Re: Numbers from 1-10

Quoting Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...>:

> En réponse à Isidora Zamora :
>
>
> >And why is it that the numbering systems in French and Danish seem to be
> >based on twenty to a certain extent?
>
> I don't know for Danish, but some linguists say the partial base 20 in
> French could be a substrate influence from Gaulish, a Celtic tongue (and
> all Celtic tongues seem to count by twenties). But it's not much more than
> a hypothesis (and some varieties of French spoken in other countries, like
> in Belgium and Switzerland, are more purely base 10).
I've heard that the Danish system arose first among North Sea fishers, who
used, for whatever reason, to deal with fish in scores. I can't tell how
reliable that is.

                                                          Andreas