Re: Ebisedian number system (I)

On Wed, 17 Jul 2002 13:21:08 -0700 JS Bangs <jaspax@...>
writes:
> Steg Belsky sikyal:
> > Well, Hebrew (and Arabic, if i remember correctly) multiples of 10
> are plural in form:
> > 20 `esrim
> > 30 sheloshim
> > 40 arba`im
> > 50 hhamishim
> > etc.
> > with the |-im| masculine plural ending.
> Is this like the Romanian practice of writing "30" (for example) as
> _treizeci_ "three tens" ?  That's clearly something else.  I don't
> know
> Hebrew, but trying to parse the forms it doesn't look like it.
> Jesse S. Bangs jaspax@u.washington.edu
> http://students.washington.edu/jaspax/
-

From what i can tell, the numbers mean literally something like 20 "tens"
(note: *not* a dual), 30 "threes", 40 "fours", 50 "fives" all the way up
to 90 "nines".


-Stephen (Steg)
 "There is darkness all around us;
  but if darkness *is*, and the darkness is of the forest,
  then the darkness must be good."
     ~ song of the BaMbuti in troubled times