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Blaze @dormi.zone

1y ago

Map

99 in different languages

28 comments

Denmark over here adding fractions and shit...
- Yeah, this problem comes up with 50, 60, 70, 80 and 90 in Danish, because those are counted in "number of twenties" for some reason. And not like "3-and-a-half-twenties" but rather "halfway-towards-the-fourth-twenty". That example is 70 by the way (halfjersindstyvende). And nowadays it's shortened to omit the "twenties"-part. So in this case just "halvfjers".
  The naming convention is pretty whack, but it's just treated as irregular naming in normal use. The alternative, would be to rename those numbers to femti, seksti, syvti, otteti, and niti, but that's very much an uphill battle against habit. So for now. 50, 60, 70, 80, and 90 just have unique names...
- Yes they really didn't want to go the easy way
  
  Yeah, and it's wrong.
  Nioghalvfems is 9 + 1/2 5 20!
  NOT that silly 9+(4+1/2)20.
  What do they take us for? Calculators?

Who says 100-1? I can’t find the lilac on the map, but it seems very reasonable and I support this.
- A small point in the middle of italy. Maybe the vatican?
  
  Latin has two ways to express it:
  undecentum (which reflects the numeral notation "IC"), meaning 100 - 1;
  nonaginta novem, plain regular form 90 + 9.
  
  Thank you!

For people asking why France is split, they used Occitan for the southern part, which I think is an interesting choice to show the regional language even if most people don't speak it.
- Not ideal, though. A mixed area would have been better. Acknowledging Occitan is important but it gives the false impression that a majority speaks it. And it goes way too north.
  
  It seems to go that north because it includes the local language west of Switzerland? You see the Nonante-neuf overlapping

So, are we (Czechia) the only ones who use more than one way?
90+9 (ninety-nine literally) is the formal way to do it, while 9+90 (nine-and-ninety literally) is the informal way. You can easily hear both of the ways used in one sentence.
- Norway as well. 90+9 is the official way, 9+90 is the way from when the Germans occupied the country. Both are still used. The map also says Georgia and Finland also use two variations.
  
  The Finnish colloquial variation on the map – ysiysi – is "nine nine"
- 9 and 90 appears in English but reads extremely archaic, you'd basically never run into it in modern speech.
- Niti og ni, 910+9 was used in Danish on cheques.
  I doubt those exist anymore, though.

Only sane ones are 90+9, 9+90 and 100-1
- Variations of 4 x 20 + 19 are fine too. It's the same as 90+9 (9 x 10 + 9) but using base 20 instead of 10
  It's the Danish who are wrong
  
  Nah, changing bases from one number to the next while counting up is a step too far.
  
  Hey! I resemble that remark!

Wow, I’ve never seen one of these maps that included Sámi languages. I’m impressed.

28 comments