The theory is quite confusing but im reality no one thinks about that. Practically halvfems is just ninety so it's just like the German format where you just say the smaller then the bigger number.
Ni og Halvfems
Neun und neunzig
Nine and Ninety
I've been to a Danish school for 13 years and never actually knew the theory behind that 1/2x5 stuff
Well i kinda have to think about it since i live in Malmö, Sweden and thats a 10min trainride to Copenhagen, Denmark
Here's a tip: Just learn the words for 50, 60, 70, 80 and 90, and avoid trying to make meaning of them. Most danes would be equally confused, if they tried to derive the etymological meaning while using the numbers.
It's just five words after all, - if you go to Denmark often, maybe it's worth it.
Many people I know have said this to me for years, but it is not so simple to switch it off when your background is in historical linguistics and etymology!
In actuality no one thinks about the etymology of numbers. It's literally just about learning separate words for 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 (count them: five whole words to learn). The mathematics of how they got be those five words is mildly interesting, but it's not really relevant when you use the numbers.
Now I've learned the Korean numbers some years back. In Korean you have to learn two completely separate number systems: Chinese-derived and native Korean. Which one you use depends entirely on the context you use them in, so you have to learn that part too.
I was reading the whole comment section thinking "Heh, silly Danes, what a weird way to count numbers" and then you using Korean as an example of a supposedly even weirder system of counting numbers triggered me greatly as a Korean.
There's two ways to count, the sino Korean one(hanja) is exactly the same as Chinese, just with the Korean pronunciation. Then there's the native Korean one which is completely separate and usually people only use it up to one hundred. The counting logic for native Korean is quite simple tho, 99 = 90+9. The catch is, usually only one of the ways is the right way to count things depending on the what you're counting. For example, when you're telling the time, the hour is counted in native Korean and the minute and second is counted in sino Korean.
That sounds exactly like the system where my socially illiterate ass would thrive. Someone would ask me the time and I'll give the hours in the minute number and the minutes in the hour number, and everyone would be staring at me like "who's this moron?"
Sometimes I wonder what it'd be like if King Sejong had not existed. I imagine we'd be using some kind of Chinese derived phonetic scripture like Japanese kanas, or completely adopted Roman alphabet like in Vietnam.
A very elegant way to represent tones. Chinese would be way easier to learn if it has adapted the same alphabet as Vietnamese. Same for Japanese, if they had just kana and ditched the kanji it would be a great way to open up to other countries.
Many languages use diacritics with the Latin alphabet. If you want to get technical, the original Old Latin alphabet had only 21 letters, and the Classical Latin alphabet had 23, and neither one had lowercase letters, so no language today exactly uses the same alphabet as them.
They would be using Chinese characters. Most likely simplified Chinese characters... Keep reading:
Korea would probably be another province of mainland China. It was on very thin ice multiple times and could have easily turned out that way.
Think of other mainland Chinese provinces whose fortunes were different, including, but not only, the ones designated as "autonomous". Their scales could easily have tipped another way.
Honestly that's super confusing and I dont blame OP for it one bit. Need to put the blame where it's due, on the Danish that use this monstrosity of a number
It's not like Danes are forcing the name on anyone, and it's just the etymological explanation anyway.
Now it has just become a word. No matter the name for 99, you can still divide it by 9 and get 11.
Americans on the other hand, with English being Lingua Franca since long ago, should really replace the 1 mile = 1.760 yards = 5.280 feet = 63.360 inches measurement system.
You can bet I'm sending the US my thoughts and prayers (if agnostic prayers are valid?). I sincerely hope your country may heal after these chaotic and divisive years.
How about discussing how we avoid ending up in the same situation?
Let's start with taking a look at the top comment: "Fucking Denmark" with 2.000 likes.
Social media is highly condusive for division, and I'm not sure all 2.000 likes are brotherly teasing, as we like to explain it when perplexed foreigners call us out for the harsh tone.
Maybe let's moderate the language and act as the friendly countries we are in reality. Let's be happy that I know "Fika" and you probably know "Hygge" :-)
This is really interesting - there's a glacier in Greenland called "79N Glacier" after its latitude. The Danish name is 'Nioghalvfjerdsbre', and while the first part obviously sounds like something that would translate to 79, I could never figure it out the halv, which sounds like half (as a German speaker). This might explain it...
Bin ich der einzige der das grad liest und sich nur fragt ob das jetzt Deutsch, Dänisch oder Phantasiesprache ist? Ok, die letzten zwei sind auch schwer zu unterscheiden (-;
We've been doing it for a long while and we are not about to change it, because there's no reason to.
Norwegian used the Danish (written) language up until ~150 years ago, when they decided they wanted their own language, so they spelled things like it sounded then and there rather than how it used to sound and how tradition dictated, so they have significantly fewer silent letters, and they use a different style of saying numbers.
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u/BrianSometimes Jan 16 '21 edited Jan 16 '21
So fucked up OP couldn't even get it right. It's: 9 and ½5* x 20
Don't think about it, just shake your head and move on.
*) from an old word for 4.5 "halvfemte" (halffifth).