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Re:Why are German numbers backwards? by dstroot on Sunday November 28, 2021 @11:54AM (#29370469)
Long ago “forty” in English may have begun as “four ten” which most likely became “fourteen” but four tens could have maybe become forty.
Re:Why are German numbers backwards? by stan_rogers on Sunday November 28, 2021 @03:46PM (#29372831)
"Fourteen" (four and ten) would have been from "scoring numbers", where you get to twenty (a score), keep track of the scores separately, and start over. Up to twelve, we used a duodecimal/dozenal system (a separate word for each number). That was also common in other non-Germanic Indo-European languages, notably the Brythonic Celtic languages (and various versions of Brythonic scoring numbers are still used in parts of Britain, depending on the pre-English dialect spoken in the area and changes over time, especially in children's games). French numbering still shows signs of "scoring", especially in the 60/70 and even moreso in the 80/90 region.