Letter: Letters: Where it counts

From SHARON ELLIS

Rosie Mestel (This Week, 5 March) may be interested to know that counting
in Welsh is structurally similar to that of the Asian languages quoted.
For example, eleven is un deg un – ‘one ten one’; twenty is dau deg – ‘two
ten’, and thirty-one, tri degun – ‘three ten one’.

Perhaps the Welsh would be the perfect foil for the Californian psychologists,
offering as they do an established Western education and culture coupled
with a language structure similar to that of the Asians.

Unfortunately, I cannot think of any brilliant Welsh mathematicians;
but I am sure there are plenty if the psychologists’ theories are correct.

Sharon Ellis Harpenden, Hertfordshire