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In which order to say numbers | ||
Tags: Number System | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Stassri Newbie Korea, South Joined 4096 days ago 23 posts - 29 votes Speaks: Korean* | Message 1 of 25 13 September 2013 at 9:28am | IP Logged |
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In English, we say numbers in the order of : thousands - hundreds - tens - units.
I'm curious to know in which languages people express numbers in the reverse order, or : units - tens - hundreds - thousands. I don't know if these languages are rare or as many as the opposite ones, but if they are rare, what do you think is the reason for that? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Cabaire Senior Member Germany Joined 5597 days ago 725 posts - 1352 votes  | Message 2 of 25 13 September 2013 at 10:35am | IP Logged |
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Not always. In a medieval language style and in Jane Auston the word order is reversed: "I am not one and twenty"
This may be inherited from the Wikings. This is still the way of speaking in the Scandinavian languages and German up till now (I think in Arabic too). PS. And think about traditional Irish: - Seacht n-uaire déag ar fhichid: thirty seven times - Cheithre bliana fichead: twenty four years Edited by Cabaire on 13 September 2013 at 10:42am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6701 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 25 13 September 2013 at 11:02am | IP Logged |
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It is fairly logical that people want to hear about the thousands and hundreds first and then the petty details can wait. If there are exceptions from this order it would be a surprise for me, but maybe there are. However you don't have to go further than to Danish to find an exception for tens and ones. For instance the Swedes say "femtiofem" and the Icelanders say "fimmtíu og fimm" (five-tens five, or as a formula: 5*10 + 5), but we say "femoghalvtreds" (five and half less than three times twenty... or as a formula: 5 + (3-½) * 20). Maybe a bit complicated, but the central point is that five comes before fifty in Danish.
PS I just saw that Cabaire has mentioned Irish. Actually the literal translation of "Cheithre bliana fichead" is 'four years twenty , and I actually think this also is the way the remaining Irish speakers still would say it. And speaking about the Vikings, I just found out that (from 'Vikinglady's answer page) that 'hundred' in Old Norse was 10*10 (tíu tigir ) - 'hundrað' actually meant 120, so 200 would be "hundrað ok átta tigir" (100 + 8*10)! Edited by Iversen on 13 September 2013 at 11:26am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4705 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 4 of 25 13 September 2013 at 11:10am | IP Logged |
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Swedes don't reverse the numbers. Dutch and German do.
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| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4620 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 5 of 25 13 September 2013 at 11:38am | IP Logged |
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Perhaps old English reversed the numbers? There is a nursery ryhme which mentions "four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie"
I once read that Greenlandic has no number system beyond 20, just a word meaning "many". In modern times, they have substituted the Danish numbers for larger amounts. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4637 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 6 of 25 13 September 2013 at 11:47am | IP Logged |
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The situation in Norway is quite interesting, as up until 1950 the "correct" way of counting was like in German and Danish, i.e. 52 was read as "toogfemti" (two and fifty). However, in 1950 the Parliament decided that we should count the same way as Swedes and British people do, so from 1 July 1951 people should say "femtito" etc. instead.
Like so many language reforms imposed by politicians, it met a lot of resistance, and still today, according to some studies, the majority of Norwegians who are more than 50 years old use the "old way" of counting. So after more than sixty years since the reform we have two ways of counting, the Danish way and the Swedish way. However, officially the tens must be said before the ones. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4620 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 7 of 25 13 September 2013 at 11:51am | IP Logged |
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Does the concept of a dozen exist in other European languages? It is still widely used in English (along with half a dozen) to purchase certain types of food. Edited by beano on 13 September 2013 at 11:52am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4705 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 8 of 25 13 September 2013 at 11:53am | IP Logged |
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Dozijn in Dutch.
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