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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)
by 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 agoNo, Persian has words that are vaguely derived from the basic numerals.
- egeozcan 5y agoIt 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".