Re: Numbers (was Re: Ebonic Christmas)

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!"