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From: Pierre Abbat <phma@bezitopo.org>
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Date: Sat, 25 Oct 2014 19:05:29 -0400
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On Friday, October 24, 2014 23:36:18 Zilong Lee wrote:
> I'm a native Mandarin speaker. In East Asia, we have different number
> scales than the West, especially when the number gets bigger than 10
> thousand, we use another word, namely '=E8=90=AC/=E4=B8=87(wan4)' in Chin=
ese, '=EB=A7=8C/=E8=90=AC(man)' in
> Korean and '=E4=B8=87'(man) in Japanese(I'm not sure whether it exists in=
 other
> East Asian languages like Vietnamese and Mongolian, etc.), instead of
> keeping using thousand. So to a Chinese/Korean/Japanese ear, '17 thousand=
'
> sounds very confusing.
>=20
> If Lojban is truly culturally neutral, I think we should have an equivale=
nt
> word of 10-thousand. Is it already there? or that it has never been thoug=
ht
> about?

I don't know if any Lojbanist has thought about it, but East Asia is not th=
e=20
only place where this system has been used. Ancient Greek used the myriadic=
=20
system. Aramaic (and probably also Hebrew, the words are cognate) also used=
=20
the myriadic system; the number in Revelation 9:16 is =CE=B4=CF=85=CE=BF =
=CE=BC=CF=85=CF=81=CE=B9=CE=B1=CE=B4=CE=B5=CF=82 =CE=BC=CF=85=CF=81=CE=B9=
=CE=B1=CE=B4=CF=89=CE=BD=20
(with lots of variations, some dropping "two") in Greek and =D7=AA=D7=A8=D7=
=AA=D7=99=D7=9F =D7=A8=D7=91=D7=95 =D7=A8=D7=91=D7=95=D7=9F=20
(tarteyn rebu rebwan) in Aramaic, both meaning "two myriad myriads". Modern=
=20
Greek, though, uses =CE=B5=CE=BA=CE=B1=CF=84=CE=BF=CE=BC=CE=BC=CF=85=CF=81=
=CE=B9=CE=BF (hundred myriad) for million and bases the=20
words for bigger numbers on that.

Among the six source languages, there's another that uses a different syste=
m.=20
Hindi and other Indic languages have words for ten times the powers of a=20
hundred: hazar, lakh, crore, abaj, sankh. A big number is written as=20
4,29,49,67,296.

Pierre
--=20
La sal en el mar es m=C3=A1s que en la sangre.
Le sel dans la mer est plus que dans le sang.

--=20
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