Something that's always confused me is that here we don't pronounce numbers from left to right. So instead of hundred ninety six (100-90-6) we say honderd zes-en-negentig (100-6-90)

[–] Fox@pawb.social 24 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

English used to be that way as well:

Sing a song of sixpence

A pocket full of rye

Four and twenty blackbirds

Baked in a pie.

In these lyrics "four and twenty" means 24

[–] princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Which actually makes sense when you remember that English, before the Normans at least, was very close to dutch.

[–] Dicska@lemmy.world 15 points 2 months ago (1 children)

And it's all because they are germanic languages (at least old English is), and this is the same in German (vier und zwanzig).

[–] samus12345@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago

Modern English is still a Germanic language, but with a LOT of Latin and French thrown in.

[–] qarbone@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, and then we got better

[–] princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I really, really struggle to see how the Normans made English "better".

[–] qarbone@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

They made a successful cipher that has thwarted their enemies into perpetuity.

[–] OwenEverbinde@lemmy.myserv.one 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Ah, the same way Linux was able to thwart hackers for as long as it did.