Words

Owen von Mechow

I came across the dozenal system from a video on Numberphile's YouTube channel. I noticed the names of the two "new" numbers, dek, and el. Secondly, I noticed the system for the doe's place, doe-one, doe-two,... doe-deck, doe-ell. Then it goes to twodoe and so on and so forth. I must admit that all of the new terms are absolutely ridiculous and do not fit into the English language at all.

I would like to propose a reform to the names in the system.

Allow me to begin by saying that every Germanic language has a name for the first twelve numbers. I would presume that most, if not all other Indo-European languages are the same in this manner. Our language(s) already shows an acceptance of a dozenal system. With this in mind, there is no need to come up with new terms such as deck, ell, and doe. What will follow are my personal suggestions as to how the system should be integrated into the English language.

The system should start at zero and retain all the same names up to the number twelve. Written out, the system would read, "zero, one, two, three,... nine, ten eleven twelve."
Twelve would then start the next order of numbers. This is where either of two things may happen.

My first suggestion would be to keep the suffix "-teen" (or perhaps even "-twel", "-twelf", or "-twelv(e)"). The numbers would then follow as, "twelve, firteen or firsteen, secteen or seconteen, thirteen,... nineteen, tenteen or tennteen, and eleventeen", or respectively as, "firstwelf, secontwelf, thirtwelf,... etc."

My second suggestion would be the addition of a prefix such as, "twelvety-, twelvty, twelfty, twelty, twety or tweety (pronounced as twehty). The numbers would then follow as, "twelve, twelty-one, twelty-two,... twelty-nine, twelty-ten, and twelty-eleven", or respectively so with whichever chosen prefix.
If the suffix was chosen, I would personally prefer "-twelf" over "-teen" as it implies that you are in the twelves place rather than the tens place. Furthermore I would rather "-twelf" over the rest of the prefixes I suggested simply because it has a more English sound to it. It is simply twelfth stripped of it's last consonant sound of "th". Of the prefixes, I would prefer "twelty-" because it has a similarly English sound to it. Specifically is it one that reminds me of "twenty-". I could see either "-twelf" or "twelty-" being equally successful for this order of numbers. The prefix would create more ease in counting as the numbers would simply follow it, but I find the suffix more appealing as it would be a subtle not to the decimal system's "-teen" suffix.

Twenty through ninety would then need not to be changed. There would simply be the addition of ten and eleven respectively. (ie: twenty-ten and twenty-eleven). All that is needed now are names for the current deckdoe and elldoe. What I would suggest for deckdoe are, "tenty or tennty, tenthy, or tenneth" and for elldoe I would suggest, "eleventy, eleventhy, or eleveneth". The obvious solution would be ten(n)ty and eleventy, however tenneth and eleveneth have a certain ring to them.

The numbers would then follow as, "tenty, tenty-one, tenty-two,... tenty-ten, tenty-eleven, eleventy, eleventy-one,... eleventy-eleven" or and respectively so as tenthy or eleventhy. However the "-ty" and "-thy" endings sound quite weird on ten and eleven, which is why I came up with tenneth and eleveneth. The numbers for tenneth and eleveneth would then follow as, "tenneth, tenneth-and-one, tenneth-and-two,... tenneth-and-ten, tenneth-and-eleven, eleveneth, eleveneth-and-one,... etc."
Ultimately, I feel that tenty, and eleventy are the way to go here and would grow to sound more natural over time. Next, fractions would have to be named. However I feel that I need not explain these as any added names would simply end in "th" or "eth" as do the rest of the numbers. (ie: one eleventh, one twelfth, one eleventyeth, etc.)

Lastly, all other places could justifiably stay the same. There would be no need to change the hundreds, thousands, millions, or any place that follows. Hundreds would consist of one hundred through eleven hundred. Twelve hundred would then be synonymous with one thousand. So, eleven hundred eleventy-eleven thousand eleven hundred eleventy-eleven would be followed by one million. Much like nine hundred ninety-nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine is followed my one million in the decimal system.

All of the implementations that I have suggested could translate into many other languages much more easily than how your current system could. Therefore, it could become much more universal and gain much more following. For the dozenal system to ever become a prevalent system, it needs to appeal to the people. Instead of using completely new names, it would be best to use the old names in new context. It would be more familiar and appealing this way, and subsequently much less confusing.

I hope that this message has had some effect, as I feel that this truly is how numbers in the dozenal system should be referred to.

Sincerely, Owen von Mechow.