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Comment by fit2rule | Hacker News Reader

>For example, 11 and 12 does not follow the construction of 13 or 15.

Maybe its because I'm an English speaker, but I don't understand what you mean by this statement - can you explain it?

  13 -> thirteen -> three ten
  14 -> fourteen -> four ten
  15 -> fifteen -> five ten

whereas

  11 -> eleven -> why not oneteen?
  12 -> twelve -> why not twoteen?

Germanic languages have a peculiarity in the words eleven and twelve, they stem from "one left" and "two left", respectively [0]. Cognates in German elf and zwölf, Swedish elv and tolv.

[0] "Cardinal Numerals: Old English from a Cross-Linguistic Perspective", http://bit.ly/1HhPzOB, page 161.

Interesting. Worth noting Spanish, French, Catalan and probably some more connected languages I'm not so familiar with are irregular up to 16 (17 is akin to 10-7, whereas 11-16 follow other rules)

left of what? (or from what?)

Of ten. "One ... two ... [...] ten... and one and another.

Okay now I get it. Start counting on your left hand. 1 .. 5, left-side, 6 .. 10, right-side. One-left, is "one full set of fingers, plus a left", repeating again, 11. Two left, 12. 3-ten, you change to a number count, because .. why not? It is self-documented .. and thus easier to teach. Maybe?

The reason, if anyone is wondering, is because of their base meanings:

  eleven -> one left
  twelve -> two left
  thirteen -> three and ten
  fourteen -> four and ten

According to the OED, the only non-Germanic language that uses "one left" is Lithuanian, which uses it from 11 to 19.

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