[The Number Concept by Levi Leonard Conant]@TWC D-Link book
The Number Concept

CHAPTER VI
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ki dokpo mui do mui okpo nehea = 10 + 5 more, to 5, 4 more.
20.

mbaba kotu.
Above 20, the Lufu and the Bongo systems are vigesimal, so that they are, as a whole, mixed systems.
The Welsh scale begins as though it were to present a pure decimal structure, and no hint of the quinary element appears until it has passed 15.

The Nahuatl, on the other hand, counts from 5 to 10 by the ordinary quinary method, and then appears to pass into the decimal form.

But when 16 is reached, we find the quinary influence still persistent; and from this point to 20, the numeral words in both scales are such as to show that the notion of counting by fives is quite as prominent as the notion of referring to 10 as a base.

Above 20 the systems become vigesimal, with a quinary or decimal structure appearing in all numerals except multiples of 20.


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