Re: Numbers in Qthen|gai (and in Tyl Sjok) [long]

On Tuesday, January 11, 2005, at 02:26 , kcasada wrote:

> Ray,
> I am told by them that know better (being BAD at decimals myself) that a
> number such as 9.54 would be written 9,54 (except that the comma is
> "backwards") and read "nine fasilah four and fifty" where "fasilah" is the
> word for the backwards comma.
So I guessed correctly about the comma - even tho it's reversed   :)

But it is read in reverse order to direction writing, except the 'four and
forty'. So the number after the comma is read the same as an 'ordinary'
number rather as if we were to say "nine point fifty four". I guess that
if we had, say, 27,182 it would be read 'seven and twenty fasilah one
hundred and two and eighty'.

> I then asked whether a person could actually say
> something closer to "fifty-four hundredths,"
Which would be more logical - but then we do not do that either!

> and was told that you COULD say
> "fasilah four and fifty from a hundred" but "Nobody ever does that."
> Go figure. I love this language.
Yes - maybe it is about time I learnt Arabic properly   :)

Ray
===============================================
http://home.freeuk.com/ray.brown
ray.brown@freeuk.com
===============================================
Anything is possible in the fabulous Celtic twilight,
which is not so much a twilight of the gods
as of the reason."      [JRRT, "English and Welsh" ]