Haspelmath? Syllables required caution, with that thing I have absolutely no idea where to start. Even this cat thingie was something that I just pulled out of the blue when I saw this board.

Anyway I just wanted to test this theory because of something that my mother once said when I was learning math a very long time ago. She said that I should be counting in English than Malay to count faster (she learnt math in school in English while during my time we changed it to Malay already). If I could count in Chinese, she said it was better (she once work in a Chinese school as a clerk). One example that she use was the number '9'. It's 'Sembilan' in Malay with 3 syllables ('sem','bi','lan' [if I'm doing this correctly]) compared to English's 'nine'. She was frustrated that most of the primary school kids she saw writes the number as long as it take to speak the 3 syllables. Sometimes even when they are doing calculation with their hands or in their heads (according to her) they take it longer to get past that number.

As I grew older, this particular trait of the Malay language continues to intrigue me from time to time. Even simple phrases like 'I love you' seemed longer when translated to 'Saya cintakan awak'. While I'm not certain if her theory was 100% correct, it does provide a food for thought to me.

Anyway, this is just an experiment I wanted to try with the board (and my first time starting a thread in 4-ch). Thank you for your comments and participation.