Counting is easy unless you count. And there are countries in Europe that act alone in establishing certain figures. Although there are two main streams (Germanic and Romance), you can find different systems for creating numbers in different languages. Most of Europe does it the same way, but there are rebels like the French, Danes and Basques.

In fact, the way we count depends on the cultural foundations of each region and even can reveal differences within the same country or region. This is something that’s even been brought to cinema, with films like the French ‘Welcome to the North’ showing cultural (and even linguistic) clashes between people in the south and north of the country.

This film shows how the heroes have problems with the local dialect, as well as other cultural characteristics. There is no need to go to France, because in Spain we are very clear about these inequalities, with several official languages ​​within the same country and very different traditions depending on the geographical region we are in.

Languages ​​aside, there is a clear distinction that can also be seen between European regions. different positional number systems. And the Mapologies blog has staged this perfectly with a map of Europe and a single number: 99.

But you have to go through another 98 numbers before you get to 99, and almost all languages ​​have common bases. Up to 10 different languages ​​are very similar We also see similarities with features such as 11 and 12 in English and other Germanic languages ​​when forming numbers up to 20. In Spanish and other Romance languages, we see this in the numbers 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15.

Starting with 20 we start to see differences depending on whether the system they use is decimal or vigesimal. The decimal number is the most common worldwide because it probably started with counting with the fingers of the hands (there are more theories about this), but we also find systems where the base is 20.

Therefore, Spain, Portugal, Italy, almost all of the United Kingdom, the Scandinavian countries, Eastern Europe and some French-speaking regions use the decimal system, while in the upper half of France, Denmark and parts of the Caucasus we use the decimal system. The decimal system is used vigesimal system.

Now we reach the number 99. If there is something like ninety plus nine in the decimal number system, four in vigesimal is twenty plus nineteen. Although it is not the same in all vigesimals.

There is interesting heterogeneity in Central Europe, with two very different counting methods even within the same country. This is the situation of France or Belgium.

This vigesimal system can have a transformation if combined with the Germanic structure. For example, Germans add 9 + 90, not 90 + 9. If we apply this logic to the vigesimal system, we end up with something like what happened in Normandy: 99 equals 9 + 10 + 4 x 20. This is similar to the way the Danes form numbers and some parts of Wales.

If we put the magnifying glass on Spain we can see this: Almost all languages ​​of the Iberian Peninsula They match 99 in the same way. Ninety-nine, ninety-nine, ninety-nine, norantan-nou… and laurogeita hemeretzi.

Spain’s example with the Basque Country and the way they say 99 is more like French

This dissonant note is the Basque note, which makes it ‘laurogei’ plus ‘hemeretzi’, or what amounts to the same thing: four twenties plus nineteen. It resembles the French vigesimal system but also resembles the Georgian form, a language with which similarities were found several decades ago.

beyond 99

Numbers like 99 are curious because of the variety in their creation. As we said, the order or complexity will differ depending on the culture or region, but the interesting thing is that they can give us a lot of information about the linguistic roots of our continent.

Another example concerns the face. In the map above you can see what a clear influence the Latin ‘centum’ has. The Germanic root is shared in regions such as the Iberian Peninsula, France, Southern Belgium, Italy and Albania, while the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, Norway or Iceland share a Germanic root.

In Eastern Europe we can see the Balto-Slavic influence and find it again in an interesting way. regions of the Caucasus and the Basque Country as singularities have linguistic origins unrelated to the regions around them.

We are faced with a situation extremely similar to hundreds of cases, with the map showing us the roots of thousands; There is a strong difference between the Mediterranean region, which is the melting pot of the Mediterranean region, where Latin roots are prominent and there are Germanic and Balto-Slavic influences. The Caucasus and this time a Basque Country under Latin influence.

Does anyone remember Latin?

What seems clear is that different European systems, more or less complex, moved away from Latin. Practically everyone creates their numbers by adding or multiplying smaller numbers and doing a Latin subtraction, returning to 99.

Something we find similarly in a region of the North Caucasus where 99 is 4 x 20 + 20 – 1, or in Chechnya with a system of four twenties plus one to twenty. But in Latin these were less complex: 100 to 1, or undecentum, which means one to one.

in Xataka | Txori, oiseau, pták, vogel: The map that translates any word into all the languages ​​of Europe