Re: numbers as letters

Mark J. Reed wrote:
>> > A more interesting system IMO was proposed by G. de Kolvorat in 1927 in
>> > which all the numbers from 00 through to 99 are represented by a single
>> > CV syllable, beginning with _ba_ = 00 and ending with _zu_ = 99.
>
>
> OK, so ba = 00 and zu = 99.  Given that 05 is ca, I assume that 01
> through 04 are be, bi, bo, bu.
Correct.

> Since there are 21 consonant letters,
> one must be skipped to arrive at Z for 95-99.  I would have expected C
> to be the one skipped, but evidently not.  So which is?  J?
Nope - it's Q.

I don't know why he chose to omit Q rather than anything else. Do
Kolovrat published this system in what I assume was a pamphlet  "Les
cent syllabes" (Nice, 1927) - I've never the document, only read reports
of the system. As he wrote in French one might have expected him to have
omitted W which IIRC was not considered a letter of the "French
alphabet" at the time. But he didn't - wa, we, we, wo, wu = 80, 81, 82,
83, 84.

I assume they were meant to be pronounced and 5 to 9 would not be
pronounced the same as 35 to 39, but what phonetic values he assigned to
initial _c_, _j_ and _x_ I do not know, though I guess _j_ was /Z/ in
the French fashion.

--
Ray
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