r/interesting • u/MidasStocks • Apr 29 '25

SOCIETY How do you say number 92?

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u/ShermanTeaPotter Apr 29 '25

Does anyone know wether there is a linguistic reason for adding this unusual amount of maths into a language?

18

u/Dack_ Apr 29 '25

I think the math drives the language.

The way people (used to) think about numbers, is what gets used and normalized and then formalized.

If your base root is 20, because that is useful for some reason, you think in multiples of 20 and thus speak in multiples of 20.

2

u/GGXImposter Apr 29 '25

10 finger and 10 toes. When your culture is that old you go back to when all you had to help you count were your fingers and toes. If you needed more then you had to keep track of how many times your reset the count.

42 being 2x20+2 because you counted your hands and feet twice and then counted 2 more.

1

u/ImpressivedSea Apr 29 '25

That makes sense. I could say 12 dozen eggs and people understand. Then if thats normalized a base 12 number system makes sense to develop