Re: Numbers and math

taliesin the storyteller wrote:
>
> A classic question is: how do you count to ten in your conlang?
> Generalizing:
>  - do you form ordinals from cardinals? how? if not, how?
In Mungayöd, ordinals are formed by treating the cardinal as a strange
noun/adjective hybrid and putting it in the genitive case:

kirê - one (the cardinal) (ê - e-circumflex)
iu ruvocha kirê - one camel
iu ruvocha kirêng - the first camel

If it were actually a noun, it would take an article:

iu ruvocha *wi kirêng - the camel *of one

but it's not, because it doesn't make sense.

In Ylank (an isolating language), ordinals are formed by a particle,
which I haven't invented yet.

>  - do you have a zero?
Mungayöd - nope.
Ylank - yes: /nus/

>  - can numbers be negative?
Yes, they're negated just like a sentence is, with the particle "om":

Mungayöd:
khang - 5
om khang - negative 5

Ylank: don't know.

>  - fractions? percentiles? if it's not a decimal system, is there
>    something instead of percentiles?
Not yet.

Ylank has a base-12 number system, but I haven't developed it well
enough yet.

--
Daniel Seriff
microtonal@sericap.com
http://members.tripod.com/microtonal

Si iterum insanum me appelles, oculum alterum tuum edem.