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

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark J. Reed" <markjreed@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Tuesday, September 16, 2003 3:52 AM
Subject: Re: The English/French counting system (WAS: number systems
fromconlangs)


> On Mon, Sep 15, 2003 at 07:57:41PM -0700, Joseph Fatula wrote:
> > I'm finding that my own idiolect of English is rather conservative for
an
> > American version, and this is more evidence to that fact.  I say "at a
> > quarter of X", and I was born in 1981.
>
> I never say and rarely hear "of"; it's always "'til" or "until".
> Which have an interesting distribution, actually; I have never, ever heard
> "quarter until" - it's alway shortened to "quarter 'til" - but I have
> often heard "five minutes until" and similar.
Of course, in Merrie Olde Englande, it's a simple 'to'.

> -Mark
>