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Turkish seems to be the most systematic than: 11 => On Bir (Ten One) 12 => On iki (Ten two) … 21 => Yirmi bir (Twenty One) Etc

abdusco 5y ago
Yet, the names of tens don't seem to follow any logic: 10: on (no connection to 1: bir) 20: yirmi (no connection to 2: iki) 30: otuz (no connection to 3: üç) 40: kırk (no connection to 4: dört) 50: elli (no connection to 5: beş) 60: altmış (sounds like 6: altı) 70: yetmiş (sounds like 7: yedi) 80: seksen (sounds like 8: sekiz) 90: doksan (sounds like 9: dokuz) To this day, I can't figure out how "yedi" becomes "yetmiş", or whether they're related at all. Are they borrowed from Farsi?
- rvense 5y ago
  No, Persian has words that are vaguely derived from the basic numerals.
- egeozcan 5y ago
  It comes from Chuvash language. İnş forms counting numbers, and language researches think they used to count in tens, as they didn't need precise numbers. yedi/seven (m) inş -> yētiminş -> yetmiş/seventy altı/six (m) inş -> altıminş -> altmış/sixty. see: https://www.nisanyansozluk.com/?k=altm%C4%B1%C5%9F https://www.nisanyansozluk.com/?k=altm%C4%B1%C5%9F (in Turkish) 90 is tokuz-on (dokuz-on, nine-ten), 80 is formed that way too. 40, 30, 20 have specific names in old Turkish. Which means they used those numbers a lot, but no evidence why. No connection to 4, 3, 2 whatsoever (old Turkish for 4 ist tört, for example). 50 (elli) comes from the same root as the word which means hand (el). You can perhaps guess why. Long story short: You just need to memorize them if you are speaking Modern Turkish because "historical reasons". Turks started using numbers a bit too early and early weirdness was never fully "corrected" :) What I like in Turkish is that you don't use the unnecessary "one" before hundred/thousand. 100 -> yüz, 200 -> iki yüz. you don't say "bir yüz" for 100, just "yüz".

abdusco 5y ago

Yet, the names of tens don't seem to follow any logic: 10: on (no connection to 1: bir) 20: yirmi (no connection to 2: iki) 30: otuz (no connection to 3: üç) 40: kırk (no connection to 4: dört) 50: elli (no connection to 5: beş) 60: altmış (sounds like 6: altı) 70: yetmiş (sounds like 7: yedi) 80: seksen (sounds like 8: sekiz) 90: doksan (sounds like 9: dokuz) To this day, I can't figure out how "yedi" becomes "yetmiş", or whether they're related at all. Are they borrowed from Farsi?

rvense 5y ago
No, Persian has words that are vaguely derived from the basic numerals.
egeozcan 5y ago
It comes from Chuvash language. İnş forms counting numbers, and language researches think they used to count in tens, as they didn't need precise numbers. yedi/seven (m) inş -> yētiminş -> yetmiş/seventy altı/six (m) inş -> altıminş -> altmış/sixty. see: https://www.nisanyansozluk.com/?k=altm%C4%B1%C5%9F https://www.nisanyansozluk.com/?k=altm%C4%B1%C5%9F (in Turkish) 90 is tokuz-on (dokuz-on, nine-ten), 80 is formed that way too. 40, 30, 20 have specific names in old Turkish. Which means they used those numbers a lot, but no evidence why. No connection to 4, 3, 2 whatsoever (old Turkish for 4 ist tört, for example). 50 (elli) comes from the same root as the word which means hand (el). You can perhaps guess why. Long story short: You just need to memorize them if you are speaking Modern Turkish because "historical reasons". Turks started using numbers a bit too early and early weirdness was never fully "corrected" :) What I like in Turkish is that you don't use the unnecessary "one" before hundred/thousand. 100 -> yüz, 200 -> iki yüz. you don't say "bir yüz" for 100, just "yüz".