Re: Numeric miscellany (was: numeration system)

On Thu, 16 Dec 2004 18:25:50 +0000, Ray Brown <ray.brown@...> wrote:
> On Thursday, December 16, 2004, at 12:27 , Henrik Theiling wrote:
>> BTW, English 'fifty' and 'fifteen' is also very error prone,
>> especially in larger numbers like 'fifty/fifteen thousand', and
>> especially for foreigners that put the accents on the wrong
>> syllables. :-)
>
> The British norm is to stress the first syllable in all these words. The
> second syllable may get stressed if someone is trying to emphasize the
> difference. "I said fifTEEN, not fifTY" - but tben then it doesn't always
> work if there's a lot of background noise.
I run into that problem too.  It is worse when the person you're talking to
pronounces -ty as [ti] instead of [di] as is most usual (here).

> Yes, they are very error prone which is probably why anglophones developed
> the habit of (usually) giving telephone digit by digit. The French method
> of giving them in two digit groups would simply lead to too many
> complications. Just imagine doing something like 50.14.17.60 in English!
I have seen Americans (local ones, even) give phone numbers in pairs like
that online to foil harvesters.


	*Muke!
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