I think English, French, German all start composite numbers around 13? (Maybe a Christian influence?) I'm not sure you can deduce base 2 from "half-eyed" etc. And I imagine 5 was given a different design because it makes a full hand, so to speak. I imagine types of music that evolved would require some analysis of how it can be made, primitively? I guess everyone recognises that notes an octave apart sound "similar" (unfortunately we can't check if that's also true for colours - yet). Hm.
On 3 February 2015 at 12:36, John Mikes <[email protected]> wrote: > FRIENDS - MAINLY BRUNO > > (it all came out from the French numbers). > any thoughts why some numerals have specific names, others use composites? > Example: (Fr:) onze, ...seize yet dixset etc. German elf, zwoelf yet > dreizehen... > same in English, Hungarian has composites above 10, Russian Italian etc. > similarly. I don't know about Semitic (Arabic?), or Oriental numbers. > > My 'pegs' idea shows the origin of the Roman numerals as 4 "IIII" being > the maximum > tolerable, why 5, 10 were invented with a different design, even 9 shows > contempt. > > I believe - 2 - is the original counting base (eyes, hands, etc.) based > on the more primitive Hungarian identification of a 1-eyed person as > half-eyed, and 1 foot lost makes you > 'half footed' etc. > Any idea about the 'dozen'? 12 half tones make an octave, yet more > primitive folks had > pentatonic music (5). > All that goes before the articulate speach evolution - I think. > John M > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
