WotD #15 - en to tre fire fem, seks syv otte ni ti, elve tolv

It's this - although sadly not as catchy.



The Danish numbering system is notoriously difficult and ridiculously archaic. Read on. If you dare.

Danish has a rather weird number system. 

The tens from fifty on are not based on the number 10, as is the case in most European languages (French being another outstanding exception). 

CARDINALS				ORDINALS
1	en	10	ti	1.	første	10.	tiende
2	to	20	tyve	2.	anden	20.	tyvende
3	tre	30	tredive	3.	tredje	30.	tredivte
4	fire	40	fyrre	4.	fjerde	40.	fyrretyvende
5	fem	50	halvtreds	5.	femte	50.	halvtredsindstyvende
6	seks	60	tres	6.	sjette	60.	tresindstyvende
7	syv	70	halvfjerds	7.	syvende	70.	halvfjerdsindstyvende
8	otte	80	firs	8.	ottende	80.	firsindstyvende
9	ni	90	halvfems	9.	niende	90.	halvfemsindstyvende

This strange system combines two archaic ways of counting: 

1. 20-based instead of 10-based
2. fossilized expressions for two and a half, three and a half and four and a half 

50	halv-tred-s(ind-s-tyve)	half-third-t(imes-of-twenty)
60	tre-s(ind-s-tyve)	three-t(imes-of-twenty)
70	halv-fjerd-s(ind-s-tyve)	half-fourth-t(imes-of-twenty)
80	fir-s(ind-s-tyve)	four-t(imes-of-twenty)
90	halv-fem-s(ind-s-tyve)	half-fifth-t(imes-of-twenty)

In cardinal numbers the part in parenthesis is almost always omitted. The full forms are very rarely spoken nor written, giving them an archaic, pompous feel. But in the ordinal numbers the full forms reappear obligatorily, yielding 

50 = halvtreds, 50th = halvtredsindstyvende
60 = tres, 60th = tresindstyvende
etc. 

The awkwardness of these ordinal forms can not be reduced by truncation, only by reformulation:
halvtredsindstyvende -> nummer halvtreds,
and this anglicism (?) is becoming very widespread. 

Only the initial consonant of the word for "times of" = "sinds" is realized. "Sinds" is genitive of "sinde" and both are obsolete - the modern Danish equivalent is "gange", genitive "ganges" - and occur only in numbers and in fossilized compound expressions like "nogensinde" = "ever".
The bases that 20 is multiplied with also have strange archaic forms that are now unproductive and hardly recognizable: 

2,5	halvtredje	half-third
3,5	halvfjerde	half-fourth
4,5	halvfemte	half-fifth
A similar construction is still in normal use, though
1,5	halvanden	half-second

Furthermore they are truncated: 

halvtredje, but halvtred(je)s
halvfjerde, but halvfjerd(e)s
halvfemte, but halvfem(te)s 

Also:
fire, but fir(e)s 

The "logic" of the system is NOT transparent nor generally known to native speakers. This, together with the fact that _d_ is silent in the clusters _ds_ and _rd_, creates very common spelling errors like; 

halvtres, (should be halvtreds (50))
treds, (should be tres (60))
halvfjers, (should be halvfjerds (70)). 

A Scandinavist language reform movement tried to get the 20-based forms replaced by 10-based like Norwegian and Swedish have. With absolutely no success. 

Danish 10-based forms are only used in inter-Scandinavian communication and money documents like cheques.  

They are: femti, seksti, syvti, ot(te)ti, niti

Just try and wrap your mind around that!

I can't wait to learn how to count. Hopefully I'll never need to refer to any number larger than fifty. Although really, maybe I only need three.



Thanks to Ole Stig Anderson for his description of the Danish numbering system.