OT: Semitic number games [Was:Numbers in Qthen|gai (and in Tyl Sjok)]

> On Monday, January 10, 2005, at 05:45 , kcasada wrote:
>
> > Hi, my name's Krista Casada; I'm new to this list, and find it
> > fascinating.
>
Hi, Krista and welcome.

[Snip Ray's explanation of numerals in Arabic]

Ray's explanation is accurate as I understand it.  It's interesting to
compare how Arabic manages this challenge (writing left-to-right
numerals in right-to-left text) as compared to Hebrew.  Although both
languages essentially write the integers from left to right, Arabic is
more "Orthodox" about it than Hebrew.  For example, in writing
abbreviated date forms, Arabic writes (assuming it is May 22nd 2005):
2005/5/22
I.e. each of the units "22", "5" and "2005" are written from left to
right, but the three units are ordered from right to left.
Whereas Hebrew writes:
22/5/2005
I.e. the whole sequence is treated as a chunk of numbers and ordered
from left to right.
(Both Hebrew and Arabic follow the European/British order of day - month
- year rather than the American month - day - year).

When writing the years of someone's birth and death, Arabic follows the
same principle, i.e. as one progresses through the Arabic text, reading
from the right of course, one reads ...
Naim Khouri lived 1955 - 2005...
In Hebrew that is also the formal or high status form, and editors will
correct to it, but again you often find such dates ordered as an entire
left to right chunk inside the text.

> > And would somebody please explain to me why we have to
> > use masculine numbers with feminine nouns (and vice versa)
> in Arabic?
> > Please, please, please??? :)
Gender polarity occurs in Hebrew as well as Arabic.  Moreover, there are
complex rules in both languages regarding the form of the noun that
follows these pesky numbers.  In Arabic, for example, the noun may be
singular or plural and in the accusative or dative case.  And in
colloquial Arabic, while most of the gender polarity has vanished, the
old polarized forms live on with a few words that very often occur next
to numbers (days, months).  As for why - there are very long theories
about that but I do not believe there is really an accepted explanation.
I lent out my Arabic grammar that discusses this so I can't give the
references.

> Curiouser and curiouser  :)
Right!

> And how is the decimal point handled in real Arabic notation?
Krista's explanation matches my experience (and I have also never heard
anyone say "four and fifty from a hundred").  I would just add that
fasilah is the regular word for the regular comma in Arabic, which is
indeed "backwards" compared to the Latin comma.  Again, [modern] Hebrew
occupies a middle position, with a "regular" Latin-sized and orientated
comma.  In Hebrew it used to be common to see the comma used instead of
the period in fractions.  Now you see it sometimes in prices on signs in
shops and market stalls but rarely in print and never in anything
official or scientific.


Shaul