Return-Path: Received: by snark.thyrsus.com (/\==/\ Smail3.1.21.1 #21.19) id ; Fri, 31 Jan 92 09:55 EST Received: by cbmvax.cbm.commodore.com (5.57/UUCP-Project/Commodore 2/8/91) id AA04850; Fri, 31 Jan 92 09:31:58 EST Received: from cunixf.cc.columbia.edu by relay2.UU.NET with SMTP (5.61/UUNET-internet-primary) id AA14600; Fri, 31 Jan 92 09:30:40 -0500 Received: from cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu by cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (5.59/FCB) id AA05600; Fri, 31 Jan 92 09:28:10 EST Message-Id: <9201311428.AA05600@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> Received: from CUVMB.COLUMBIA.EDU by CUVMB.COLUMBIA.EDU (IBM VM SMTP R1.2.1) with BSMTP id 3374; Fri, 31 Jan 92 09:24:38 EST Received: by CUVMB (Mailer R2.07) id 6231; Fri, 31 Jan 92 09:24:07 EST Date: Fri, 31 Jan 1992 06:17:43 -0500 Reply-To: Logical Language Group Sender: Lojban list From: Logical Language Group Subject: digits X-To: lojban@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu To: John Cowan , Eric Raymond , Eric Tiedemann Status: RO X-From-Space-Date: Fri Jan 31 09:55:07 1992 X-From-Space-Address: cbmvax!uunet!CUVMA.BITNET!LOJBAN The Lojban digits are 1 pa 2 re 3 ci 4 vo 5 mu 6 xa (x is velar fricative ch of loch) 7 ze 8 bi 9 so 0 no The 10 digits indeed differ in inital consonant, and in addition, 1-9 have a rotating cycle of vowels. The 6 hex digits also have 6 diffiernet consonants, but overlap the basic 10, so we merely made sure they are in alphabetical order. They also use a rotation of 3 diphthongs/; A dau B fei C gai D jau E rei F vai The are no voiced-unvoiced pairings or other situations where one phonetic feature can change one digit to another. Thus Lojban numbers should be] fairly robust in noisy environments, though no one has really tested this. A long time ago, John Cowan devised a backup system like the alpha/bravo/charly system for the letters, which are much more alike - too much so, by design. (all consonants are C+y, where y is pronounced as schwa (@): by, cy, dy, etc. Rick's idea is in this interest, but for numbers. I encourage mnemonic approaches to learning words, in any case. lojbab