[vidarh]

The numbers switch was slow, though. My parents started school after the change was officially made in the 50's and would have learned the new forms in school, but still used the old form enough in the late 70's and 80's that I picked up a preference for it from them, and you still find people of my generation (I'm born in '75) using the old forms pretty often, if less now than when I was younger.

(If anyone here wonders if this is the same "Samnorsk" as in Vernor Vinge's "A Fire Upon the Deep": It is. For people who know Norwegian, Vinge's books have several Norwegian-inspired terms. E.g. "Nyjora" is "new earth".)

[berkes]

> The numbers switch was slow, though.

50 years is hardly "slow" on a scale of language reform.

The number-systems stem from at least proto-germanic languages, millenia of small changes.

[semi-extrinsic]

I think the old style of pronouncing numbers still lives on, especially for two-digit numbers and in certain dialects/sociolects. I certainly use it without making conscious effort, and I'm a 90s kid. My children again understand the system, but they rarely use it.

[vidarh]

I mean, there are many other vestigial pieces that will hang in there for a very long time, but see elsewhere - I searched the National Library, and you're absolutely right that it's still around to a limited extent, but the decline in written use at least has been fairly steep.