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Shouldn't that be in Sander's Song of the Week thread. You can dance to it!
I am not a number. I am a ... no, wait!
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I really expected an update to some language or another (C#, Java, C++, what have you) 
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Really Broken Languages - Top of the List is the Frog-Tongue, French.
You probably know they don't count above sixty? After that they start with stuff like sixty-ten.
No wonder they have to 'protect' the language: it's already on it's deathbed in the modern world.
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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W∴ Balboos wrote: After that they start with stuff like sixty-ten.
English 'breaks' after just 12 with three-ten, four-ten etc. What's your point?
I am not a number. I am a ... no, wait!
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Nope. You are in error. It's not broken.
The eleven and twelve are throwbacks to a long time tradition. That is related to the unit 'dozen' in that twelve was (and still is) a very convenient unit*. It's also common in other languages, fore example German (elf, zwölf, and then dreizehn, etc.).
Besides, there's no real analogy in your reply. We're not talking about the numbers between sixty and seventy - we're talking about the fact that they don't even have seventy (and beyond).
* Entire Societies believe this to be rather significant - click this link
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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W∴ Balboos wrote: they don't even have seventy (and beyond).
Yes they do! You've completely missed the point of my analogy. The naming convention by which 70 is 60+10 in French is exactly the same as the English 3+10 for 13 or the German 9+10 for 19. If you say there is no such thing as a French 70 on that basis then there is no such thing as an English 13 or a German 19 either.
And actually no language needs any number beyond 9 anyway, assuming it uses a decimal base and has a word for zero. It may be a tad long winded to do without words for the tens from 20 to 90, 100, 1000 and so on but it doesn't mean the language is in any way inferior or broken. That's just a ridiculous assertion.
I am not a number. I am a ... no, wait!
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Absolutely wrong.
The numbers between 10 and 20 are more commonly used than larger numbers and essentially every language has shortened version of them. None the less, they all exist.
For numbers between 20 and 30, 30 and 40, etc., they are constructed by creating the two-word number in a methodical manner: n-ty-one, n-ty-two, etc. After sixty-nine, all civilized languages then move on to seventy. For, as from six descends the concept of six thus does seven beget seventy, eight to eighty. Since we use the decimal system, when ninety-nine is reached, instead of something like tenty, we roll over to a convention for the next order of magnitude.*
Now, on the other hand, frog-speak seems to have found the concept beyond sixty-nine to be overwhelmingly complex and thus they needed to start over again with what was obviously at the limits of their comprehension. Even a very small child, having learned to count up to fifty-nine (in a real language) would not move on to sixty ten, but would produce something akin to seventy.
Perhaps your defense of the indefensible is out of a misplaced sympathy for the dying. Far better that you let it wend its way into oblivion discretely!
* Hobbits of The Shire, in fact, do have numbers such as eleventy, but we are neither in Middle Earth nor in the Third Age thereof.
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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I'll be sure to let the Japanese know you don't consider them to have a 'real' language then. Oh, and the Finns, amongst others. At the other extreme Hindustani has a separate word for every single number up to 99. Perhaps you'd be more comfortable with that?
I am not a number. I am a ... no, wait!
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9082365 wrote: I'll be sure to let the Japanese know you don't consider them to have a 'real' language
Please do. And the others, too!
Do you know that there have been periodic wars in China over dropping the pictograms and going to an alphabetic language? Quite simply, pictographs, while quite attractive, are extraordinarily ineffiecient for general usage. So far, they've moved to what's referred to as 'simplified' chineese characters. If you've ever seen a typesetting machine or chinese dictionary, you'd see the point. That, along with pronunciation standardization that could finally ensue. But, I digress.
Finnish seems alright[^]
Japnese, too[^]
Hindi also gets it together, although their version of pre-decaded values is unique
So far, only the Frogs are croaking and have Warts
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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But it has a good beat and you can dance to it.
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It must be heaven for those who stutter.
"the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment
"Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst
"I don't drink any more... then again, I don't drink any less." - Mike Mullikins uncle
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Nagy Vilmos wrote: means "You did this pretended action, you, the delinquent of pretended actions."
So it's used every day by millions then.
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wizardzz wrote: So it's used every day by millions then.
I bet you a horse to a horsefly it comes up in the Oscars! 
I am not a number. I am a ... no, wait!
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Sounds like Morse code....
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Clearly, it's your father. Or perhaps your mother. (11)
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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DarthyVader
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These aren't the solutions you are looking for. Move along.
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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Now I got it! First I didn't know what that mean!
May the 4th be with you!
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And with you, padwan!
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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Nope - sorry!
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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Clearly correct! 
You are up Monday.
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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How does Trans fit in the solution?
cheers,
Super
------------------------------------------
Too much of good is bad,mix some evil in it
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"Clearly, it's your father. Or perhaps your mother."
"Clearly": transparent (two meanings, both valid)
"it's your father. Or perhaps your mother" : a TRANS PARENT: TRANS is an abbreviation for TRANSGENDER, and PARENT is obvious. So a transexual, who started one as sex but who has been realigned to the other.
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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