Re: Counting in Toono

>Interesting system.  I've never heard of a base-9 system, and especially
>not with this system! 1, 2, 3, 4, 9-4, 9-3, 9-2, 9-1, 9 - fascinating.
It's based on the "balanced ternary" system discussed by Donald Knuth,
which has the digits 0, 1, and -1. Negation is just a matter of flipping
the digits, and so on. I worked out a hand-based counting system (based on
the gaps between the fingers) to go with the numbers, but I'm not sure how
to document it. I should probably scan in my little cartoon hands or
something.

It's not than unworkable a system, I think, once you get used to it.

You can do a base-10 variation, but it's much nicer with an odd base,
because you want to have the same number of positive and negative digits on
either side of the zero.

Do you think that it's just _too_ bizarre for a naturalistic artlang?
Numbering feels consciously artificial enough to me that having a weird
number system doesn't bother me too much.

  -- David
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