Re: Telona number system

Mike Ellis wrote:

> Jonathan Knibb wrote:
>
> >Rather than give the whole system of rules, maybe it would be more fun
> >just to list the first few numbers and let people work it out.
> <snip>
>
> Quite the system! I've managed to discover the rules: 1-13, and 15 and 17,
> have their own names.
Quite the system, indeed!  I'm math-challenged, but here are some minor
additional comments:

> Postposed _ala_ means "times two", _efen_ "times three", _ilcur_ "times
> four", and _ilku_ "times five". There is also one instance of _eldena_
> which means "times six".
and eso 'x7', ildivi 'x9' and alta 'x10'-- these only co-occur with ca in
29, 37, 41 resp.

>The "phonological alternations" you mentioned are
> evident in these words: ra - ala, pen - efen, sur - ilcur, chu - ilku.
I think there's also vowel harmony of sorts:  if the *2 multiplier prefix is
/Vl-/ (with affect on the following cons.), the V = i before base /i,u/, =e
before /e,o/ and =a before /a/

The primes involve some modification too:
22: lali ala 23 ru [allali] (reverse base -multiplier)
46: [ru allàli 23] alá *2  47: ru [ilu alláli] (add mult.-- Vl-ru allali?)
30: vami ala  31 ru [alvami](reversed)
21: co efen (7*3)   43 ru [eso efén] (Vl-co efen)
The various accents may be relevant.

Actually in case of allali and alvami and ildivi it's unclear whether it's
ru [mult-X] or ru [X ala reversed> Vl-X]-- it seems to work either way here.
But the rule does seem to be "add the multiplier Vl- to the whole term" in
43 and 47.

> This takes care of most of the numbers.
> The leftovers follow some odd rules. _ru_ seems to mean a function 2x+1:
> _ru ildivi_ "two times divi (9), plus one" is 19; _ru alvami_ "two times
> vami (15), plus one" is 31, etc.
Both ru and ca seem to serve only to create primes.

There are also compounds with _ru_:
> 38 - ru ildìvi alá = ("ru" 9) times two
I veiw this as [ru ildivi 19]*2
> 43 - ru eso efén = "ru" 21 [21 being _co efen_]
> 46 - ru allàli alá = ("ru" 11) times two
This is [ru allàli 23] ala*2 by my figuring...cf. 47....

> Another function is found in _ca_, which is 4x+1: _ca ildivi_ "four times
> divi (9), plus one".
I find that especially neat. ca eso 4*7 +1,  ca alta 4 *10 +1.  But would 53
by ca [Vl-tedith] 4*13+1or ru [tedith ala 26 or whatever it transforms to]
2*26+1?

> So all that is left is 25, _chu ede_. Since _chu_ is 5, I'd guess this is
> simply "five squared".
So it seems. Presumably 49 would be co ede, et seq.  But would 100 be tha
ede? or something based on 25 or maybe 20-- chu alta?

Would the structure of the terms be significant? generally [larger named
factor, 7-12 13 15 17] times multiplier (Vl- plus smaller units 1-6, 9--
maybe 7, 10 in eso, alta though they only occur with ca).  Is it possible to
multiply by the larger factors too?-- how would one do 13*17 (well, ru [110]
would be one way, if we knew 100)
>
> >(And who can tell me what 1918 comes to in this system?  :)) )
>
> I can't figure that one out. Or perhaps I can with more time, but I really
> want to post this first!
If we don't know 100, how can we find 1000? keep us posted. (Is this even a
base-10 system, necessarily?) If by chance it's base-12, the year is '1918'
is113A, but that still doesn't help.

This system is truly wild.  Perhaps I'll do something similar for the old
Gwr base-8 system.

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