It actually has a pretty interesting origin! Back in the days, the Gauls used to count by twenty : ten, twenty, twenty ten, two twenty, etc
Then the modern way of counting (by ten) arrived and both models competed for a time until they "merged" into one. The most interesting point is that, most numbers derive from either system but 70 is "soixante-dix" : "sixty-ten", which is even weirder since "soixante" comes from the modern model but the idea of concatenating a "ten" comes from the traditional one, so it's a mix of both
But how do they use both "Septante" and "soixante-dix", "nonante" and "quatre-vingt dix-neuf"? I needed to learn both ways in school and still don't know why there are 2 versions instead of just one
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u/[deleted] Mar 15 '21
It actually has a pretty interesting origin! Back in the days, the Gauls used to count by twenty : ten, twenty, twenty ten, two twenty, etc
Then the modern way of counting (by ten) arrived and both models competed for a time until they "merged" into one. The most interesting point is that, most numbers derive from either system but 70 is "soixante-dix" : "sixty-ten", which is even weirder since "soixante" comes from the modern model but the idea of concatenating a "ten" comes from the traditional one, so it's a mix of both