[je_bailey]

After reading the article. I don’t see where they said it was a counting system. Rather that it has the same rhyming structure as counting systems and so it had to be considered a possibility that it came from that. Which by the end they said was very unlikely.

[Normille]

Point taken. I suppose the 'out' is open to interpretation. I read it as in 'counting out[loud]' or just 'counting out [the number of something]'. But I can see how they could have meant it as in 'counting out [which ones amongst X sheep were for mating/selling/killing/etc.