Quote:
Originally Posted by Jellby
I like to think about it (after reading an excellent an thick book on numbers by Georges Ifrah) as:
60 -> "third", meaning "three people", where each person counts as 20, because they have 20 fingers and toes.
50 -> "half third", meaning "two people and one half of the third", so that's 40+20/2=50
and 70 is "half fourth" and 90 "half fifth", of course  It's like saying the time in German, after all. |
Of course
Just like saying the time - it's the same way in Denmark
Never ocurred to me that it's the same logic.
Thanks very much for the link to the book - it looks really interesting. I just looked it up in an etymology.