alt Hacker NewsArabic is on the Semitic branch of the hypothesised proto-Indo-European language, which has dual number: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_(grammatical_number)
So you'd expect to see languages from western Europe to south Asia that either have the dual concept, or have an attested ancestor that did.
Replies
another-dave • today at 2:59 PM
Within Indo-European languages, Irish has the concept of the dual. It's used with things that come in pairs like "mo dhá láimh" - my two hands.
Interestingly, to say one-handed you'd say "leath-lámh", where _leath_ means half, so half the <thing that's usually one of a pair>.
mathieuh • today at 2:39 PM
Semitic languages are Afroasiatic, not Indoeuropean.
The Semitic language family is not part of the proto-indo-european language family. It's from the Afroasiatic family
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semitic_languages
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afroasiatic_languages