Who decided?

[catalyst2]

How come we call 1909 nineteen-oh-nine but 2009 as two thousand and nine? And suddenly it's 2010 and twenty-ten, not two thousand and ten? And how come 2000 was two thousand not twenty hundred?

Comments

[innerbrat]

Because they all sound weird and English speakers collectively decided... no.

Or rather, they were selected against by the survival of the sounding-best.

[catalyst2.livejournal.com]

Darwinian selection by phonetic appeal? I like the sound of that - see what I did there? ;-)