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Weird Numbers 001

It’s pretty common knowledge that 1-5 & 10 are used at a higher frequency than 6-9, as are numbers below 50 than above. We like lumping them together in convenient sets too : a pair, a couple, a dozen… English five & fist, German fünf & Faust and Polish pięć & pięść are all derived from Proto Indo-European *penkwe-.

Currently looking at Croatian which has oddities of its own. If we look at telling the time, it has :

It’s 1 o’clock Jedan je sat Lit. One is hour
It’s 2 o’clock Dva su sata Lit. Two are of hour
It’s 3 o’clock Tri su sata Lit. Three are of hour
It’s 4 o’clock Četiri su sata Lit. Four are of hour
It’s 5/6/7, etc. o’clock Pet/Šest/Sedam je sati Lit. 5/6/7 is hours

Where :

  • sat = hour (nominative singular)
  • sati = hours (nom. plural)
  • sata = hour (genitive singular, or plural, not sure which)

I'm curious, are there any other languages out there that treat 2 to 4 like this?

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Muzzle, Puzzle, Guzzle & Nuzzle
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jeudi 21 novembre 2024