Re: Possible base-20 numeric system

As Danny remarks below, Welsh and French use a "bizarre" base-twenty system
of counting that is Celtic in origin.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, one on ten, two
on ten, three on ten, four on ten, fifteen (pymtheg, an older version of
"five and/with ten"?), one on fifteen, two on fifteen (un ar bymtheg, dau ar
bymtheg), two nines, four on fifteen, twenty (ugain).  There, we just
counted in traditional Welsh.  Then, for twenty through forty, you repeat.
One on twenty, two on twenty, three on twenty, etc, fifteen on twenty
(35)...  Fifty is "half hundred" (hanner cant).

I find French counting (I lived and learned in Switzerland which switched to
a decimal system) similarly bizarre, and have never fully mastered it.  In
Geneva we said septante instead of soixante-dix; octante instead of
quatre-vingts (four twenties: pedwair ugain in Welsh), and nonante instead
of the hugely cumbersome quatre-vingts-dix.  They do this, IIRC, in Belgium,
too.  I'll admit to having an admiration for the quaint Gallic and Cymric
mixed-base structure (the fifteen, for instance in Welsh), and sort of
lament the simplifications (Welsh has simplified its numbers too: un deg
pump for 15; tri deg for 30 instead of deg ar hugain); so I hope that Danny
can make something even more fiendish than Welsh and French base-twenty
counting.

However, I'm confused.  I thought Simon's remarks were in response to
Trebor's post about a base-twenty counting system.  Does Trebor have the
same aims that Danny does?

Sally

----- Original Message -----
From: "Danny Wier" <dawiertx@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Sunday, October 24, 2004 7:42 AM
Subject: Re: Possible base-20 numeric system


> From: "Simon Richard Clarkstone"
>
>> No, wrong, you have a bizarre dual-base system.  Each of the quoted
>> should be 20 more than its predecessor.  In the next "place", each would
>> be 20*20=400 more than its predecessor.
>> Also, you must (well, should) only have one name for each integer, but
>> you have:
>> ketïs-tis = koltïs (assuming hyphens add the two numbers)
Danny:
> Dual-base systems are bizarre? Systems using 20x5 are not that uncommon;
> Welsh, Danish, French (for 60 and 80) and Georgian are just a few that do
> such.
>
> And what about Sumerian and Akkadian? Base 60 is inevitably dual-base,
> since
> you can't square an integer and get 60.
>
> I want something that's insanely mixed-base, using 10, 12, 20 or 60
> depending on whatever.
>