Numbers in Old Norse

[@brokenhappy]

I appreciate the authenticity of leaving in the near-catastrophic slide down an unseen slope. Added character XD

[@mr.antaeus5730]

"I need three-thousand women" You and I both Jackson. You and I both.

[@Sanchairudo]

I think he meant "i.e." not "I need", though.

[@faramund9865]

Wow you just made me realize why the unique names of numbers stop at twelve in Germanic languages

[@NuthrMattWright]

7:26 Counting in Old Norse

[@Amylish16]

Graduating in December in Scandinavian studies in Italy. Needless to say that,since I’ve discovered your channel long time ago,my passion has led me to start studying Old Norse and Icelandic. You’re a blessing!! Tusen hjertelig takk!

[@YOURTECHFRIEND]

She properly learned a lot... (Hun lærte en hel masse) For instance how Italia isn't in the World cup, when both Sweden, Denmark and Iceland are!! 😄 (Men du er velkommen på besøg i Danmark hvis du vil) 🙂

[@Amylish16]

megin Sorry,didn’t receive the notification! I learned to speak Norwegian and then consequently understanding Swedish and Danish(though as Dr.Crawford mentioned,it’s way easier to read than speaking them). Also the history and the literature concerning the Scandinavia.

[@Amylish16]

BepperDK I actually did,but part of my personal knowledge comes from personal research and documentation from specific sources. Well,I really dunno why is that,consider that I’m not that much into soccer,so 😅 btw tusen takk,håper å reise til Danmark snart 😉

[@Amylish16]

The Scandinavian lore(sorry,my phone went crazy and cut the last part of the comment)

[@Amylish16]

megin na nope. I’ve started learning Old Norse some time ago before starting my thesis. Unfortunately they don’t teach it where I studied. There was a course though,but unfortunately I already had my credits at that time. Concerning Icelandic,they taught it at the master degree but I was at my first year so,no chance for me. This year they’ve started again teaching it,and again,I’m out of the game. That’s why I’m here 😉

[@roceb5009]

For counting 11 to 20, do you have to have the ominous wind or is that just a regional pronunciation?

[@Tina06019]

Thank you for another useful video. Historic linguistic knowledge helps me to remember words in languages which I don’t already know.

[@syntaxerror8955]

Dr. Crawford, thanks for interesting stuff. BTW, several times you have been standing in nature settings that look like places in Sweden, although I realize it's probably in Colorado. Knowing the skiing possibilities there, and seeing a kind of nature that appeals to part of me, you inadvertently advertise Colorado. Should I ever again live in the U.S., then I have to at least visit Colorado. Shame that I never did.

[@sylvaingrandcerf6486]

glad you left the action shot in (when you almost fell down the precipitous slope).

[@horacio5921]

Really good! I'm native in the Portuguese language (Brazillian Portuguese, but I learned English). I played a game called Magicka, and the game is based on the Nordic Mythology which I found really interesting. You can change the language of the game but not the spoken speech language. The spoken language is a language developed by the developers of the game, the language is a mixture of Icelandic, Old Norse, English, Norwegian and Swedish. I started to be interested in the Old Norse language and wanted to learn it. Your videos help to much!

[@BLuEeEyeDmUnsTer]

Ive become such a fan of your videos. I initially became interested in Old Norse because of the mythology but now I’ve begun learning the language and appreciating their culture, language, just everything. Its truly become a passion. Thank you for your videos, theyve been helping me a lot while I learn the language :)

[@keithrutherford5164]

Thank you another great and very helpful video.

[@eidure1]

Interesting that they'd blend the tylftir with the tigir numeral systems like that like in Grímnismál (3:17). That is, saying "hundrað" meaning the numeral system around 12 but then "tøgum" referring perhaps to the numeral system around 10. Since Bilskirnir is a made up place, it would have made little difference for the author of Grímnismál to write "fimm hundruð gólfa ok um fjórum tylftum...". When we read through the old sagas we regularly find "tigir" but not as many "tylftir" when things are counted. The sagas are often written later by someone who didn't experience the events directly, so the numbers are often rounded up to "tigir" but sheldomly to "tylftir". It doesn't seem consistant to go from tigir (10), to hundrað (120), þúsund (1200). Do you have any idea why "tigir" was the standard but not "tylftir" in the sagas?

[@Herknungr]

Thanks Jackson you help me a lot with this stuff!

[@frejajonsson6701]

It would be very interesting if you could talk about Swedish and Norwegian's pitch accents. Did this system exist in old norse? If so, why does icelandic, danish and faroese lack this system? If not, why did swedish and norwegian developed this pitch accent?.

[@holdyerblobsaloft]

And why don't the Swedish dialects in Finland have pitch accents?

[@ancientsurvival]

Comparative linguistics is a marvellous way to make some educated guesses at what the language may really have sounded like. Inhaled "já" for example is present in [selected speakers of] Icelandic, Norwegian, Danish and Swedish. It seems probable that it's a very archaic trait.

[@ancientsurvival]

@@mroldnewbie The inhaled ja or já alsi exist in Iceland and parts of Norway. I often ingale a joo, but it's something I've developed purposefully to startle people rather than something native to my speech - karelian. Edit: I didn't remember I had posted about that previously 😂

[@dan74695]

Some Danish dialects have it, and some Norwegian dialects don't.

[@LEO_M1]

@@mroldnewbie In English, it’s called “tsking”.

[@mrsnismo]

Thank you for another great video 👍

[@Stav-runes]

Interesting video as usual. I would like to comment on counting in relation to runes. There are some indications of runes being used as representative of numbers. The runic calendars were used in Scandinavia during the time as the Julian calendar was used, the earliest ones are from around the 13th century, and then they disappeared with the reformation to the Gregorian calendar, 1700-1750. These calendars are based on the 19 year metonic moon cycle, so usually the 16 runes represent the numbers 1-16; then they created three additional runes for the numbers 17-19. These runic calendars were not linguistic, so this is not disputing the facts in the video at all. But they are an example that the runes can be used as a numeric representative. These calendars are a very interesting and complex topic. Another relevant thing is the runic ciphers; that divided the younger futhark into three aetts, and gave the runes within the aett a number based on its position.

[@syntaxerror8955]

Of the 14 unique words in the table at 15:41, only two remain in Swedish (pronounced and spelled identically to the presentation): "annan" (other) and "annat" (something else). (The word "annars" instead means "otherwise"; the singular non-neutrum genitive is "annans", and the plural non-neutrum genitive is "andras".) Then Swedish also has "andra" (others), "ändra" (change [verb]), "ändring" (change [noun]), "annorlunda" (different), "annorstädes" (somewhere else, literally "other place"), etc.

[@pierreabbat6157]

Russian still says "двадцать один человек" (twenty one man). But Russian uses one form of the noun with numbers ending in the word 2,3,4 and another form with numbers ending in more than 4.

[@josoece3483]

Its like that in all slavic languages. Numbers ending 4-9 use genitive. So 21 car, 24 cars, 25 of the cars.

[@theJellyjoker]

Sing a song of sixpence, A pocket full of rye. Four and twenty blackbirds, Baked in a pie.

[@mattbaker7305]

Tom Waits?

[@esbendit]

I wonder how danish ended up with a semi base twenty system instead.

[@mortenreippuertknudsen3576]

we actually have both. Depending on your age you would have learned both in first grade.

[@saftobulle]

In modern swedish we still have both the words ”båda” and ”bägge” for ”both”. They are not diferentiated by case anymore though. And ”bägge” is much less commonly used.

[@Red0100]

In the north we almost never use "båda"

[@saftobulle]

Red0100 that makes so much sense! I was thinking it was weird to keep two different words that means the same for different cases and remove the case difference. Much more logical that northern dialects kept one and southern the other!

[@Vikingjack1]

This was very interesting

I can see how fjorir tigir becomes fyrtio (modern Swedish for forty)

[@freddylaskowski4475]

G

[@Kargush]

Norwegian here. It isn't uncommon to still use "x and x" when counting. So 1 and 20, 2 and 20, 3 and 20, etc.

[@arkemiffo]

Swede that used to live in Oslo for a few years. It drove me insane when people did that. I'm used to ten-one notation, not the one and ten notation. I almost always had to ask them to repeat themselves. Then again, I'm lucky it isn't the Danish counting system. That's asylum material right there.

[@hisheighnessthesupremebeing]

Might be influenced by Danish

[@mortenreippuertknudsen3576]

Its the default danish way. However as in Norwegian both methods are allowed in Danish.

[@TacticalSquirrel]

Same in German. 22 for example, zwei und zweizig.

[@steven_003]

@@TacticalSquirrel *Zwanzig

[@cheezysauce4963]

Loving the armband combined with a Sig shirt, old meets new in classic Doc Crawford style. Takk for alle videoene! Unnskyld min (sannsynligvis) dårlig Norsk lol

[@123kickinitSUPER]

I'm a little confused, why does fimm hundrað equal 640 but 5 times 120 equals 600? Edit: 4:45 Explains it

[@Yoreni]

its like a mixture of base 12 and base 10

[@MidgardMusings]

Great information!

[@syntaxerror8955]

That the Old Norse word for "hundred" would mean 120 in earlier forms (and corresponding for "thousand") is news to me. Are there easily available other sources for that? And why was it so? Yes, 12 is known to have some importance, and is also the last count-word before the teens (and corresponding in Old Norse). On the other hand, we have always had 10 fingers to count on, and the count-words after 12 still refer back to 10. (To pick one of the examples, 14 in both English, Old Norse, and Swedish essentially goes "four ten".)

[@christianfernandezcarrillo]

Tao Yanbao I'll digress a bit here, but interestingly enough, yet not surprisingly, Tolkien used a similar counting system based on 12 in his elvish languages. He was, after all, a philologist specialised i germanic languages.

[@Auriflamme]

They were using base 12 rather than the base 10 we use these days. Base 12 is much better for quickly calculating fractions as 12 divides by 2,3,4 and 6, whereas 10 only divides by 2 and 5. Hence you get dozen rather than a tenzen (hehe).

[@lauralane5572]

I'm really glad you left that in 😄 Fascinating stuff! This is completely unrelated but I've always wondered why the majority of people pronounce Z like "zee" but the British pronounce it as "zedd", does anyone know why this is? :)

[@vp4744]

Majority of English speaking people in the world pronounce "zed" not "zee".

[@thli8472]

I assume you say zed because the letter is called zeta in greek. The americans have just regularized the name

[@SmevMev]

I don't actually know which pronunciation the majority prefer, but it does seem to be quite common for speakers of English as a foreign language to pick up American accents, perhaps because of the media/films they've watched, the country in which they learnt the language, or because of whom they were taught by.

[@vp4744]

Most people in India have no clue what "zee" means. Then I remembered zee/zed confusion. Not all English speakers make the distinction between zee the pronunciation vs. zed the letter.

[@sitiusz5809]

SmevMev I can confirm that, in almost all academic institutions in China, English is be taught in the American way, but still a lot of people prefer English accent or London accent.

[@maisiefreeman8597]

Dr Crawford, I've always wondered why the North Germanic languages have definite and indefinite forms of nouns, which Proto-Germanic, Old English, and other modern Germanic languages lack? Do we know where these came from? I'm studying both Old English and Old Norse, and it's fascinating to see how these languages differ, considering they are essentially brothers.

[@mortenreippuertknudsen3576]

tretien = tre (three) x ti (of tens) + en (one). It still works even i danish where we have individual large number words like (as opposed to in norwegian and swedish) its also valid in danish. When kids are taught numbers in early math class we use both tretien and and enogtredive (one and thirty) due to its logic. All the continental modern nordic languages still has all the archaic words and meanings of them - they are just not used on daily speach, they are however used when danes, norwegian and swedes communicates with each other.

[@mberg1974]

I don't get the logic behind 120 being "hundrath", I mean if they used 12 as a base shouldn't 12x12=144?

[@ralphg.curtis9297]

Numbers ending (or beginning) with 'one' taking singular forms might have been possible in German at one point. The 'Arabian Nights' are called 'Tausendundeine Nacht' in German (lit. thousand and one night). I can't think of other examples though.

[@amitnaor100]

I still not quite sure how to write a specific date. For example if i wanted to write my birthdate - 4.7(july).1999 How do i write it?

[@deathwiddle3826]

What is the name of the book mentioned at about 5.10?

[@logifannarbrjansson9784]

This is 95% the same as in modern icelandic

[@seanorton9333]

Thank you. For all your videos. I might start exploding with questions. I will try to pace on each of your videos. So yes, I’ve seen historians say often, “In the Norse language 100 meant 120 so this was actually x many ships”. but I’ve been wondering how they would decide to describe 500 ships as 4 hundred plus 20 versus deciding to describe it as 400 and 80. Since it could be either...but I know it was the habit to think in hundreds (twelves) when talking about ships and men in arms...and I see your point about habits in language. Okay, now to check out all your other videos. I hope you have something on the calendar somewhere. Again, thank you.

[@PrussianJaeger]

Nice Sig Sauer shirt.

[@Altrantis]

Those math problems for some numbers reminds me of French. 95 is four-twenties-and-fifteen.

[@ralphg.curtis9297]

In Danish it's five-and-half-fifth-times-twenty (fem og halvfems).

[@jensarni]

In Faroese there is a peculiar form counting, though younger and is a vigesimal system form of counting. An example here are the numbers from 50 to 90. 50 fimmti, hálvtrýss ella hálvtrýssinstjúgu [3*20 - 20/2] 60 seksti, trýss ella trýssinstjúgu [3*20] 70 sjeyti, hálvfjerðs ella hálvfjerðsinstjúgu [4*20 - 20/2] 80 áttati, fýrs ella fýrsinstjúgu [4*20] 90 níti, hálvfems ella hálvfemsinstjúgu [5*20 - 20/2]

[@niku..]

Why did people use hundrað for 120? I know *hundą and *hundaradą were probably used for an unspecified large number but why did the long/great hundred develop from this unspecified number?

[@rudde7918]

Is that why 12 is the last number with its own name in Germanic languages?

[@Sasori915]

Wouldn't hundrað mean 144 (12^2) if Old Norse had a twelve-based counting system? With hundrað meaning 120, it seems more like a decimal system with special importance given to twelve.

[@gothicsoldier]

That is ultimately it, yes - it's still base 10 mathematically, but base 12 conceptually. If that makes sense. It's like the 12s used in English - 12 inches to a foot, 12 hours to a half day, a dozen is a 12. Pseudo-dozenal is easy for everday mathematics. Splits in half, thirds, and quarters very evenly, which is easy for trade and measurement. If it were truly a dozenal system, indeed the counting would be 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 [x] [y] 10 | 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 1[x] 1[y] 20, et c.

[@mi14116]

8:15 he summoned the world serpent by counting

[@submoto]

So why do we have a 20 system in Danish? When/where did that come from?

[@woody8391]

I've heard that the pentimal system was used in Scandinavia. Is it possible that people used them during the Viking Age?

[@fostersstubbyasmr9557]

Man you’re a beast! I wish I could study in Australia! Have you written a book like a complete “saga” on how to Norse. I think it’d be a best seller and Idd refs buy it.

[@ancientswordrage]

Two questions, four years late: If you says 40 less 1, does that take the singular? Can you say something like 4 twelves less three? Or is it only less 1 that's common?

[@alek8582]

How would I say 1999? In old norse language

[@Darkurge666]

It funny when you counted up to 20, the words are almost the same today in Swedish, although spelled slightly differently (and with latin characters of course). En 1 Två 2 Tre 3 Fyra 4 Fem 5 Sex 6 Sju 7 Åtta 8 Nio 9 Tio 10 Elva 11 Tolv 12 Tretton 13 Fjorton 14 Femton 15 Sexton 16 Sjutton 17 Arton 18 Nitton 19 Tjugo 20

[@laughingdaffodils5450]

Tack för videon. Do you have any idea why they were counting by alternating 10 and 12 (12 is the highest simple number, but hundrað is 10x12 not 12x12.) Also was there a special word for or significant of 144?

[@christerromsonlande6502]

Laughing Daffodils In modern Swedish ”ett dussin” is the word for ”a docent” and I’ve been told “ett gross” was a word for 12 dozens.

[@bwda666]

PRICELESS stuff -literally

[@jacksonrodabaugh9984]

Pretty similar in Swedish!

[@jamesfforthemasses]

Is it possible that their number system was occasionally fully dozenal? no tens, only twelves 100=144?

[@anotherelvis]

Did the Danes also use the same names for 20, 30, 40 and 50? So we actually used to have a sensible number system? I wonder why we changed.

[@magnus00125]

Is it necessary to roll with the tongue to speak this?

I have the idea, that in the old days people may used base-12 instead of base-10 system. I mean, many languages still has a "name" for 12, like English "dozen", or even Hungarian (which is not an Indo-European language at all, but rather Uralic, like Finnish) "tucat". Also, even English has "simple" names for 11 still (eleven, it's not one-teen ... and the "-teen" constructs start with 13, what is exactly you would expect from a base-12 system). And so on. So it's logical than, that for "hundred" it was a multiple of this "dozen" (12) unit back to then. I'm just guessing here, maybe it's my stupid ideas here, but it's said that even 24 hours of a day is originated from being 12 hours for the day, and 12 for the night, and it's an invention from Egypt (AFAIK). If these are true at all, I am really curious why base-12 was so common among very different nations back to then, and why it disappeared mostly, replaced with base-10. And btw, sorry for my bad English here.

[@hazenoki628]

You still hear some people in Sweden saying tjugoen krona (twenty-one crown) using the singular, rather than tjugoen kronor using the plural. I always thought it sounded strange, and it's certainly not how I'd say it.

[@dan74695]

Eg segjer "tjueei krona".

[@JohnWiedenhoeft]

Oh wow, I never noticed we do the singular for numbers containing 1 in German as well - but only if it's the last one spoken: 21 Bäume (one and twenty trees), 101 Baum (hundred and one tree), 121 Bäume (hundred one and twenty trees) :-)

[@nvdawahyaify]

I don't mean to seem argumentative, but how do we truly know that hundrað is 120? I want to believe you, but i would like to know if there's proof of this concept, more than a teacher's word. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and expertise with us. And again i don't mean to seem argumentative.

[@Alaedious]

Hahahae! Nonne lapsus es, doctissime magister? 🙃 Another very interesting video! 🤓😎

[@McAppleWar]

Nice t-shirt

[@lakrids-pibe]

More tigers than I expected

[@oneukum]

So is it "vit túttugu ok tvau" or "vér túttugu ok tvau", if you want to say "us twenty-two"?

[@adamconlon7729]

like the sig sauer shirt

[@Vester1985]

So one hundred thousand is actually 144,000 in Old Norse?

[@Nuke_Gunray]

Fast schon gruselig wie ähnlich sich die Zahlen anhören...

[@AntonQvarfordt]

is he sponsored by the state of Colorado?

[@dominomasked]

I certainly hope you're getting product placement money from the Colorado tourism board. Because dang.

[@nvdawahyaify]

I don't mean any disrespect by asking this, but how do we know for sure that hundred and thousand mean something different? I trust that you know your stuff, seeings as you have a doctorate. I just really like to know what the evidence is for any claim being taught. I never liked the idea of "this is true because my teacher told me, and their teacher told them, etc." For all we really know one of the teachers way in the past could have made it up and taught it as fact. Again I mean no disrespect. I have aspergers and can come off a little too bluntly. I really appreciate what you do teaching us information like this. Thank you.

[@Alaedious]

The number 'six' rocks in Latin and Old Norse! 😀😇❤🤪

[@syntaxerror8955]

The pronounciation of 5, 6, 9 , 10, 12, 14, 15, 16 in Swedish is virtually identical to Old Norse (the masculine nominative form). 13 has lost its "th" sound and become a "t" sound, an 1 is identical to how it's pronounced in the dialect of Swedish called "jämtska" (traditionally spoken in Jämtland -- belonged to Norway many hundreds of years ago). BTW, 30 in Swedish is said as "three ten", 40 as "four ten", and so on, although some contraction has taken place, so instead of "åtta tio" (80) it's "åttio", and instead of "nio tio" (90), it's "nittio". "tveir" (2) is "två" (pronounciation identical to Old Norse male accusative form), although "tvenne" is an alternative but now archaic (19th century) form, and "tve" also lives on in words such as "tvetydig", meaning "ambiguous" (literally "two decipher[ous]") and "tvehågsen", meaning "ambivalent" (literally "two-minded"), as well as in names of things in nature ("tvestjärt" meaning "earwig", literally "two-butt"). Oh, and for example 42 would be "four ten two" ("fyra tio två", contracted to "fyrtiotvå" in Swedish).

[@juliaconnell]

thank you - another interesting and informative video - thank you! once again grateful that English is gender neutral!!! (ps glad you left that in ;) )

[@rudde7918]

You mean that you are glad English has no grammatical gender anymore?

[@mickeyamf]

i know hes saying ie but I as I am a little dense it took me a minute to realize he was saying ie & not I eat.

[@Bobbiii0.2]

Just out of interest, how many languages do you speak?

[@frejajonsson6701]

He answered this question in his last video 😊

[@ardyer3]

Is the "twenty and one" and "one less than forty" formats of numbers descent from an earlier language or is it unique to old Norse?

[@maxsvensson5891]

Have you ever studied Älvaldsmål?

[@thebenis3157]

Perhaps I just missed it, but I can't find how to say 200, 300, 400 etc. and 1000, 2000, 3000 etc. If you say it in the video, could you tell me the minute? If not, could you tell me how you say those numbers?

[@erikaverbeck7543]

where is your hat? there it is at the end

[@theskoomacat7849]

5:51 I believe you meant 3600 women

[@BunkeredPuma885]

Hetta sjónbandi er nítjan minuttir og tíggju sekund langt.

[@BunkeredPuma885]

Tað veit eg ikki, kanska. Í hvørjumfalli enda orð við einum "i", men ikki í hvørfalli, so er spurningurin eisini um tað orðið er bundið ella óbundið. Vóni at hetta er hóskandi svar.

[@Yuhaszsakii]

I thought he was Billy Eichner

[@onewish6944]

if he grew his hair longer and styled it right, he would look just like kit Harington (John Snow)

[@MatejRRL]

Hello (=

[@brand_holt]

That Hello Guy, hello. 👋😀

[@juliaconnell]

hello :)

[@heges1606]

Hei🌟🤗

[@KendraLeeStenberg]

Hello 😀

[@declantheamazing]

I mainly watch this channel for the mythology and history stuff, so these videos while well put together are fairly boring. You might consider adding in notable ways in which numbers get into sagas, such as everything happening 3 or 9 times. What's the importance of 7 etc. This also gives context to how the numbers have been formed in the lexicon vs how roman numerals were formed