The Elegant Counting System continues from the previous post (Part One)

We are off and running with our new Elegant Counting System (ECS)! There are some other things to consider that we need to handle to flesh out the system.

First, Second, Third

This little convention makes things a bit complicated in English and requires memorization. Why first, second, third, fourth, fifth, etc.? If we just use the pattern that most numbers follow, it becomes
Oneth, twoth, threeth, fourth, fiveth (a slight variation), sixth, sevth (see previous blog for this one), eighth, nineth (another slight variation), onetieth, onety oneth, onety twoth, etc.

But twoth sounds a lot like “tooth” doesn’t it? It’s a homophone. Second (time) sounds like and is spelled like second (order) which makes it a homonym. There are lots of words in English and collisions with other words are inevitable. By the way, an interesting article on the difference between homonym, homophone, and homograph is found here.

Once, Twice, Thrice

How do we handle this? We don’t have to! Here’s why.

Primary, Secondary, Tertiary

This sequence does have more, found here, but not something we will be concerned with.  Creating the Elegant Counting System involves knowing which areas to take on!

Elegant Counting System in Pop Culture

There are many references that would be upgraded from the new ECS. Here are a few:
The Pearl Jam album Ten is therefore Onety
The Onety Commandments (Bible) (how do you pronounce 10 in your language?)
Onety Twoth Night (Shakespeare) (the word “twelfth” seems like Old English anyways, right?)
Sev/Onety One (the convenience store is now more convenient by saving a syllable)
The Magnificent Sev (Movie)
Friday the Onety Threeth (Bad luck day)
List in the comments any other pop culture references that would change under the new ECS!

Be sure to check out Part Three of this post where we look into fractions and decimals.