Re: Types of numerals; bases in natlangs.

Hi!

John Vertical <johnvertical@...> writes:
> Henrik Theiling wrote:
> >No, the exponent defaults to one.
>
> Really? So kjox ling ling ling = 11.1??
Exactly! :-)

Not-so-math-aware people will probably use a separating 'wng' to
re-sync the exponent at the decimal point, I suppose...

>...
> >If the base is not agreed on, the first used base must be in the long
> >form, using the verb 'to take the power of' explicitly.  This verb is
> >'il':
> >
> >     kul il kjok == 10^2 = 100
>
> Ah, so numbers are phonemically different when used as a base and when
> used as a digit?? That definitely clears the system up a lot.
Phonemically?  What?  Any word is pronounced exactly the same.  'il'
is another word that is usually dropped.

> >Because the exponent is agreed on when using the short number form,
> >'kjox kul kjox hen' this can only mean:
> >
> >   3*10^20
>
> What exactly is "short form"? Anything that omits something?
The short form of a number is without 'il' (exponentiation) and 'wng'
(sum) particles.

>...
> Anyway, I think this is quite a fine system; not any less simple than
> natlangs, but definitely more powerful. I also guess it'd make
> mathematics seem easier - at least with a constant base (is there some
> cultural reason for multi-basing anyway?)
No conculture, but I usually plan the languages to be used in various
different environments.  In normal human life, there are situation
when other bases that ten are used, so I introduced them.  Currently,
the language has numbers up to sixteen, and for telling the time (ie.,
quite a common situation not overly technical), they are indeed used
up to sixteen.  (And the langer digits may always be used when telling
just one digit.)

If you are interested in the details, see here:

http://www.kunstsprachen.de/s2/grammar2.ps.gz   (original PostScript)
http://www.kunstsprachen.de/s2/grammar2.pdf     (PDF converted file)

Chapter 9: Numbers, pp. 67ff

**Henrik

--
Relay 13 is forthcoming:
http://www.conlang.info/relay/relay13.html

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