80 (quatre-vingt) comes from the base 20 system. That’s a vestige from pre indo-European languages (specifically the Gauls) that ended up influencing France.
Interestingly (if I’m not mistaken), in Switzerland they actually say “huitante” and in Belgium they say “octante”.
80 (quatre-vingt) comes from the base 20 system. That’s a vestige from pre indo-European languages (specifically the Gauls) that ended up influencing France.
Interestingly (if I’m not mistaken), in Switzerland they actually say “huitante” and in Belgium they say “octante”.
In Wallonia ( french belgium ) you’re also likely to hear “nonante” for 90 IIRC
The Gauls were Celtic, which is Indo-European. Maybe you meant “Pre-Romance”?
I was mentioning Indo-European in the draft of the comment and then I changed it and I didn’t modified it correctly. You are right.
Maya use mostly base 20 system. Mostly, because all digits go from 0 to 19, except for the second one, that goes from 0 to 17.
What do you mean by the second one? Like this? {0-19}{0-17}{0-19}…{0-19}
No, the second from the left
… 19 19 19 19 17 19
As a Frenchman I wish we would just adopt septante huitante nonante too.