this is a terrible idea. The nomenclature should be simply "longer" and "shorter." The longer forms are used with masculine nouns; the shorter forms are used with feminine nouns.

Think of the fact that feminine nouns normally end in in -ah in the singular. Using -ah for the numbers would still make a mismatch, since the plurals generally end in -ot rather than -ah. Rather than this mismatch, they matched the -ah forms with the MASCULINE forms (which normally end in -im in plurals).

If shalosh means "three," then we match them this way:

שָׁלשׁ יְלָדוֹת — שְׁלשָׁה יְלָדִים | three girls, three boys

Sometimes we find a construct with indefinite nouns, but most of the time definite nouns are found with the construct.

שְׁלשׁ הַיְלָדוֹת — שְׁל֫שֶׁת הַיְלָדִים | the three girls, the three boys

The same is the case with the number 10 that you're asking about.

עֶ֫שֶׂר נָשִׁים - ten women
עֲשָׂרָה אֲנָשִׁים - ten people
עֶ֫שֶׂר הַנָּשִׁים - the ten women
עֲשֶׂ֫רֶת הָֽאֲנָשִׁים - the ten people

Since the long form goes with masculine nouns, I find it so troubling to call it "feminine" or to call it "masculine." Does "masculine" refer to the form that agrees with masculine nouns or the form that itself looks masculine? Does "feminine" refer to the form that agrees with feminine nouns or the form that itself looks feminine? The terminology is messed up.