12 Days of Wordlady: The twelfth day

 

Oops, maybe not such a great gift idea. "But you didn't teach me much!"

Well, here we are at the 12th day of Christmas, otherwise known as Epiphany, and yet another inconsistency in English. If the cardinal number is "twelve", why is its ordinal not "twelvth" but "twelfth"?

This story is similar to the story of "five" and "fifth", but without the vowel shift. 12 was originally "twelf", and indeed variations of that survived until the 1600s. But often a pronounced "e", or some other ending starting with a vowel, was required after "twelf" for grammatical reasons. This vowel caused the unvoiced consonant "f" to eventually become its voiced sibling, "v", so that the spelling and pronunciation "twelve" were the established ones by the end of the Renaissance. 

This did not happen with the ordinal of "twelf", which was "twelft". Like "fift", it gradually changed by analogy with "fourth", so that by the end of the Middle Ages, it became "twelfth", leaving us with a consonant cluster even harder to say than the final one in "fifth". Not surprisingly, people were already saying "twelth" in the 1400s.

There we are, we're done!  

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For what lords have to do with bread: 

http://katherinebarber.blogspot.ca/2015/01/12-days-of-wordlady-lords-leaping.html

Why I'm not the Word Wench:
http://katherinebarber.blogspot.ca/2014/12/12-days-of-wordlady-nine-ladies-dancing.html

For why milkmaids work in a dairy rather than a milkery:
http://katherinebarber.blogspot.ca/2014/12/12-days-of-wordlady-8-maids-milking.html

For what swans have to do with singing, click here: 
http://katherinebarber.blogspot.ca/2014/12/12-days-of-wordlady-swans-swimming.html

Why we don't say "gooses" and "gooselings: 
http://katherinebarber.blogspot.ca/2014/12/12-days-of-wordlady-geese-laying.html


For why we don't say "fiveth", "fiveteen", and "fivety", click here: 
http://katherinebarber.blogspot.ca/2014/12/12-days-of-wordlady-fifth-day.html  

For why it was OK to call the Virgin Mary a "bird", click here: 
http://katherinebarber.blogspot.ca/2014/12/12-days-of-wordlady-calling-birds.html

For what French hens have to do with syphilis, click here: 
http://katherinebarber.blogspot.ca/2014/12/12-days-of-wordlady-french-hens.html

For turtle-doves, click here: http://katherinebarber.blogspot.ca/2014/12/12-days-of-wordlady-turtle-doves.html

For what partridges have to do with farting, click here:
http://katherinebarber.blogspot.ca/2013/12/12-days-of-wordlady-partridge.html