Re: number bases (was without subject)

On Tue, 13 Jan 2004, David Zitzelsberger wrote:

> If this is true for such a wide area, where did the arabics come up with
> base 10?
>
> Also I believe the Babylonias (I fairly sure the Egyptians) had a seven-day
> week because of the number of wanderers (greek word is planet) in the
> heavens.
> Planet  English Spainish
> Sun             Sunday
> Moon            Monday  Lunes
> Mars            Tuesday Martes
> Mercury Wednesday       Miercoles
> Jupiter Thursday        Jueves
> Venus           Friday  Viernes
> Saturn  Saturday        Sabado
>
> More of the roots are visible in Spainish.
>
> Tuesday was named after Tiw - god of war, so it's mars in a norse setting
> Wednesday was named after Odin - god mixed up there.
> Thursday was named after Thor - god of thunder, just like Jupiter was in
> charge of in addition to being chief god.
> Friday was named after Freya - goddess of love, so its venus in a norse
> setting
Well, no, they were named after Tiw, Woden, Þunor (admittedly influenced
by Þor i.e. Thor), and Frig, who would've become Tew/Tue, Woden (or
Wooden?), Thunder and Fry had they survived (oddies are due to i-mutation
in genetives, e.g. Woden -> Wedenes). Minor technicality, but English
Isn't Old Norse.

--
Tristan.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mark J. Reed [mailto:markjreed@MAIL.COM]
> Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2004 11:17 AM
> To: CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU
> Subject: Re: number bases (was without subject)
>
> Undoubtedly, although most of the ones I know have the same
> predisposition to base 12.  This is no doubt due to the influence
> of the ancient Babylonians, who I believe had two counting systems,
> base 12 and base 60 (which adds five to the list of factors).
> This is why we have 360 degrees in a circle, 60 seconds in each of
> 60 minutes of both arc and time, a 12-hour clock, etc.  And
> in ancient Rome units were divided up into twelfths for convenience;
> our word "ounce" comes from "uncia" which means 1/12, and in the
> Troy system a pound is indeed 12 ounces, although in the avoirdupois
> system it has grown to 16, matching the 16 fluid ounces in an (American
> and old British wine) pint, which is supposed to be hold a pound of water
> and is where the whole idea of a "fluid ounce" comes from.
>
> Wow.  Let me catch my breath after that run-on.  Whew.
>
> On the other hand, those same ancient Babylonians also gave us the seven-day
> week, which is a prime number.  Go figure.
>
> -Mark
>
--
Tristan