Re:Why are German numbers backwards?
by BoorishBears on Sunday November 28, 2021 @01:09PM
(#29371224)
>As a Dutch speaker, I think of having the numbers "backwards" as a neat feature. You can give someone a phone number (12345) and then verify it by saying it differently (twelve, thirty four, five). If you verify by repeating the same numbers then there's a decent chance of introducing the exact same error the second time.
I don't understand how that's specific to backwards numbers
It forces you to stop and parse the numbers because you need to invert them in your head. For me, it's the same effect as writing something down because your brain needs to process it.
Re:Why are German numbers backwards?
by BoorishBears on Sunday November 28, 2021 @05:45PM
(#29373940)
But I mean in English you do this exactly as shown
> You can give someone a phone number (12345) and then verify it by saying it differently (twelve, thirty four, five)
So how does it change?
English itself isn't all that simple either, because they still follow strange rules before reaching 20 like many other West European languages. French even stuck to its base in 20, unlike English (though "four score" is still often used to say 80 in the famous quote). The word "million", from "mille" meaning 1000, is used to express a thousand thousands. The American system also switched to the short system (million, billion, trillion instead of million, milliard, billion) and UK English has made the same switch relatively recently but only because of American influences.
I don't think there's any natural or logical way of saying numbers per se. If there was, we wouldn't have been doing it "in reverse" for hundreds of years in Europe.
I can't feel strongly enough about it to be for any change but forcingeeveryone to change their habits is annoying and probably costly. You can't force a change in language, language changes by itself.