How a Person Counts To Ten on Their Fingers Reveals Where They Are From

Linguist Rob Watts of RobWords looked back through history to learn the origins of the English numeral system, how it evolved into the numbers we use today, and how someone counts to ten reveals the region where they live.

Why do our numbers look the way they look? Why do we count the way we count? These questions answered and many more in this video looking at where English got its numbering system.

Counting to Ten Regions

The latter point was proved quite clearly in a pivotal scene from Inglorious Basterds.

Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.

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