this post was submitted on 25 Aug 2024
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English used to be that way as well:
In these lyrics "four and twenty" means 24
Which actually makes sense when you remember that English, before the Normans at least, was very close to dutch.
And it's all because they are germanic languages (at least old English is), and this is the same in German (vier und zwanzig).
Modern English is still a Germanic language, but with a LOT of Latin and French thrown in.
Yeah, and then we got better
I really, really struggle to see how the Normans made English "better".
They made a successful cipher that has thwarted their enemies into perpetuity.
Ah, the same way Linux was able to thwart hackers for as long as it did.