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Here is a weirdo thread about Swedish/Danish. Every time I mention growing up with Swedish and Danish as a part of my multi-linguaism, I'd get someone tell me they are "essentially' the same language. Yes, Swedish and Danish are similar but most my friends only know one of them.
Counting might be a good example here. How do your language count larger numbers? What is .. for example... 99? In English, that is ninety-nine. Nine-tens-and-nine. Makes sense with most things, including latin.
In Swedish it's "nittio-nio" (ninety-nine) which makes sense. Just like English, right? Travel across the world and you see the same patterns (Japanese is kyuu-ju-kyuu 9-10-9). In German, Its "neun-und-neunzig (nine-and-nine-ten) Makes sense? They just switch the order.
French makes it more complicated. They make you not want to not learn languages. 99 in French reads qatre-vingt-dix-neuf. What does this mean? four-twenty-ten-nine.. so, it moves the base to 20 and makes you count. Four times twenty plus ten and nine. 99? Sure...
Danish? Wanna know what the Danish do? They say "ni-og-halvfems". Nine-and-a-half fives. Wait. What? Nine what? AND A HALF..? a calculation similar to the the French, but without telling you. nine and a half fives is a shortage of (nine and) NINE AND FIVE TIMES TWENTY MINUS 10.
Makes. No. Sense.
