Re: ConNumbers

At 2:36 am -0500 9/6/99, Nik Taylor wrote:
>"Raymond A. Brown" wrote:
>> No supposition about it.  Gaulish was & the all the modern, extant
>> Celticlangs, except Welsh, still are.
>
>I thought that Irish was decimal.  Am I mistaken?
Right - I need to check that one out.

Certainly, the 'traditional' system in all the modern Celtlangs is
vigesimal.  But there have been movements in the British ones to go decimal
& this has succeeded more or less in Welsh, except in certain well defined
contexts such as telling the time.

I know there is an alternative 'modern' decimal system in Scots Gaelic but
my understanding is that it has not caught on and the older vigesimal
system is still the more commonly used one.

It may well be that the Irish goverment has had more success in getting the
decimal system accepted in Irish Gaelic - I don't know.

As far I know, the move towards decimalization hasn't affected the most
widely spoken Celtic lang - Breton - which still adheres to the old system.

Ray.