There’s this nursery rhyme about “four-and-twenty blackbirds baked in a pie” that I can’t remember the rest of. Except that the previous or next verse ended with “rye”.
Thirteen, fourteen, … to nineteen still have the reverse order, same as in Dutch and German. It’s probably the blend of Norman French + Anglo Saxon that lead to english having a different counting style after 20. Ordinary people and remote dialects will have continued using the old style for centuries longer. I recall reading it in a book by Charles Dickens and wondering about it. I suspect that with those numbers, Dickens was hinting at the roots of the person talking: not from London + raised by ordinary people.
Pretty sure it’s some very old way of counting.
English used to do it the same way after all.
There’s this nursery rhyme about “four-and-twenty blackbirds baked in a pie” that I can’t remember the rest of. Except that the previous or next verse ended with “rye”.
Thirteen, fourteen, … to nineteen still have the reverse order, same as in Dutch and German. It’s probably the blend of Norman French + Anglo Saxon that lead to english having a different counting style after 20. Ordinary people and remote dialects will have continued using the old style for centuries longer. I recall reading it in a book by Charles Dickens and wondering about it. I suspect that with those numbers, Dickens was hinting at the roots of the person talking: not from London + raised by ordinary people.