Unlocking the Universe of Languages
Ever wondered why English says "eleven" and "twelve" instead of "oneteen" and "twoteen"? These irregular numbers are linguistic fossils from an ancient Germanic counting system meaning "one left over" and…
Among Germanic languages, Danish stands alone with a counting system that seems more like a math riddle than a vocabulary list. This article demystifies the infamous Danish base-20 system, explaining…
You’ve diligently memorized 'ichi, ni, san', but ordering 'two beers' in Tokyo isn't as simple as 'biiru ni'. Welcome to the wild, weird, and wonderful world of Japanese counters, a…
What if '27' wasn't an abstract number, but a specific place on your body like 'the other-side little finger'? Journey to New Guinea to explore the fascinating logic of body-part…
Why do we count in tens? While it seems natural, many cultures from the Mayans to the Basques developed sophisticated base-20 systems, likely inspired by counting on both fingers and…
Ever tried to say "two dogs" in Thai and been corrected? That's because you can't just count nouns; you need a special "measure word" called a classifier. This post dives…