Re: Numbers and math

I wrote:
> tal asked:
>
> > Generalizing:
> >  - do you form ordinals from cardinals? how? if not, how?
>
> Ordinal is a verb, formed adding verb suffix (-i in infinitive, -e
in
> indicative) to the cardinal...
> Well, not that simple: "first" is not derived from any cardinal and
> the n-th cardinal use n-1 cardinal as root:
>   2nd: reye
>   3rd: rawe
>   4th: rawete
>     etc.
> For short hand you write the number followed with -i/-e
(superscribed
> if you want).
>   2nd = 1e
>   3rd = 2e
>   4th = 3e
I wonder, is there any natlang that has this kind of way for deriving
ordinals?  I don't thing it is too counter intuitive, since the root
reflexes how many elements are there before the current one, and not
how many are there including the current one.  Actually this is based
in the way C manages ordinals (subindexes) in arrays, where the n-th
element is [n-1].

-- Carlos Th