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From: dik@cwi.nl (Dik T. Winter)
Subject: Re: Arabic numbering system
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References: <43c69n$n8v@wn1.sci.kun.nl> <43ii6u$cmj@umbc9.umbc.edu> <Pine.HPP.3.91.950919151234.7640A-100000@weber.ucsd.edu>
Date: Thu, 21 Sep 1995 00:13:58 GMT
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In article <Pine.HPP.3.91.950919151234.7640A-100000@weber.ucsd.edu> Daniel Kian Mc Kiernan <dmckiern@weber.ucsd.edu> writes:
 > On 17 Sep 1995, Jonas Schlein wrote:
 > >                                         Eleven and twelve are the
 > > only ones I've never been able to figure out why in both English and
 > > German they don't follow any pattern.
 > 
 > According to what I've read, the words for 11 and 12 in some
 > languages are linguistic fossils of a base 12 number system.
 > 
You remember wrong, or you read wrong, or your source was wrong.
Well, how is that for folklore?  (One left, two left.)
-- 
dik t. winter, cwi, kruislaan 413, 1098 sj  amsterdam, nederland, +31205924098
home: bovenover 215, 1025 jn  amsterdam, nederland; e-mail: dik@cwi.nl
