Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1873-05-30
Facts .sHoUT FIGURES.

Most nations have, more or loss perfect
ly, followed decimal system. Nature
seems to have taught her children almost
instinctively 10 count with their fingers.
Hence II has been taught by some the very
word finger Is connected with the root of
five, and digit with Ten. In counting on
tho fingers ii may be obsery ed that some
people are In the habit of using both hands,
others. only one. The one method contains
the root Of the denary scale, the other of
the far less common and less convenient
culinary. There arc few traces to be
found Of the third natural scale-the vcen-
airy, derived from the number of fingers
and toes taken together. If any nation ev-
er did follow out The vicenary system, we
may be sure that their toes were more ag-
lie than ours are wont TO be mot cramped
and deformed by wearing boots. Results
OF treating twenty as base are seen in the
English expression "a score" and the
French quatre-vingt."
1t is very remarkable that though every
nation of the civilized world has more or
less, whether in ancient or modern times,
adopted ten as lis standard, not one in
forming its numerals has been perfectly
consistent. Especially have most Language
es difficulty in getting over eleven and
twelve without sacrifice of consistency.
Whether eleven means one-ten, or one
leftover, ii is clear that we have gone to a
different root for the first syllable. And
both these numerals arc formed on diff
ferent plan t. thirteen, etc. The French
,t.;.. fl,
teen they are content 10 hint Il. the element
ten by the termination re. Then they trans
pose, and proceed with the ten first. TWEEN
ty TO sixty are pretty much on one model,
but seventy changes, and eighty is vicena-
ny. However, septant is quite Il common
provinciaism, and octante has been found
The Spanish dicz sciz (sixteen) inter-
rupts our numcral sooner than the French;
sotenta and ocbenta are regular. Tho plan
of the German numerals is 81 nearly that
of the English that only one remark may
be made. If Bopp is right, the English -ty
In twenty, etc, is not ten, but Sdnscrit
suflix. In that case we are nearer to the o.
riginal Aryan than are tho Germans in
zwan-zig.
eleven and twelve formed with almost per-
feet regularity; only undecim is formed
| from the root of anus. duodecinl by joining
| the ordinary form of the second numeral
| to the modified termination decin. All
goes smooth to seventeen; then we have a
new form, duodeuiJinti (eigbteenD nine
| teen is undeviginti. 1t is remarkable that
this hardly differs from tho Sanscrit, una
vinshati.
The Gree KS form eleven and twelve on a
| different pattern TO thirteen, ETC., emitting
the conjunction in the one case, inserting
it in the other. Their thirteen is COM
pounded, rather absurdly, with the adj
verb, thrice and ten. Their eighteen and
nineteen accord with ours rather, and diff
fer from the Sanscrt and Latin pattern.
Their twenty and thirty have differnt
termination.
In Turkish there is trace OF the quna-
ry scale. One 10 five are monosyllables;
six to nine dissyllables and compounds.
For the rest they follow the denary scale
learned from the Arabs. Eleven and
twelve are perfectly regular, and so on to
twenty. Here another remnant of culinary
influence. Twenty TO fifty are words hav-
ing no connection with the simple numer-
ais, but sixty to ninety are modified from
six, ETC., TO nine. Something of the same
kind has been observed in the numerals
of certain South Sea Islanders, perhaps not
disconnected with similarity Of origin.
Max Muller counts these languages akin
to the Turanian stock, of which Turkish
is the usual example, though surely many
Turkish forms approach very closely tc
| infection.