Sunday, September 20, 2026

ONE SHEEP ON FIFTEEN ON TWENTY

 


Or 36 sheep to you....

Welsh counting is mental

From Wiki:-

The traditional counting system used in the Welsh language is vigesimal, i.e. based on twenties where numbers from 11 to 14 are "1–4 on ten", 16–19 are "1–4 on fifteen" (though 18 is more commonly "two nines"); numbers from 21 to 39 are "1–19 on twenty", 40 is "two twenty", 60 is "three twenty", etc.

There is also a decimal counting system, where numbers are "x ten y" unit(s), e.g. thirty-five (35) in decimal is tri deg pump (three ten five) while in vigesimal it is pymtheg ar hugain (fifteen – itself "five-ten" – on twenty).

So:-

NumberVigesimal systemDecimal system
0sero/dim
1un
2dau (m), dwy (f)
3tri (m), tair (f)
4pedwar (m), pedair (f)
5pum(p)
6chwe(ch)
7saith
8wyth
9naw
10deg/un deg, deng
11un ar ddeg
("one on ten")
un deg un
12deuddeg, deuddengun deg dau/dwy
13tri/tair ar ddegun deg tri/tair
14pedwar/pedair ar ddegun deg pedwar/pedair
15pymtheg, pymthengun deg pump
16un ar bymtheg
("one on fifteen")
un deg chwech
17dau/dwy ar bymthegun deg saith
18deunaw/tri/tair ar bymtheg
("two nines"/"three on fifteen")
un deg wyth
19pedwar/pedair ar bymthegun deg naw
20ugaindau ddeg
21un ar hugain
("one on twenty")
dau ddeg un
22dau/dwy ar hugaindau ddeg dau/dwy
23tri/tair ar hugaindau ddeg tri/tair
24pedwar/pedair ar hugaindau ddeg pedwar/pedair
25pump ar hugaindau ddeg pump
etc.
30deg ar hugain
("ten on twenty")
tri deg
31un ar ddeg ar hugaintri deg un
32deuddeg ar hugaintri deg dau/dwy
40deugain
("two twenty")
pedwar deg
41deugain ac un
("two twenty and one")
pedwar deg un
50hannercant/deg a deugain

("half a hundred"/"ten and forty")

pum deg
51un ar ddeg a deugainpum deg un
hanner cant ac un
60trigain
("three twenty")
chwe deg
61trigain ac unchwe deg un
70deg a thrigain
("ten and three twenty")
saith deg
71un ar ddeg a thrigain
("one on ten and three twenty")
saith deg un
80pedwar ugain
("four twenty")
wyth deg
81pedwar ugain ac unwyth deg un
90deg a phedwar ugain
("ten and four twenty")
naw deg
91un ar ddeg a phedwar ugain
("one on ten and four twenty")
naw deg un
100can(t)
200dau gant
300tri chant
400pedwar cant
500pum cant
600chwe chant
700saith cant

Then just to make it a little harder....

There are, for example, masculine and feminine forms of the numbers "two" (dau and dwy), "three" (tri and tair) and "four" (pedwar and pedair), which must agree with the grammatical gender of the objects being counted. The numerals for "five", "six" and "hundred" (pump, chwech and cant) also have reduced forms (pum, chwe, can) when they precede the object they are counting. The words for "ten", "twelve", and "fifteen" (deg, un deg dau/deuddeg, un deg pump/pymtheg) have the alternative forms deng, deuddeng, pymtheng used before nasals (which may be the result of mutation) and, occasionally, vowels;

back in 2009 I explained how to count like a basque miller

Seems they liked 20's too

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