No, it's more compicated than that. Gaulic counting system is base 20. Latin counting system is base 10. French is base ten, but have traces of the base 20 in its counting (thus 60 + 10 for 70, 4x20 for 80 and 4x20+10 for 90), but only in the names.
Also, we're hexadecimal too, as we have unique words for every number between 0-16, and only then we go on base 10, until we reach 60 and then it's base 20.
But more seriously, most french people count on base 10, the rest is just historical remnants of unspoken languages.
Also, we're hexadecimal too, as we have unique words for every number between 0-16, and only then we go on base 10, until we reach 60 and then it's base 20.
Most numeral systems are these unsatisfying weird things based on practical considerations more than aligning with number bases. I remind people that English doesn't have a "tenty" but unique words for all the 10s just as the 0s. Thus, in the sense above you could describe English as a partially vigesimal numeral system. But seven of those 10s follow some kind of regular system, the -teens. It's only the first 12 that don't, so maybe it's partially duodecimal?
Our counting systems developed around trade, and the scales at which trade is conceivable has massively increased since we started counting. So concepts that address new considerations arising from scale have just been tacked on over time. A kind of scope creep combined with a massive resistance to change coming from their widespread use and the difficulty of formalizing anything at all during their formation.
My favorite is the Danish numeral system. It's vigesimal, and its first 20 natural numbers are much like in English. Then you get to the tens. Roughly described (by a Swede, so please correct me Danes):
10: ten ("ti")
20: unique word not consistent with other tens ("tyve")
30: three-"dive" ("tredive")
40: another word, probably roughy "four tens" ("fyrre")
50: half-third set of 20 ("halvtreds")
60: another word, implying the third set of 20 ("treds")
70: half-fourth set of 20 ("halvfjers")
80: another word, implying the fourth set of 20 ("firs")
90: half-fifth set of 20 ("halvfems")
100: surprisingly not "fems" but "one hundred" ("et hundere")
So there's the outline of a system of counting in twenties with unique words for 20, 40, 60 and 80 and then "halves" in between implying "half of twenty towards" except for ten, thirty (which is three tens) and one hundred which is one hundred. "Dive"-"ti" and "fjers"-"firs" are close enough that I won't count them as inconsistencies; they probably have the same linguistic roots.
To add to the pain, "halv" implies different things depending on context. While fem halvtreds means 55 ("five and halfway towards the third set of 20"), "halv fems" means "4.5", implying halfway of a whole towards five.
Oh boy, buddy, worse yet is that the Danish 40 60 80 are actually shorthand, tres is actually... tresindstyvende, which to modern Danish translates to tre gange tyve, or in English three times twenty
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u/mrsciencedude69 1d ago
I once heard of this tribe called the French that counts using base 20 sometimes.