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En réponse à Barry Garcia <barry_garcia@hidden.email>:
> romanceconlang@yahoogroups.com writes:
> >sezexi
> >septenzexi
> >dudevijinci
> >undevijinci
> >vijinci
>
> Question: So, what is the explanation for these? Don't most romance
> langs
> use the word for 10 + the smaller number in order to make the teens
> past
> 15? It also appears that when you hit 18, you subtract from 20 to get
> that
> number. Was that a latin development, or is this something unique to
> Cardajiñinsa?
>
It was the normal way of counting in Classical Latin: the smaller number
prefixed to a form of ten for numbers between 11 and 17, and backwards counting
for 18 and 19 ("duodeviginti" and "undeviginti" in CL). The backwards counting
was so engraved that it was used everywhere (99 was said "undecentum": one from
100) and reflected in writing (in CL, numbers were written: I II III IIII V VI
VII VIII VIIII X, etc..., XVII IIXX IXX XX, etc... The modern use of Roman
numbers dates from a few centuries ago only).
The modern Romance way of counting is a Romance development, which explains why
it begins at 16 for Spanish but only at 17 for French and Italian for instance
(and I don't know for Romanian).
Christophe.
http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr