Re: Numbers from 1-10
From: | Peter Bleackley <peter.bleackley@...> |
Date: | Monday, September 1, 2003, 9:13 |
Staving Nik Taylor:
>Most languages are base 10, pure and simple. English, for example, is
>pretty much purely base 10, altho sound changes have obscured the origin
>of "eleven" and "twelve". Some languages are base 20, some are base 5,
>some are other bases. Some languages have a mixture, usually due to
>language contact or change; for example, the Celtic languages used base
>20, French, due to Gaullish influence, acquired some base 20, while
>Nahuatl uses 5's for 1-19, but then 20's above that, so that 57 would
>translate literally as something like "two twenties three fives two",
>and then special words for 400, 8000, 160,000 etc.
>
>Why those numbers? Obviously because humans have 5 fingers on each
>hand, 10 total, and 5 toes on each foot for a total of 20 digits. There
>are some languages
Can anyone tell me where I can find Old Welse numbers up to 100? I'm
thinking of extending "yan, tan, tethera" above "jiggit".
Pete
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