constructed counting systems?

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appakling
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constructed counting systems?

Post by appakling »

does anyone make constructed counting systems?
I know that Jan Misali did once:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qID2B4MK7Y0
and the Kaktovic numerals exist-
but are there others?
-- appak /æpæk/
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eldin raigmore
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Re: constructed counting systems?

Post by eldin raigmore »

Look up Janko Gorenc’s posts for several hundred positive answers.
Khemehekis
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Re: constructed counting systems?

Post by Khemehekis »

You mean like sheep-counting? Kankonian has a 1-20 sheep counting vocabulary, borrowed from Disque:

1 kan
2 man
3 pali
4 mali
5 brosa
6 prega
7 kwega
8 tinta
9 ninta
10 skwosa
11 skwokan
12 skwoman
13 skwopali
14 skwomali
15 skwobrosa
16 skwoprega
17 skwokwega
18 skwotinta
19 skwoninta
20 lallipau
♂♥♂♀

Squirrels chase koi . . . chase squirrels

My Kankonian-English dictionary: 86,336 words and counting

31,416: The number of the conlanging beast!
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Torco
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Re: constructed counting systems?

Post by Torco »

oh, man, the youtube conlang sphere! misali's fun.

you may mean bases. as in, base 10, base 12 <dozenal>, base 6 <sexymal>, base 1 <binary>, etcetera. I think most low integer bases have names: trinary, quaternary, quinary, etcetera. there are also non-positional ways to deal with numbers (which were, actually, the rule up until relatively recently in human history: see roman numerals). indeed the positional system of numbers is, to people not taught it from infancy, quite weird, since it requires zero, and also it means that extremely different numbers (i.e. 1, 11 and 101) be written very very similarly, perhaps confusingly similar.

yes, people have tried what I think must be every integer base for their conlangs, as far as I can tell, up to like 25 or something. I've also seen conlangs with mixed radixes. non-integer bases, though, I haven't seen (though there probably are a few).

That being said, there are other meanings of counting systems, such as ways to count on fingers (for example, using phalanxes instead of fingers, or using the thumb as one would use the upper deck of an abacus). for example, a culture that counts in their mind up to three <quite an easy feat>, and everytime they reach 3 place their index on the next phalanx (the order could be first phalanx pinky, second phalanx pinkie, third phalanx pinkie, first phalanx ring finger, etc etc), so they can count to 36 on one hand.

you find yourself in the ancient part of the internet, it has been here before the deep magic of social media was invented, and, thus, has its own lore: part of that lore is Janko, who collects numbers in both constructed and natural languages. god bless him, I don't know where his webpage is now, or if it remains in existence, since alphabet killed googlesites... a cautionary tale, kids, never trust "the cloud". it's what IT guys say to computer illiterate normies to get them to give away their money *and* their data both.
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appakling
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Re: constructed counting systems?

Post by appakling »

thank you everyone! [:D]
-- appak /æpæk/
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