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by Bromskloss 3160 days ago
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/45/2c/2d/452c2d0569d1015f4a0b2ea27...

Edit: Now that I think about it, maybe the Swedish 90 (_nittio_) should be seen as "9×10" (_nio_×_tio_), since that's at least the etymology. I don't know what to make of the German _-zig_ in _neunzig_. Regarding Japanese, I dont' speak any. Finally, if you allow yourself to dig deep enough into the origins of the French and Danish 20 (_vingt_ and _tyve_, respectively), it appears that they too could be split further as "2×10".

3 comments

That is a beautifully succinct and funny capture. The French numbers confused me when I was learning (was it 420107, 42017, 8017, or 97?).

German, being logical and little endian, wins by getting the most significant part last, about when you finally pay attention :)

In Japanese (and Chinese) the 'ten' acts more like a digit separator, so it is as ergonomic as most of the European languages (and perhaps more regular than English)
If the german -zig is at all similar to the dutch -tig as in 'negentig' then it'll mean something roughly equivalent to "a lot"