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Why are 18 and 19 expressed as something less than 20, while 11 - 17 are expressed as something more than 10? Why are only 18 and 19 chosen to be expressed that way?

Are 8 and 9 expressed as something less than 10? If not, why not?

What does -de- mean in 18 and 19? Does it mean "less than"?

Why are 21-27 expressed using et, unlike 11 - 17?

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Thanks.

Tim
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    Please do not include text in the form of a picture, especially an illegible picture. Write the text as text yourself. If you use OCR, check that the spellings are as in the original. There are Latin grammars online (e.g. A&G) and you can add tables to your questions. I voted down on this question for a serious lack in formatting effort. – Joonas Ilmavirta Jun 15 '23 at 13:53
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    Why are 21-29 expressed as "twenty-something" in English while 13-19 are "something-teen"? There's the seed of a good question here, but it could do with some revision. – Draconis Jun 15 '23 at 17:01
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    The question is perfectly valid, the page isn't the best but that's not an 'insult' from the OP, and I have no idea why people are downvoting it and being so unwelcoming. There are historical reasons for German counting treating 11 and 12 oddly that do inform how the language developed; there may be sth similar here; and the three commentators above are able to edit the original question more to their liking if they really feel the project as a whole needs it to be 'better'. – lly Jun 15 '23 at 20:32
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    @lly There's a bit of a history that you've missed. This is an ongoing problem with zero response or reflection from OP. I didn't vote down, but just asking "why" without at least pausing to reflect why you're asking why does not make for a good question in my opinion, and I bet that + the image of text (about which other users have complained before) most likely leads to a negative response. – cmw Jun 15 '23 at 21:32
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    @lly Editing the question to be more what I would consider nice would be a lot of work; formatting a table and typing up its contents takes quite a while. Putting effort into formatting the question to be easily legible is required of all questions. As cmw mentions, this OP has a history of ignoring feedback, so I worded my recommendation or instruction more sternly and clearly than I normally would. The question would benefit greatly (in terms of attracting answers and votes) from better formatting and maybe some more justification. Making such updates would help Tim get what he wants. – Joonas Ilmavirta Jun 15 '23 at 21:50

1 Answers1

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As far as I know, the usual explanation is Etruscan influence. Etruscan expressed 17, 18 and 19 as "ci-em-zathrum" (three-to-twenty), "esl-em-zathrum" (two-to-twenty) and "thun-em-zathrum" (one-to-twenty).

FlatAssembler
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    Better with a cite if you can add one but cool that you remember the Etruscan off the top of your head and that there's a history there. =) – lly Jun 15 '23 at 21:33
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    Yeah that's very interesting. Could this also be related to why the Romans write IV and IX etc.? I agree with Ily that naming a source would make this answer even better. – Cerberus Jun 15 '23 at 22:56
  • @Cerberus No, the Etruscan word for 4 for "huth" (not "thun-em-mach"), and the Etruscan word for 9 is "nurph" (not "thun-em-śar"). – FlatAssembler Jun 16 '23 at 09:57
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    I'll second @lly's request. I'm no expert in Etruscan, so if you have sources, that would be very much appreciated. – cmw Jun 16 '23 at 14:43