Bonjour,
Le Fri, 9 Sep 2016 17:42:17 +0100 Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton lkcl@lkcl.net a écrit:
in french, the number "98" is *five syllables* with a massive amount of physical effort required to morph the mouth between some of the syllables! qua-tre vingt dix huit. pronounced "ka-tr-uh va-i-ngg dee-ss-wh-ee-t" and translated in english "four-twenty ten-eight"!!
Yep -- that's a legacy from the Gauls IIRC, who made a habit of counting in twenties, which we kept in part (why in part only is one of those marvellous mysteries of language). But we're slowly getting better: in older times, counting in twenties was way more pervasive, with for instance a famous hospital being named "quinze-vingt" (literally : fifteen twenties) because it could accommodate 300 beds.
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OTOH, we French have primed the use of the metric system before 1800 while even today the British and Americans (among others) insist on using some imperial system(s). :)
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(I can't help smiling every time I re-read the footnote in _Good Omens_ about the old British currency system and how the Brits considered the decimal currency system /too complicated/ to adopt.)
Amicalement,