#base-20

[everydayesterday]

I think I’ve posted this before, but there was just an article published in Scientific American that’s behind a paywall and basically just repeats what’s below.  What fascinates me is how the math is done using the numerals.  

Anchorage Daily News, 2022-11-06:

Almost 30 years ago, a group of Kaktovik students invented a numbering system that reflected the way they counted in Iñupiaq and made math more intuitive for them. Soon, anyone in the world will be able to type Kaktovik numerals on a computer. [...]  

Most countries use the Hindu-Arabic base-10 numbering system where numbers range from 0 to 9. But in Iñupiaq — as well as other Inuit and Yup’ik languages — the numbers go from 0 to 19, which makes it a base-20 system. [...]  

"The Iñupiaq word for the number 20 is iñuiññaq, which represents a whole person," Judkins said. "You have all 20 appendages — your 10 fingers and your 10 toes. A lot of the classroom activities that we use now with this numbering system is in relation to those body parts and those appendages." [...]

Kaktovik students came up with digits from zero through 19, composed of straight strokes joined at sharp angles that you can write without lifting a pen. [...]

“We didn’t want them to look like any other numbers,” Solomon said. “It was our whole math class that did it together.” [...]

[ifeellikeapieceofcake]

Can you count in Vigesimal numbers?

[dedalvs]

Hi I am sure you get a lot of questions but I just wanted your opinion I am working on an original language for a species I created and recently came up with the words for the numbers 1- enna 2- diem 3- suda 4- tresa 5- lesem 6- cetra 7- sieve 8- solus 9- nelem 10- jhet 11- ennana 12- enna diem Etc. 20- diem jhet or 2 tens 0- nuan Does that look right? Or could I do something different?

You can do any number of things when it comes to creating numerical systems. Right now, the system you have is a base-10 system with a slightly irregular form for 11. This is approximately equivalent to Korean’s number system, if I remember right, except Korean’s has a regular formation for 11, as well. So, the short answer, is, yes, this works. It’s not the only thing that could be done by a long shot, though. Other base ten systems (like English’s, for example) are less compositional (our words for 11 and 12 are irregular), and there are plenty of languages that use bases other than 10—and mixtures of bases. For example, one common method is to use base-20 with the numerals 1-20 and then switch to base-10 thereafter. French is even more bizarre, using base-10 up to 60, and then base-20 thereafter up to 100. To take a look at how counting in different bases works, I recommend this site, which I use all the time to calculate numerals for Castithan, Irathient and Indojisnen, which use base-20, base-20 and base-7 systems, respectively.

Of course, of the many, many things you could do, the only thing that really matter is what you want to do. It is your language, after all. :)