I’ve always noticed that numbers seemed to be the same for most or all languages but I’ve never been told why or how it came to be this way. So why are languages so different but have the same symbols for numbers
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Everyone else has good answers, but I want to add that numbers are not universal. It just so happens that as humans we naturally can use base 10 since we have 10 fingers. But there are other counting systems in other bases.
When I say base 10 I mean the typical numbering system. After we get to 10 it rolls over to a new word for instance nineteen, TWENTY……… twenty-nine, THIRTY, and so on. Some other culture may have used base 5 which would look something like four, FIVE, FIVE AND ONE….Five and four, TWO FIVES, and so on.
I know it seems strange to wrap.your head around, but really the base 10 way of counting and numbering is not a universal system per se. That being said, it has become the system for all people since we have that exact amount of fingers to count on.
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