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Counting system different from base 10 | ||
Tags: Number System | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| tornus Diglot GroupieRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5144 days ago 82 posts - 113 votes  Speaks: French*, English Studies: Spanish, Swedish, Danish | Message 1 of 25 31 January 2011 at 6:57pm | IP Logged | ||
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i'm interested to know if there are language with couting system different from the decimal one most language use.
for those who don't know what is a base 10, it means we use 10 numbers to form all the others (from 0 to 9). so if you count in a base 4 for example, it will reads like: 0,1,2,3,10,11,12,13,20,21,22,23,30,31,32,33,100,101,... my explanation is not really correct, but i wanted it easy to understand For us it seems obvious to count in a base 10 (i was told the reason was human being started counting with their hands, and since we have 10 fingers), and we can't imagine us to count in another base, it'll be too hard but it's not the most logical base there can be: bases 8 and 16 are in my opinion more logical ( i don't pretend i can count in these bases though) since it can easily be divided by 2 several times so if a language use a different base, and i bet it exist, it proves that what sounds logical and indisputable is not that obvious 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5382 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 2 of 25 31 January 2011 at 8:18pm | IP Logged | ||
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French uses partly a base 10 system and a base 20 system. I always assumed the base 20 part was a remnant from Gaelic/Celtic influence.
I know that the Mooré language of Burkina Faso doesn't use a base 10 counting system, but I can't remember if it's based on 20 or 40. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tornus Diglot GroupieRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5144 days ago 82 posts - 113 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Spanish, Swedish, Danish | Message 3 of 25 31 January 2011 at 9:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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no i'm french too, it doesn't have a base 20
i think what you mean is that like in English to say 11 we don't say ten one but eleven, there are exceptions between 10 and 20 when you write numbers you still use the 10 different numbers symbols. or maybe , you imply to say 80 in french, we say 4 times 20 ? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5382 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 4 of 25 31 January 2011 at 9:29pm | IP Logged | ||
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At 60, it goes from 60-1 to 60-19 and then from 80-1 to 80-19. The fact that 4-20 is used to say 80 is also very telling.
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| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5454 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 5 of 25 31 January 2011 at 10:05pm | IP Logged | ||
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In several European languages, including English, there are remnants of an old system based around 12. A dozen is
12; a great hundred or small gross 12 × 10 = 120; a gross 12 × 12 = 144; a great gross 12 × 12 × 12 = 1728. The clock has 12 hours. Beer is often sold in units of 6, 12 or 24 bottles. A foot is 12 inches. Danish has a system based on 20 for the numbers between 50 and 100, a bit similar to the French way of counting. Still, even though there are numbers and units based on 12 or 20, the most fundamental way of counting is base 10 in all these languages. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6152 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 6 of 25 01 February 2011 at 11:07am | IP Logged | ||
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Latin doesn't use base 10, as it can't represent zero.
I,II,III,IV,V,VI,VII,VIII,IX,X,XI,XII Edited by DaraghM on 01 February 2011 at 11:11am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| t123 Diglot Senior Member South Africa https://github.com/t Joined 5612 days ago 139 posts - 226 votes Speaks: English*, Afrikaans | Message 7 of 25 01 February 2011 at 11:57am | IP Logged | ||
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Fleksnes makes fun of Danish Number system: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrGIhrs3HkI
I took a quick look on wikipedia: Base 4: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quaternary_numeral_system Many or all of the Chumashan languages originally used a base 4 counting system, in which the names for numbers were structured according to multiples of 4 and 16 (not 10). There is a surviving list of Ventureño language number words up to 32 written down by a Spanish priest ca. 1819. Base 5: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinary Many languages[1] use quinary number systems, including Gumatj, Nunggubuyu,[2], Kuurn Kopan Noot[3] and Saraveca. Of these, Gumatj is the only true "5–25" language known, in which 25 is the higher group of 5. The Gumatj numerals are shown below:[2] Base 6: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senary The Ndom language of Papua New Guinea is reported to have senary numerals[1]. Mer means 6, mer an thef means 6×2 = 12, nif means 36, and nif thef means 36×2 = 72. Proto-Uralic is also suspected to have used senary numerals Base 8: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octal The Yuki language in California and the Pamean languages[1] in Mexico have octal systems because the speakers count using the spaces between their fingers rather than the fingers themselves.[2] Base 12: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duodecimal (a few) Languages in the Nigerian Middle Belt such as Janji, Gbiri-Niragu (Kahugu), the Nimbia dialect of Gwandara[1]; the Chepang language of Nepal[2] and the Mahl language of Minicoy Island in India are known to use duodecimal numerals. In fiction, J. R. R. Tolkien's Elvish languages used duodecimal. Base 20: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vigesimal (lots) Base 27: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Septemvigesimal It is used in two natural languages, the Telefol language and the Oksapmin language of Papua New Guinea. Base 60: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexagesimal It originated with the ancient Sumerians in the 3rd millennium BC, it was passed down to the ancient Babylonians, and it is still used — in a modified form — for measuring time, angles, and the geographic coordinates that are angles. 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| eumiro Bilingual Octoglot Groupie Germany Joined 5275 days ago 74 posts - 102 votes Speaks: Czech*, Slovak*, French, English, German, Polish, Spanish, Russian Studies: Italian, Hungarian | Message 8 of 25 01 February 2011 at 2:33pm | IP Logged | ||
This is valid in France. The French-speaking Swiss use a more common logic of 'soixante-septante-huitante-nonante' for 60-70-80-90 (similar to most other european languages). 1 person has voted this message useful |
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