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>> don't you British spell 32 as two and thirty? at least, it is that
>> way in
>> Victorian literature
>
> I think that is just for literary effect, as in "Four and twenty
> blackbirds, baked in a pie".
No! In Old English we did say numbers that way round, but along the way
it evolved into the current way round. Note that German (which comes
from the same roots) still has the numbers that way round.
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On 24/07/2013 06:10 AM, Stephen wrote:
> On 24/07/2013 12:32 AM, nemesis wrote:
>> don't you British spell 32 as two and thirty? at least, it is that way in
>> Victorian literature
>
> I think that is just for literary effect, as in "Four and twenty
> blackbirds, baked in a pie". The language does move on, for instance we
> don't call a week a sevennight any more. But there are still parts of
> the country that use thee and thou.
Mathematicians still refer to a polynomial "of order 2" rather than just
saying "a second order polynomial". What can I say? Mathematics was
invented a really, *really* long time ago...
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scott <sco### [at] scott com> wrote:
> >> don't you British spell 32 as two and thirty? at least, it is that
> >> way in
> >> Victorian literature
> >
> > I think that is just for literary effect, as in "Four and twenty
> > blackbirds, baked in a pie".
>
> No! In Old English we did say numbers that way round, but along the way
> it evolved into the current way round. Note that German (which comes
> from the same roots) still has the numbers that way round.
No!?
It is true what you said about the way numbers were said. But and it is a big
butt. ;-)
I suspect that in Victorian times and especially in literature that style of
numbering was only used by the upper classes and country folk. Both being behind
the times. Trollope (the old snob that he was) used it s a signifier of the
aristocracy along with words like se'n night. Long gone out of fashion by that
time. Interestingly fourteen night lives on as fortnight.
Stephen
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> It is true what you said about the way numbers were said. But and it is a big
> butt. ;-)
> I suspect that in Victorian times and especially in literature that style of
> numbering was only used by the upper classes and country folk.
Yes sorry I misunderstood what you meant then - seems we agree :-)
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On Wed, 24 Jul 2013 06:10:23 +0100, Stephen wrote:
> On 24/07/2013 12:32 AM, nemesis wrote:
>> don't you British spell 32 as two and thirty? at least, it is that way
>> in Victorian literature
>
> I think that is just for literary effect, as in "Four and twenty
> blackbirds, baked in a pie". The language does move on, for instance we
> don't call a week a sevennight any more. But there are still parts of
> the country that use thee and thou.
And "fortnight". :)
Jim
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On 24/07/2013 12:53 PM, scott wrote:
> Yes sorry I misunderstood what you meant then
Now that is not an unusual event for me. ;-)
- seems we agree :-)
Good, I am all in favour of agreement. :-D
--
Regards
Stephen
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