Is there any particular reason as to why the French numbering system ended up as fucked up as it did?

Is there any particular reason as to why the French numbering system ended up as fucked up as it did?

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Gauls counted on base 20.

This sort of left me wondering, since "80" is "Quatre-vingt" in French, would it be a grammar mistake if I were to say "Deux quarante?"

bump

Aparently other french speaking countries such as those in africa just said "fuck that shit" and made their own words for seventy eighty and ninety.

Wouldn't say fucked, though it is weird.
Closest thing which would be "normal" is the way French-Swiss say Quatre-Vingt and Quatre-Vingt dix: Octante et Nonante.

Frenchfag here, when we say "quatre-vingt", we don't picture "4 times 20" in our head. Instead, what pops up is exactly what anglo-saxons think when they say "eighty".

So if I were to say "deux quarante" you'd simply think I'm saying "2 forties" which would make no sense at all?

Fuck me

And I thought my own language was crazy for using base 20

On a side note... how was it that the common stereotype of French people became OP's image?

French culture and aesthetics.

Not that it wouldn't make sense, rather that it wouldn't feel natural at all, because it's not used at all and because when we say quatre-vingt really we really only think "80". Saying "deux-quarantes" would I think be right grammatically wise but it isn't used at all and would feel like saying "two times forty" instead of "eighty"

No, African countries say "quatre-vingt" too. Only Swiss and Belgians say otherwise, not sure for Québécois.

I just looked it up only swiss and beligians say "huitante" but african countries do use "Septante" and "Nonante", go figure.

Quebecois use the regular french system.

I think its mimicking the Parisian lifestyle of the early 20th century

I imagine the original stereotype was a lot more chic before being dumbed down

Belgians don't use "huitante", only septante and nonante. Some Swiss cantons use it and others don't. Most french speaking african countries were colonized by France and thus, use the french system.

This is the answer.
We kept this irrationnal numbering system with a pack of words from Gauls.
In Switzerland and Belgium, they are more logical: they count "like" English speakers.
I don't know how it is in French Canada or African countries where they still speak French.

A Frenchfag from Normandy.

...

Autism.

Are you asking where this comes from?
the stripped shirt, the scarf and the beret comes from the "onion Johnnies"
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onion_Johnny

Baguettes because they actually carry them like that and wine because they drink a lot of it

Belgians say quatre vingt, but they use septante and nonante for 70 and 90
Swiss say octante for 80
t. German living in Belgium who learned French here

It's just a different name to express the value of 80.
In fact I never thought that was weird, even while learning English.

I can see while the opposite would be confusing at first, but not much more than calling a lorry a "truck"

Yes it'd be a mistake