Other bases (was: Re: OT-ish: txt - Could it replace Standard Written English?)

 --- Stephen Mulraney <ataltanie@...> wrote:
> On Friday, Mar 07, Seven deety-three CE at eleven
> twenty-ee deeteen
....
> Still, as Tristan noted, the decimal place words
> (-teen, hundred,
> thousand) are rather incongruous. Forms like
> "deeteen" (see the very
> first line of this message) are very odd.
When I was about 14, I invented an English way to say
base 12 numbers, with just a few modifications of the
english base 10 system:
Instead of eleven, eless (eleven derives from Old
English endleofan, "one left over")
Instead of -ty as in thirty, -twy (so thirtwy is 30
base 12, 12*3 = 36)
Instead of hundred, hunda [hUnd@] for 100 base 12
(12*12 = 144)
Instead of thousand, thund [thund] for 100 base 12
(12*12*12 = 1728)
(I think instead of -teen as in thirteen I had -tween
(so thirtween would be 13 base 12, 12+3 = 15), but I'm
not sure.  I may just have used twelve-three.)


There were also some other simplifications and
reductions in combined forms.  Here are some numbers:
(Numbers till ten as ing English)
twentwy = 12*2
thritwy = 12*3 (more like three-twy than thirtwy is)
fortwy = 12*4
...
sentwy = 12*7 (reduced)

tentwy = 12*10
elssstwy = 12*11

I also invented a way to count to 12 on the fingers of
one hand, which is used by the speakers of Old
Starrish.  I use it quite often too, since using two
hands I can count to 144, and I find it a convinient
anc comfortable system.

Rachel

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