Counting by 10s vs. 20s

Amy West medievalist at W-STS.COM
Fri Aug 23 14:44:20 UTC 2013


On 8/23/13 12:03 AM, Automatic digest processor wrote:
> Date:    Thu, 22 Aug 2013 11:48:58 -0400
> From:    "Joel S. Berson"<Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject: Counting by 10s vs. 20s
>
> What is the received wisdom why English counts the God-given natural
> numbers by tens,
We didn't always. Like Old Norse, in Old English there is the long
hundred, which is actually 120. And yes, I think there's evidence for
ten = 12 in OE. (I am more certain of this in Old Norse).

---Amy West

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