07-15-2014, 02:57 PM | #31 | ||
GURPS FAQ Keeper
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Kyïv, Ukraine
|
Re: [Basic] Learning languages
Quote:
Quote:
|
||
07-15-2014, 03:29 PM | #32 | |
Join Date: Jun 2006
|
Re: [Basic] Learning languages
Quote:
It is sort of odd there aren't languages that group words for larger quantities by dozens or scores rather than tens.
__________________
-- MA Lloyd |
|
07-15-2014, 04:26 PM | #33 |
GURPS FAQ Keeper
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Kyïv, Ukraine
|
Re: [Basic] Learning languages
Oh, and there are languages that use binary numbers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumbainggar_language (I'm pretty sure there was a scientific journal listed as a source when I first saw this; maybe it was another language) http://www.ancient-origins.net/news-...-mathematician |
07-15-2014, 08:19 PM | #34 | |
Join Date: Jun 2008
|
Re: [Basic] Learning languages
Gumbaynggir is a language which has been brought back from the dead, so it's not a great example. Mark Rosenfelder has produced an exhaustive list of numbers from 1-10 in languages from all over the world, and cites two sources - Dixon & Blake's Handbook of Australian Languages, published 1979, for the Gumbaynggir words for "one" and "two", and "W.E. Smuth 1948" for the principle behind the numbers three through six.
I can't find any W.E. Smuth (or similar), and the citation of Dixon & Blake is questioned by the Swadesh list collected by the Rosetta project and put into the public domain on the Internet Archive which suggests there's more to this story which was lost when the language all but died off. Quote:
e: The Mangareva example only applies to numbers between 10 and 80, which are more malleable in general. (Once you get above 20 you're already working with more than there are usable appendages on the human body.) ee: I just realised how far off track we've gotten with this. I'm not going to discuss this anymore, in the interests of serving the actual topic. Last edited by Ketsuban; 07-15-2014 at 08:31 PM. |
|
Tags |
basic, languages, learning |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|