Numerals in Conlangs (was; The Saharan page (was; Basque article))

On Wed, 11 Aug 1999 17:06:13 -0500 Eric Christopherson
<raccoon@...> writes:
>> Hmm....does anyone's conlang/conculture do stuff like that?
>> The Rokbeigalm have real numerals, which are based on finger-binary,
>>so they don't need to use letters.
>I'm not sure what you mean by finger-binary...
Well, binary is all 1s and 0s.
Finger binary has open-finger for 1, and clenched-finger for 0.

So here goes:

Hold your right hand with your palm facing towards you.

Clench your fist, so that no fingers are sticking out.  That's 0.
Now unfold your thumb.  That's 1.
2 in binary is "10", so fold your thumb back in and stick out your next
finger, the pointer finger.
10+1=11, the binary "3".  So stick your thumb back out again.
4 in binary is "100", so close everything and just stick out your middle
finger (but don't point it at anyone!).
add one for 5, ("101"), so stick out your thumb again.

And it continues like that:
(. = closed, | = open)
(Rokbeigalmki is decimal)

euro-arabic = fingerbinary = approximation of rokbeigalmki
0 = ..... = O
1 = ....| = I (vertical line)
2 = ...|. = b (vertical line with loop at the bottom)
3 = ...|| = U
4 = ..|.. = E without the top horizontal
5 = ..|.| = U with horizontal crossbar
6 = ..||. = F rotated counterclockwise 90 degrees
7 = ..||| = W
8 = .|... = d (like the numeral for 2 backwards)
9 = .|..| = U with double horizontal crossbars

Finger-binary is more compact than just plain counting on your fingers,
since you can get up to 31 with only one hand.


-Stephen (Steg)
  rezaz, sud'...|._.|..|-a tza'giiyal, ...||'ao''le''ro, uz.
 (today is the 29th of Giiyal, 3 FCR)

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