On 5/27/07, R A Brown <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> The criticism
> sometimes level at Esperanto is that forms like _tri dek_ (30), _kvar
> dek_ (40) etc. could be misunderstood by people like Germans, who have
> _dreizehn_ (three-ten = 13), vierzehn (four-ten = 14) etc.,

That criticisms seems, frankly, ridiculous to me.

> it may be worth noting that in
> Welsh we have a traditional method of counting vigesimally (more or
> less) up to 99, besides the modern, strictly decimal system. The
> traditional method is now restricted to telling the time, and giving
> one's age up to about 30. In most situations the modern method is used.
> But the Welsh seem quite able to cope with the similar sounding (but
> *not* homophonous) _deuddeg_ (12) of the traditional system, and _dau
> ddeg_ (20) of the modern system. Therefore, I see no reason why we cant
> cope with EAK _dúo déka_ (20) and Greek _dódeka_ (12).

Oh! An interesting possibility. Yes. Why not.

Works for the Chinese, too.

> Also, rather like the Malay-Indonesian sa-/ satu = 1, I am adopting EAK
> e-/ enó = 1. Therefore, the EAK numerals from 10 to 99 are formed thus:
> e-déka = 10; e-déka enó = 11; e-déka dúo = 12; e-déka tría = 13 etc.
> dúo déka = 20; dúo déka tétra = 24; dúo déka pénta = 25 etc.
> tría déka = 30, tétra déka = 40 etc. up to _ennéa déka ennéa_ = 99.

Do 10 and 100 need a prefix at all, in the first place?

I'm thinking of German, for example, which has "hundert, zweihundert,
dreihundert, etc." -- "einhundert" also exists, but it's not necessary
to include "ein". Also, Chinese has no morpheme for "one" in its word
for "ten", nor Japanese in its word for "a hundred" (though I think
Chinese usually does say explicitly "one hundred").

...hm, my arguments are not particularly good; some languages do have
explicit "one", others don't, so either way has good precedent.

> Therefore, I see no strong reason to retain either _ekató_ or _ekatónta_
> in EAK. But as the accent always falls on the first syllable of -kósio,
> I propose adopting _kósio_ as the word for x100. The EAK hundreds will,
> therefore, be:
> e-kósio, dúo kósio, tría kósio .... ennéa kósio.

I see.

Cheers,
-- 
Philip Newton <[log in to unmask]>