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Re: The English/French counting system (WAS: number systems from conlangs)

From:Joe <joe@...>
Date:Monday, September 15, 2003, 20:39
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark J. Reed" <markjreed@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Monday, September 15, 2003 9:31 PM
Subject: Re: The English/French counting system (WAS: number systems from
conlangs)


> M = me > J = Joe > > M> The British use of, e.g., "half eight" to mean > M> "half PAST eight" drives me nuts. I automatically think of it in terms
of
> M> the German "halb acht", which means SEVEN thirty, and therefore used to > M> show up an hour early for meetings with my British boss before I got > M> used to it. > > J> Heh. You'd think the English usage would be more natural to an > J> English-speaker. > > Well, if it were an American usage or I were English, I'm sure it'd > be much more natural to me :). But I'd honestly never heard anyone > tell time that way before I met the particular gentleman I'm working > for now. Whereas I did learn the German method when studying that > language, and my brain made the connection wholly without consulting > me first. > > In any case, I don't see any logical reason why "past" rather than > "until" should be the default when the preposition is omitted, and > simple arithmetic tells us "half eight" is obviously LESS than > eight. But at least I didn't follow that route to its logical > conclusion and arrive at 4AM. :)
Because no-one says 'half until eight', that's why. It's just the omission of a common word, to make things quicker.
> > Better to arrive an hour ealy than an hour late ;-) > > Sure. But in the case of first-thing-in-the-morning meetings, I'd > much rather get the extra hour of sleep. :) > > -Mark >

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Nik Taylor <yonjuuni@...>The English/French counting system (WAS: number systems fromconlangs)