Re: Counting on fingers (was: Re: [CONLANG] A question regarding dictionary entries)

On 8/1/07, Benct Philip Jonsson <conlang@...> wrote:
> Roger Mills skrev:
> > Sylvia Sotomayor wrote:
> >
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> I am redesigning my dictinary for Kelen (yet again), and
> >> I am planning on having short glosses (one word, maybe
> >> two) for each stem or base word, and also longer
> >> definitions for each fully formed and inflected word. My
> >> question: given that Kelen has a base 8 counting system,
> >> should I gloss 'āllōr' as 32 or 40? It has the
> >> functional equivalent of 40 in the language, being 8x4,
> >> but refers to 32 things.
> >>
> > I'd suggest you insert an explanatory comment, like:
> > "āllōr forty (base 8 = 32 base 10)" That will prevent
> > IMO any confusion/mistakes on the part of the reader.
> >
> > I sometimes have the same problem with Gwr, even though
> > they adopted the decimal system quite some time ago. But
> > some old ways persist.
> >
> >
>
> Do Kelen and/or Gwr speakers have only four fingers, or do
> they not use their thumbs when counting?
>
> I have thought about how octal and duodecimal counting may
> arise in a language of five-fingered humans thru either
> not using the thumbs when counting, or adding the palms to
> get six positions on each hand. I winder if there is
> natlang attestation of such systems. The only duodecimal-
> counting human community I know of are type-cutters and
> -setters, allegedly because a base 12 system offers more
> dividends than a base 10 syystem (1 2 3 4 6 12 against
> only (1 2 5 10).
>
> /BP 8^)>
Actually, the Kelen do have only four digits per hand. I'm not sure if
it's the middle finger and the ring finger that have fused*, or the
ring finger and the pinky.
-S

*not necessarily biologically true, though I do posit that the Kelen
come originally from human stock.
--
Sylvia Sotomayor
terjemar@gmail.com
www.terjemar.net