From: jcowan@reutershealth.com
Date: Wed Apr 28 2004 - 14:41:40 EDT
Peter Kirk scripsit:
> Not true, I think. I understand the Arabs and Persians write their
> numbers in opposite orders, I can't remember which is which.
The evidence on the list is that persophones write numbers by
skipping the right amount of space to the right and then writing the
number L2R and most significant digit first. We have heard rumors of
arabophones writing numbers R2L and least significant digit first, but
no one has stepped forward to say that that is how they personally do it.
In any case, Unicode encodes all numbers most significant digit first, and
there is no case of digits written L2R and least significant digit first.
> See also http://www.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/n2746, Final proposal for
> encoding the Phoenician script in the UCS, which shows most significant
> digits to the right, corresponding to most significant digit being
> written first in the writing direction..
This is not on all fours, because it is a Roman-numeral-style system rather
than positional decimal notation; order is not fundamental to meaning.
-- John Cowan jcowan@reutershealth.com http://www.ccil.org/~cowan http://www.reutershealth.com Thor Heyerdahl recounts his attempt to prove Rudyard Kipling's theory that the mongoose first came to India on a raft from Polynesia. --blurb for Rikki-Kon-Tiki-Tavi
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