Christophe Grandsire wrote:
>En réponse à Andreas Johansson <and_yo@...>:
>
> >
> > Speaking of bases, I assume that those languages that only have words
> > for
> > numbers up to three or so don't use any base at all. Now, does anyone
> > know
> > what the highest named number is among langs that don't use bases?
> >
>
>It depends what you mean by base. Base in a mathematical definition has
>nothing
>to do with language but with the way to represent numbers.
Now, one of the many functions of language is to represent numbers.
>Bases in languages
>are the "root" numbers used to count. For instance, French uses both base
>10
>and base 20 (for numbers until 16 and for numbers from 60 until 99). Port-
>Essington, a language of Tasmania, has only numbers until 4, but it counts
>them
>as 1, 2, 2+1, 4. Base 2?
That'd clearly be base two.
Andreas
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