UniLang

Niltze ,

Is there any reform for the nahuatl numerical system to render it practical?
Lots of numbers need a mathematical calculation to find the multiples of 20 , 400 , ... which cannot be done instantly .

1999 :
- Nahuatl : (4 x 400 + 19 x 20 + 19) : nahui-centzotli-huan-caxtollin-nahui-cempolli-huan-caxtollin-nahui
or : four (four hundreds) and (fifteen and four) twenties and fifteen and four .

- English : (1000 + 900 + 99 ) : One thousand nine hundred ninety nine .

There's not any need to make it more practical... Our numbers simply happen to use base 10 while Nahuatl's use base 20. The only problem that arises is when you want to compare them, so 1999 becomes 4.19.19.

I know I already have some good knowledge of the Nahuatl language, and I should have a good answer for this, but the truth is hahaha, that I don't. I'm afraid of numbers in some languages, including Nahuatl, and actually, sadly, Nahua native speakers nowadays usually say quantities in Spanish Except maybe for the first 10 numbers... I hope somebody can help you with this.

how is it hard[except when converting]‹{Okay big exception},
Curious that 20 seams to be common across the continent.

Vigesimal counting systems are not that rare even in Europe and Asia. Basque is vigesimal, for instance. So is Burushaski.

vijayjohn wrote:Vigesimal counting systems are not that rare even in Europe and Asia. Basque is vigesimal, for instance. So is Burushaski.

Not to mention that even in Romance (and even Germanic) languages you have remnants of vigesimal all over the place.