[andrewla]

The other interesting thing about French is that Swiss French and Belgian French have both fixed this - ninety is “nonante” instead of “four twenty ten”. Belgians use “quatrevingt” instead of the Swiss French “huitante”, though.

The oddest thing of all is apparently the simplified form is an old French usage that got replaced by the Gettysburg-Address-style “four score” more recently. Why they would change in that direction is a mystery to me.