SOTA?

Charles Doyle cdoyle at UGA.EDU
Thu Mar 22 18:45:00 UTC 2007


I regard NUMBERS as abstractions, the written symbols for which are called "numerals."

As far as I'm aware, the distinction has no particular authority--though I may have picked it up when I was earning a bachelor's degree in mathematics at the University of Texas back in the 1960s.

--Charlie
__________________________________________________________

---- Original message ----
>Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2007 13:49:03 -0400
>From: "Mark A. Mandel" <mamandel at LDC.UPENN.EDU>
>Subject: Re: SOTA?
>
>Wilson wrote:

>"Convert _numeric numbers_ to Roman numbers[sic] and vice versa."

>
>Well, the writer may have a point. *Numeric* numbers consist of numbers, whereas *Roman* numbers are made up of letters.
> <<<<<
>I happened to notice the same usage recently on the SEAsite Tagalog site, belonging to the  Center for Southeast Asian Studies at Northern Illinois University, on their page "Tagalog Greetings and Phrases". Under Numbers
>(http://www.seasite.niu.edu/Tagalog/Tagalog_Homepage99/useful_tagalog_phrases3.htm#NUMBERS)

>they list the cardinal numbers in a table. The column headed "Roman Numeral" contains the familiar digits, which I grew up calling "Arabic numerals": 1, 2, 3,..., 12, 13, 20, 21, 30, 40, and so on. (The other columns show the native Tagalog numbers, the Spanish number loan words that are used as well, and the English.)
>
>-- Mark

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



More information about the Ads-l mailing list