"A Chara, - Kevin Myers (July 1st) is, as he is so often, incorrect when he says that Belgians use the word huitante for 80. Quite apart from the fact that 60 per cent of Belgians actually speak Flemish, and thus say tachtig for 80, even the minority French-speaking community does not use huitante. They say septante for 70 and nonante for 90 but use quatre-vingt for 80, unlike the Frenchspeaking Swiss who do use huitante. The francophone Belgians do, of course, dispense with the cumbersome French quatre-vingt-dix-huit for 98, for example, by using their own word for 90 thus giving nonante-huit. In Ieper (not "Ypres", Mr Myers), where the population is Flemish-speaking, people will, no doubt, understand huitante, as the Flemish are renowned for their linguistic skills, but it certainly does not form part of their language. - Is mise,
Ian Livingstone, Brussels, Belgium.