Re: Numbers in Qthen|gai (and in Tyl Sjok) [long]

On Mon, Jan 10, 2005 at 06:54:37PM +0000, Ray Brown wrote:
> I wasn't thinking just of year dates. We would say of a place that it was
> thirteen hundred (and) sixty four feet above see level; IME it is unusual
> to use the form 'one thousand, three hundred (and) sixty four feet'. But I
> think 'twenty three hundred (and) thirty five' is rather less likely than
> 'two thousand, three hundred (and) thirty five'.
I disagree.  I would say "we're twenty-three hundred feet up" as readily
as I would say "we're thirteen hundred feet up".  But the inclusion of
the word "hundred" makes *both* examples different from year numbers; we
partied like it was "nineteen ninety-nine", not "nineteen hundred (and)
ninety-nine".  Nor are values in the 1900s special when not years; I
would never say "That mountain is nineteen-sixty-four feet above sea
level"; I'd always say "nineteen hundred (and) sixty-four".

For me, use of hundreds as counting units doesn't stop until 10,000,
which is "ten thousand", not "one hundred hundred".  Although Hobbits
may prefer the latter. :)

-Marcos

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