> I disagree that it was VERY old-fashioned. As someone who's been
> very interested in number-words and their history for quite a long time,
> let me expand on this.
Thanks for doing so
> (I have some other books on such topics whose names I can't quite
> remember - my copies are in French and German, but I think two of them
> have been translated into English - I should be able to dig them out
> if anyone's interested.)
>
I would, at your leisure.
The number words in some of the dialects of Irish (Gaelic) also
have the strong use of 20's. For example, near Galway, "bad is dha
fhichead" (word-for-word "boat and two twenties") for 41 boats. The
official dialect uses a single word for 40, and I believe there are other
variations. I am not sure if this is written up in any of the books you
have, or anywhere else.
Cheers
Dan
> John Conway
Daniel J. Curtin
Associate Dean, College of Arts and Sciences
Associate Professor, Mathematics
Northern Kentucky University
Highland Heights, KY 41099
USA
(606) 572 -6938 or (606) 572-6348
curtin@nku.edu http://www.nku.edu/~curtin/ KF4AV