Finns, why must you be so long-winded!? How to write 99 in different European languages (from Mapologies)

33 comments
  1. Yet numerals are way more logic and simple in Finnish than in French.

    Btw.No-one actually speaks that Karelian language in that spot on the map in Russia where that Karelian word is. Russia has destroyed Karelian speakers and Karelian language there as they do with everything they touch.

  2. Well, we say “ysiysi” instead of “yhdeksänkymmentäyhdeksän”. The standard register is (almost literally) about as ancient as Chaucer English is, comparably. The spoken varieties are literally different languages.

  3. Because the word for ‘nine’ and ‘ten’ are long and 99 is written “Nine tens nine”. Nobody actually says “yhdeksänkymmentäyhdeksän” though, because that is standard Finnish, and nobody speaks standard Finnish. What people would actually say is either “yheksänkyt yheksän” or “ysi ysi”

  4. Yhdeksänkymmentä (ninety) is literally ‘yhdeksän kymmentä’ or ‘nine tens’. 99 (yhdeksän-kymmentä-yhdeksän) is actually ‘nine-tens-nine’ if you want to break it down all the way.

  5. yhdeksänsataayhdeksänkymmentäyhdeksänmiljardiayhdeksänsataayhdeksänkymmentäyhdeksänmiljoonaayhdeksänsataayhdeksänkymmentäyhdeksäntuhattayhdeksänsataayhdeksänkymmentäyhdeksän =
    999 999 999 999

  6. yhdeksän-kymmentä-yhdeksän is pretty much identical to nine-ty-nine in syntax, our words for “nine” and “ten” just happen to be long lol

  7. Finns celebrated the change of millennium because “2000” is “kaksituhatta” in Finnish while “1999” is “tuhatyhdeksänsataayhdeksänkymmentäyhdeksän”.

  8. I’m an Italian living in Finland. Who the hell thinks that in Italy we have 4 ways of saying 99? Plus Vatican City in Latin? lmao

  9. I’ve always wondered if yhdeksän (9) comes from 1-lessthan-decade and kahdeksan (8) comes from 2-lessthan-decade. 1 yksi. 2 kaksi. Too much of a coincidence for me when looking at other number names.

    99 yhdeksän kymenntä yhdeksän
    9 tens & 9

    1-lessthan-decade tens and 1-lessthan-decade ?

    But maybe there is a reason why only 8 and 9 are deksän’s and the others all get cool individual names.

  10. The common language word “yhdeksänkymmentäyhdeksän” (nine tens and nine) is not long, and if you want to use colloquial language, “ysi-ysi” (nine-nine) is just as fine, but not suitable for official documents.

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