4 ms·
You can do this without numbers. Put a stone for every sheep into a sack and when you need to check the herd's completeness you take a stone out for every sheep
by z7 4y ago
You can do this without numbers. Put a stone for every sheep into a sack and when you need to check the herd's completeness you take a stone out for every sheep and hope that the sack is eventually empty. That's an old shepherd's technique if I remember correctly.
- talideon 4y agoThat's not really the point here: this counting system is what's leftover from various Cumbric (an extinct language related to Welsh) dialects, which is what makes this interesting. Yan = (welsh) un = one; tan = (welsh) dau/dwy = two; tethera = (welsh) tri/tair = three - you can see the influence from pethera for rhyming purposes; pethera = (welsh) pedwar/pedair = four; pimp = (welsh) pum(p) = five, &c.