Troels Forchhammer
Henriette Frans wrote:

Henriette Frans
chris cunningham wrote:

chris cunningham
<snip> side note: arabic seems to be the same, except that, for "twenty 'til

they'll say "khamsa illa thulth": five except a third, for 4:40.

Henriette Frans
I love this "Even *MORE* Scandinavian linguistics " thread in which I

pass, apart from all the Scandinavian languages: English, Dutch, French

Italian, Celtic, Polish, Russian, and now even Arabic!

chris cunningham
oh, the arabs also put the ones before the tens, btw, as in five and

for 25, or one hundred, five and twenty, for 125

Henriette Frans
Strange, that the Dutch and the Germans have that in common with the

whereas none of the other languages we discussed have that illogical

Troels Forchhammer
Hey - count us Danes in there as well ;-) When you talk about our number system there is only a few illogicalities

don't employ ;-)

I believe that I've heard that there is an East-european language which have the normal singular and plural, but in addition a third form in

for a few - the actual use of which depends on the word - it would for instance demand fewer houses to go from a few to many than it would beers ;-)