Universal 537:

Universal 537:

Original

If in a language, in any sum the larger addend precedes the smaller, then the same order holds for all larger numbers expressed by addition.

Standardized

IF in any sum the larger addend precedes the smaller, THEN the same order holds for all larger numbers expressed by addition.

Keywords

order, numeral

Domain

word formation

Type

implication

Status

achronic

Quality

absolute

Basis

56 languages mentioned in Greenberg 1978a

Source

Greenberg 1978a: 273 (#27)

Counterexamples

English writers like Jane Austen (around 1800) tend to use (the more archaic) smaller-before-larger in culturally salient, frequent complex numerals, especially ‘four and twenty’ and ‘eight and fourty’, but larger-before-smaller elsewhere, e.g. ‘twenty-three’, ‘forty-seven’.