When I’m in Denmark and have to say 92 I just say “kamelåså”
Comment on Fucking hell
VonReposti@feddit.dk 1 day ago
Even worse. 90 in old Danish is “halvfemsindstyve” but it is rarely used today. The “sinds” part is derived from “sinde” means multiplied with but it is not in use in Danish anymore. That leaves halvfems, meaning half to the five (which is not used alone anymore) and tyve meaning twenty (as it still does).
We are in current Danish shortening it to halvfems which actually just means “half to the five” in old Danish (2.5) to say 90. 92 is then “tooghalvfems” (two and half to the five, or 2+2.5). The “sindstyve” part (multiplied with 20) fell out of favour.
So we at least have some rules to the madness. Were just not following the at all anymore.
ignotum@lemmy.world 1 day ago
StThicket@reddthat.com 1 day ago
Syglekole?
ignotum@lemmy.world 1 day ago
You just ordered a thousand litres of milk
Scott_of_the_Arctic@lemmy.world 1 day ago
That’s actually happened a couple of times in Denmark (accidentally and after the sketch was released) www.tv2.no/nyheter/utenriks/…/7268663/
te_abstract_art@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Oh man, that takes me back.
grue@lemmy.world 21 hours ago
Why do they sound vaguely Irish?
gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
nickwitha_k@lemmy.sdf.org 1 day ago
This is making my brain hurt. I need to try reading a few more times but, if I am understanding it correctly, the old Danish way of saying it is mathematically incorrect?
Half-to-five == 2.5
2.5*20 == 50
…
Did I read that correctly?
AdrianTheFrog@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I think it means half less than 5, or 4.5
match@pawb.social 1 day ago
for no particular reason, in English, 5:30 can be said as “half past 5” but never “half until 6”. (but “five thirty” is still more common)
tamal3@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Quarter-past the hour, and quarter-till, are still common. Though perhaps less common as we move towards digital clocks.
TaTTe@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I’m not Danish, but I think he meant 4.5 instead of 2.5. It’s like halfway from 4 to 5, not from 0 to 5.
A similar word exists in Finnish too, when going from 1 to 2: “puolitoista” translates to “half second”, like halfway to the second number, and is commonly used to refer to 1.5, BUT without any multiplication shenanigans.
VonReposti@feddit.dk 1 day ago
Correct.
- Half to the second (halvanden, still in use today) = 1.5
- Half to the third (halvtredje) = 2.5
- Half to the fourth (halvfjerde) = 3.5
- Half to the fifth (halvfemte) = 4.5
And so on. You might notice that I sometimes write it like “halvfemte” and other times “halvfems”. The latter is just the way it was spelled when used in a combined word (another fun quirk in Danish that we inherited from Germanic this time!). 90 is today spelled just “halvfems”.
skvlp@lemm.ee 1 day ago
(5-0,5)20 = 4,520 = 90? 2+((5-0,5)20) = 2+(4,520) = 2 + 90 = 92?
lugal@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
I love how halvfems exists but fems doesn’t (and I guess it never did)
nickwitha_k@lemmy.sdf.org 1 day ago
Sorry to ping you a bunch with replies. I’m curious now, do you have unique numeral symbols for the numbers after 9?
VonReposti@feddit.dk 1 day ago
No, we use the same numeral symbols as everyone else. We just pronounce it in the most unintuitive manner possible.
I can imagine that we once had symbols representing the base 20 system but standardised at some point to decimal symbols. I though haven’t encountered any piece of history to back that up.
HorreC@lemmy.world 1 day ago
How did you guys even get to this thought process for saying this sort of thing? Why would you work in fractions for whole numbers in language to start? Is this a monarch thing like they fancied themselves a math wizard so they said it like it was a solution on countdown and others mimicked to keep them happy/sound smart themselves?
VonReposti@feddit.dk 1 day ago
The reason is that the Danish numbering system is based on a vigesimal (base-20) system instead of the decimal system. Why is a good question but it might have been influenced by French during a time where numbers from 50-100 is less frequently used, making them prone to complexity. The fractions simply occur since you need at least one half of twenty (10) to make the change from e.g 50 to 60 in a 20-based system.
HorreC@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
why would you avoid the fraction and use it up to 100 then minus 8. I dont have a lot of an issue with it being base 20 but the idea that talking in numbers you have to know fractions for a child is WILD to me. You have to do like a month of understanding math fractions to get how to speak whole numbers.
VonReposti@feddit.dk 19 hours ago
We don’t really learn the reason, we just memorise the word for the number. Kinda like you know the word “dog” means a four legged cute creature, but not why the name is “dog”. The old rules are not something we are teached, I just got curious after a confused foreigner made me think about the system for a second :p
thebestaquaman@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Little fun-fact: We still have a trace of this left in Norwegian, where the most common way to say “1.5” is not “en og en halv” (“one and a half”) but “halvannen” which roughly translates to “half second”.
We abandoned the “half third”, “half fourth” etc. very long ago (if we ever used them), but “halvannen” just rolls nicely off the tongue.
VonReposti@feddit.dk 1 day ago
We actually still say “halvanden” in Danish too. Everything else is not used (except for halvfems which means 90…)
thebestaquaman@lemmy.world 1 day ago
You also use halv tres (50) and halv firs (70) don’t you?
guy@piefed.social 1 day ago
Halvannan is used in Sweden too. In retirement homes...
KSPAtlas@sopuli.xyz 1 day ago
In polish, “półtora” means one and a half, it comes from a proto-Slavic word meaning “half-three”
Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
Dane here. My guess is utter madness resulting from a history of overdosing on fly agaric filtered through the urine of slaves, followed by a distressingly long period of Catholicism.
Frankly, it’s a wonder that our ancestors didn’t come up with an even MORE bizarre way of saying numbers and other things!
vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works 18 hours ago
Also I’m pretty sure losing folks to stupid wars in England didn’t help, the Great Heathen army and the conquest of England by Sweyn Forkbeard come to mind. No the relative prosperity and peace of Cnut the Great doesn’t make up for the theoretical brain drain.