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Re: Numbers (was Re: Ebonic Christmas)

From:Jeffrey Henning <jeffrey@...>
Date:Saturday, January 15, 2000, 6:02
On Thu, 13 Jan 2000 19:57:42 -0600, Axiem <axiem@...> wrote on
CONLANG:

 >ObConLang:
> How do you all handle numbers, anyways? Like saying "I have 5 things" >or whatever? Would it be considered an adjective, or article of some >sort? I know Di^me'l uses base 16 numbers, but I'm not sure how to say I >have so many of an object, or even how to count above 10 (base 16)..like >would 11 be (ten)(one) or (one)(ten) or something else?
In Dublex, the numbers are: van duv ter har /shar/ pen sis sem voct nen sir = 0 vansir = 10 des: ten to the power of desvan = 10 desduv = 100 dester = 1000, etc. The number words 0 to 9 are strung together just like digits, so 1999 is vannennennen. The year 2000 is actually duvsirsirsir. Only the second time in the history of the Gregorian calendar that two consecutive years have each ended with three identical digits. The word 'duvdester' actually means "approximately 2000"; you might use it when estimating the number of off-topic e-mails on CONLANG, recently, for example (despite the plea of the first post from the Grey Wizard!). In Dublex, ordinal numbers are typically adjectives: Von muccomunu u pena voc. "I spoke five words." As in English, they are adverbs when modifying adjectives: Pensirtarnatin malcu o vantere dara baner. "America has a thirteen-striped flag." OK, that's a little contrived. Let's try this one: Vone tere dinseta miapmas carasu o tana nascpera bartses. "Our three-year old son loves his baby sister." Cardinals take flight with the prefix ser-. So: servan = first serduv = second serter = third, etc. However, in compounds, the 'ser' is often omitted. So 'vandin' means either "first day" or "one day". The Dublex number roots are the most productive roots in the language -- weekdays, months, hours, letter names, state names (vannatain = "Delaware") and many, many more are based on numeric lists. This is one of the clearest indications that Dublex is a loglang. Regarding base sixteen, I hope someone else will take the time to explain bases to you -- it's fairly simple to explain, and definitely useful for artlangs, but I'm signing off for the night. O saha doin desiru! "Good night (I) wish (you)!" Best regards, Jeffrey Henning http://www.LangMaker.com/dublex/ http://www.Jeffrey.Henning.com/ "If Bill Gates had a nickel for every time Windows crashed.... Oh, wait, he does!"