From lojban-out@lojban.org Fri Oct 13 20:16:25 2006 Return-Path: X-Sender: lojban-out@lojban.org X-Apparently-To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Received: (qmail 11689 invoked from network); 14 Oct 2006 03:15:58 -0000 Received: from unknown (66.218.66.217) by m37.grp.scd.yahoo.com with QMQP; 14 Oct 2006 03:15:58 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO chain.digitalkingdom.org) (64.81.49.134) by mta2.grp.scd.yahoo.com with SMTP; 14 Oct 2006 03:15:58 -0000 Received: from lojban-out by chain.digitalkingdom.org with local (Exim 4.63) (envelope-from ) id 1GYZiO-0008AN-HQ for lojban@yahoogroups.com; Fri, 13 Oct 2006 19:57:32 -0700 Received: from chain.digitalkingdom.org ([64.81.49.134]) by chain.digitalkingdom.org with esmtp (Exim 4.63) (envelope-from ) id 1GYZgK-00089D-Be; Fri, 13 Oct 2006 19:55:28 -0700 Received: with ECARTIS (v1.0.0; list lojban-list); Fri, 13 Oct 2006 19:55:15 -0700 (PDT) Received: from nobody by chain.digitalkingdom.org with local (Exim 4.63) (envelope-from ) id 1GYZfr-00088e-2k for lojban-list-real@lojban.org; Fri, 13 Oct 2006 19:54:55 -0700 Received: from phma.optus.nu ([166.82.175.165] helo=ixazon.dynip.com) by chain.digitalkingdom.org with esmtp (Exim 4.63) (envelope-from ) id 1GYZfk-00088V-Ub for lojban-list@lojban.org; Fri, 13 Oct 2006 19:54:54 -0700 Received: from [192.168.25.19] (unknown [192.168.25.19]) by ixazon.dynip.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 76C08CE7EC for ; Fri, 13 Oct 2006 22:54:34 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2006 22:53:54 -0400 User-Agent: KMail/1.9.1 References: <200610131230.01748.phma@phma.optus.nu> <925d17560610131234v51af0cb1p7cd6d68a9c1b2511@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <925d17560610131234v51af0cb1p7cd6d68a9c1b2511@mail.gmail.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by Ecartis Content-Disposition: inline Message-Id: <200610132254.03415.phma@phma.optus.nu> X-Spam-Score: -2.2 (--) X-archive-position: 12704 X-ecartis-version: Ecartis v1.0.0 Errors-to: lojban-list-bounce@lojban.org X-original-sender: phma@phma.optus.nu X-list: lojban-list X-Spam-Score: -2.2 (--) To: lojban@yahoogroups.com X-Originating-IP: 64.81.49.134 X-eGroups-Msg-Info: 1:0:0:0 X-eGroups-From: Pierre Abbat From: Pierre Abbat Reply-To: phma@phma.optus.nu Subject: [lojban] Re: round numbers X-Yahoo-Group-Post: member; u=116389790; y=T4N9EOIgH6sxD0soz8XB-YWGUNQtnzse20iZqKPQHQDSagEbEw X-Yahoo-Profile: lojban_out X-Yahoo-Message-Num: 27142 On Friday 13 October 2006 15:34, Jorge Llambías wrote: > It seems to me that {cukla namcu} is the best choice. > Even though these numbers are not round in the same way that > wheels are round, "round" is not just accidental homonymy here. > (I suppose the metaphor is something like the numbers are filled > out or their edges softened so that they become simpler.) > What are round numbers called in Chinese, or in Swahili, or in > Quechua, for example? If they all use the same word they use > for wheels, then it would seem Lojban should do that too. If not, > then there might be an argument for having a specialized term in > Lojban. I looked up "round number" on Wikipedia. There's one interlanguage link, to Russian "круглые числа". "Вокруг" means "around" so that's no different. I went to "rounding" and found links to many Indo-European languages, all having some resemblance to "rotund" or "krug", Chinese and Korean which I can't read, and Hebrew "עיגול (פעולה)". "עיגול" redirects to "מעגל" which means "circle". ("עגל" means "calf"; I tried that first and found an article about the golden calf. Calves probably have no more to do with circles than plagues with words.) So we have two unrelated languages in which the word for "round number" is related to a word for "circle" or the like. But much mathematics was developed by Arabic speakers, and Arabic is related to Hebrew, so a loan translation is likely. Anyone here know what round numbers are called in a language with an independent mathematical tradition? I think that's enough evidence to define {cukna'u}. Pierre To unsubscribe from this list, send mail to lojban-list-request@lojban.org with the subject unsubscribe, or go to http://www.lojban.org/lsg2/, or if you're really stuck, send mail to secretary@lojban.org for help.