Why wasn't the number 11 pronounced as "oneteen"?

Question

..same goes for "twoteen" (12)
...because when we get to the twenties, we say the whole decade in full of "twenty….." for each number... and so on for those other decades

Answer 1

I totally agree with the answer My mother tongue is Greek and in Greek which is a root language 11 is called one-ten(En-deka) and
12 two-ten(Do-deka).
I believe root languages like Greek and Latin had more strict rules

Answer 2

We think in terms of tens and hunderds, when the languages were forming that wasn't the case. For example, a foot in the imperial system was divided into 12 inches. In terms of time a 12 hour clock. So 12 was the end of the first set of numbers for the ancients not 10.

Answer 3

yeah in english it probably is related to the german.

it would be practically impossible to give every number a distinct name! sooner or later you have to start saying 'twenty and four' or whatever. I guess because 11 and 12 are relatively low numbers they warrant 'special' names instead of the generic 'one-and-something'

interestingly, in other languages the cut-off comes in a different place. in french, for instance, it goes all the way up to 'seize' for 16 before you get to 'dix-sept' for 17 (ten-and-seven)

even more interestingly (impossible! you say) I was reading recently about the Mayan number system and if I remember correctly they had pictorial representations of all the numbers up to 20 - each number was represented by a picture of a different cartoonish face - like a god of that number or something.

makes 'twelve' look rather pale by comparison.

Answer 4

NO NO NO

Ur question is wrong even when u speculate it should be ONETEEN or TWOTEEN. Watch it more closely the doubt should be
why the pronounciation is not FIRSTEEN for 11 and SECONTEEN for 12 ...


;)
ALMIGHTY

Answer 5

Let's break this into pieces.

1) First --why we have this odd system from eleven to nineteen (different from twenty-one, etc)? Actually, thirteen to nineteen aren't so odd, since they simply mean "three and ten", "four and ten", etc. The order may be different from "twenty three", but the principle is the same.

2) Next, where did "eleven" and "twelve" came from?

"Eleven" goes back to Middle English "en-leven", whose first syllable is a relative of "an/ane" meaning "one", and the "tw-" of "twelve" gives away its connection to "two". So we can sort of see that these two have something to do with the system of counting by ten. In fact, the original meaning of these two words was "one left" and "two left" (after counting to ten).

Here's how it happened:

"Eleven in Old English is endleofan, and related forms in the various Germanic languages point back to an original Germanic *ainlif, "eleven." *Ainlif is composed of *ain-, "one," the same as our one, and the suffix *-lif from the Germanic root *lib-, "to adhere, remain, remain left over." Thus, eleven is literally "one-left" (over, that is, past ten), and twelve is "two-left" (over past ten)."
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/dict.asp?Word=eleven

3) Finally, why did "eleven" and "twelve" did not end up comforming to the "teen" pattern?

Simply because these were common, well-established forms. And it is precisely the common, everyday words that are LEAST likely to submit to "rules". (That's why the "irregular" past tense verb forms -- had, were, went, etc-- and irregular plural forms --men, mice, geese-- are almost always found with simple, common words.)

Of course, there were some alternative forms out there. We still use an alternative word for twelve -- "do-zen" itself shows us that (compare German "zehn")-- though it has gained its own special use (for a GROUPING of twelve). In fact, the fact that many things were divided into units of twelve also helps explain why eleven and twelve were treated differently. (Note that the use of twelve has ancient roots. See for example the Mesopotamian mathematical system, which used both six [and its double twelve] and ten --and gave us our 12 hours, 60 seconds, etc) That is NOT to say that these number names originated in counting by twelve, simply that the later USE of twelve contributed to the names' not being changed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duodecimal#Origin

Answer 6

I guess, maybe because the etymology was taken from German:


11 elf
12 zwölf
13 dreizehn
14 vierzehn
15 fünfzehn
16 sechzehn
17 siebzehn
18 achtzehn
19 neunzehn

The pronunciations are very similar.

Answer 7

When numbers were given names; someone made a valid point that it could be "harmful to the teen(youth) of the generation- If one were to say "one teen" of "two teens". Teens being considered "underage". So that's it!

Answer 8

Dunno, but it's the same way in German. "Zehn" is 10, "elf" is 11, and "zwoelf" is 12, and then they start counting at thirteen: "dreizehn." Then vierzehn, fuenfzehn, sechzehn, siebzehn, and so on.

Another good question the German brings up is ... why isn't our "ten" called "teen," or why isn't "thirteen" "thirten" to match up with the 10?