<story><title>Number systems of the world, sorted by complexity of counting (2006)</title><url>http://www.sf.airnet.ne.jp/ts/language/number.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jazzyb</author><text>I don&amp;#x27;t understand how the author is judging complexity.  The top one, Huli, is a base-15 number system but looks quite regular otherwise.  French, on the other hand, switches from a base-10 to a base-20 at 80 and then switches things up at 97.&lt;p&gt;According to the listing, Welsh sits somewhere between these two but it has separate numbering systems for {20s, 40s, 60s, 80s}, {30s, 70s, 90s}, and {50s}.  That seems much more complicated than either Huli or French.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>panglott</author><text>Putting Japanese at such a low complexity shows a lot about the author&amp;#x27;s criteria and bias.&lt;p&gt;Japanese numerals are quite easy, but when it comes to actually counting things, it is quite complex. There are two series of numeral words that are used in different contexts, as well as dozens of counter words that pair with a variety of semantic categories. Many combinations or number + noun have quite irregular combinations, like &amp;quot;hatachi&amp;quot; (20 years of age) or &amp;quot;hatsuka&amp;quot; (20th day of the month).</text></comment>
<story><title>Number systems of the world, sorted by complexity of counting (2006)</title><url>http://www.sf.airnet.ne.jp/ts/language/number.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jazzyb</author><text>I don&amp;#x27;t understand how the author is judging complexity.  The top one, Huli, is a base-15 number system but looks quite regular otherwise.  French, on the other hand, switches from a base-10 to a base-20 at 80 and then switches things up at 97.&lt;p&gt;According to the listing, Welsh sits somewhere between these two but it has separate numbering systems for {20s, 40s, 60s, 80s}, {30s, 70s, 90s}, and {50s}.  That seems much more complicated than either Huli or French.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Jtsummers</author><text>Huli seems to change (though using a common root?) the words for the small numbers (like 1, 2, 3) when they get applied to how many 15s have been counted. &amp;quot;one fifteen&amp;quot; is &amp;quot;nguira ni&amp;quot;, where does &amp;quot;ni&amp;quot; come from? &amp;quot;two fifteen&amp;quot; is &amp;quot;ngui ki&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;ki&amp;quot; from &amp;quot;kira&amp;quot;, why&amp;#x27;d &amp;quot;nguira&amp;quot; abbreviated?&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s &lt;i&gt;regular&lt;/i&gt; in construction, but the words change and drop parts of the basic number without a particular pattern (as an outsider to the language). &amp;quot;kira&amp;quot; -&amp;gt; &amp;quot;ki&amp;quot; makes sense. &amp;quot;duria&amp;quot; -&amp;gt; &amp;quot;dauni&amp;quot; -&amp;gt; &amp;quot;dau&amp;quot; kind of makes sense, but adds an extra letter (how does the sound actually change?). &amp;quot;tebira&amp;quot; -&amp;gt; &amp;quot;tebone&amp;quot; -&amp;gt; &amp;quot;tebo&amp;quot;. A pattern is forming. Drop the &amp;quot;r-&amp;quot; and replace it with an &amp;quot;n-&amp;quot; (except for some) and later drop the &amp;quot;n-&amp;quot;.</text></comment>