Fun fact: Ancient Egyptians used a base 12 for time (and in some other places) because we have have 12 segments on our index through pinky fingers. They used their thumbs as a placeholder or to count. That base 12 system then turned into the 24 hour clock system we use today.
There’s also evidence of an early base-12 system in use for some Indo-Europeans – it’s likely why the English morphology doesn’t become compositional until 13:
Fun fact: Ancient Egyptians used a base 12 for time (and in some other places) because we have have 12 segments on our index through pinky fingers. They used their thumbs as a placeholder or to count. That base 12 system then turned into the 24 hour clock system we use today.
There’s also evidence of an early base-12 system in use for some Indo-Europeans – it’s likely why the English morphology doesn’t become compositional until 13:
Ten (not compositional)
Eleven (not compositional)
Twelve (not compositional)
Thirteen (related to three-ten)
Fourteen (relates to four-ten)
Etc.