χαίρετε ὦ σόφοι
I am speculating about how the Greeks wrote numbers. My grammar is not much help in that regard.
I understand they used the letters, but I am not quite sure how the system works. Are Greek numeralia like the Roman numeralia?
Specifically, I want to write 20.307. What would that be?
Thanks
Numeralia Graeca: 20307?
-
- Textkit Enthusiast
- Posts: 603
- Joined: Tue Sep 23, 2003 11:42 pm
- Location: Cambridge
-
- Textkit Enthusiast
- Posts: 360
- Joined: Thu Sep 23, 2004 6:12 pm
-
- Textkit Enthusiast
- Posts: 603
- Joined: Tue Sep 23, 2003 11:42 pm
- Location: Cambridge
yes, '20, 307' = 20307. my Grk numbers are the same as yours (a mark should be added after the tau, i forgot), however i was under the impression that a myriad (i.e. 10,000) was represented by mere iota: this seems to not to be accurate. instead 20,000 was represented by a capital M with a beta written above. 20,307 would thus be μ(with βabove)τ’ζ’.
~D
~D
-
- Textkit Enthusiast
- Posts: 360
- Joined: Thu Sep 23, 2004 6:12 pm
Thanks again,
Would you then have an α above the μ (short for μύριοι, I suppose) to multiply by one and a γ to multiply it by three et cetera?
Difficult to represent on a computer though.
I read that ,α is 1000 - perhaps ,κ is 20000 then.
If that is correct, another way around the 20307 is
,κτ'ζ'
It's my student number by the way
I guess the main differences between the Roman and Greek systems are that the Greeks only add and that they have more letters: in fact a letter for each of our numbers 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 and multipla thereof by 10, 100 and 1000.
Would you then have an α above the μ (short for μύριοι, I suppose) to multiply by one and a γ to multiply it by three et cetera?
Difficult to represent on a computer though.
I read that ,α is 1000 - perhaps ,κ is 20000 then.
If that is correct, another way around the 20307 is
,κτ'ζ'
It's my student number by the way
I guess the main differences between the Roman and Greek systems are that the Greeks only add and that they have more letters: in fact a letter for each of our numbers 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 and multipla thereof by 10, 100 and 1000.
-
- Textkit Neophyte
- Posts: 9
- Joined: Fri Jun 10, 2005 12:59 pm
- Location: Greece
Hi everyone!
Amans, what you say is almost correct, with one mistake though.
The Greeks did use -as you mention- a different letter for numbers 1,2,3..,10 BUT they also used a different letter for each of 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 and 100, as well as for each x-hundred, up to 900. Then, they reapeated the alphabet from the begining (for 1000 onwards), changing the accent (1000 = ,α).
For example, to represent the number 50 they would use the letter μ΄(mi) or for 200 the letter σ΄(sigma) -with the accent on the top right.
345 wouled be notated as τ΄λ΄ε΄ (tau, lamda, epsilon).
They did not apply subtraction of the leftmost letters like the Romans.
Anyway, that's the arithmetic notation system in classical antiquity, i.e. 500 BC onwards. I don't know if other notation systems were used beforehand or in parallel. I also don't know if they used special letters or symbols for the myriad (10,000) or the million. :?:
Amans, what you say is almost correct, with one mistake though.
The Greeks did use -as you mention- a different letter for numbers 1,2,3..,10 BUT they also used a different letter for each of 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 and 100, as well as for each x-hundred, up to 900. Then, they reapeated the alphabet from the begining (for 1000 onwards), changing the accent (1000 = ,α).
For example, to represent the number 50 they would use the letter μ΄(mi) or for 200 the letter σ΄(sigma) -with the accent on the top right.
345 wouled be notated as τ΄λ΄ε΄ (tau, lamda, epsilon).
They did not apply subtraction of the leftmost letters like the Romans.
Anyway, that's the arithmetic notation system in classical antiquity, i.e. 500 BC onwards. I don't know if other notation systems were used beforehand or in parallel. I also don't know if they used special letters or symbols for the myriad (10,000) or the million. :?:
-
- Textkit Neophyte
- Posts: 9
- Joined: Fri Jun 10, 2005 12:59 pm
- Location: Greece
for a detailed description, look at:
http://ptolemy.tlg.uci.edu/~opoudjis/un ... erals.html
http://ptolemy.tlg.uci.edu/~opoudjis/un ... erals.html
-
- Textkit Neophyte
- Posts: 9
- Joined: Fri Jun 10, 2005 12:59 pm
- Location: Greece
this one is much more understandable
http://anubis.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/n1938.pdf
http://anubis.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/n1938.pdf
-
- Textkit Enthusiast
- Posts: 444
- Joined: Mon Aug 23, 2004 8:49 pm