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Bonus 39: A myriad of numbers - Counting systems across languages (Patreon)

Published:
2020-05-08 01:16:19
Imported:
2023-02
⚑ Flagged

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Numbers are one of those topics that reminds us that humans go about the world in meat suits -- in particular, meat suits with 10 fingers. But not all languages count on the fingers. Some also include other body parts, like the toes or even protrusions like the elbow, shoulder, and nose. Other systems count based on salient objects beyond the body, such as yams, sheep, and mathematical properties.  

In this episode, Gretchen and Lauren get enthusiastic about number systems in different languages! We talk about fossilized number systems (which explain words like "eleven" and "twelve" in Germanic languages), counting gestures and different base systems in various languages (from base 6 to base 27), and indefinite hyperbolic numerals (words like "bazillion" and "umpteen").  

Announcements: 

We've met our goal for the LingComm Grant, so we'll now be giving out $500 grants to support FOUR linguistics communication projects! The application deadline is June 1 -- that's less than a month away, so please encourage anyone you know who's interested in lingcomm to apply and stay tuned for the announcement of the grantees, which you'll get to find out first. More information at lingcomm.org/grant. 

Here are the links mentioned in this episode:

You can listen to this episode on this page, via the Patreon RSS or download the mp3. A transcript of this episode is available as a Google Doc. Lingthusiasm is also on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter. Email us at contact [at] lingthusiasm [dot] com or chat to us on the Patreon page. Gretchen is on Twitter as @GretchenAMcC and blogs at AllThingsLinguistic. Lauren is on Twitter as @superlinguo and blogs at Superlinguo. 

Lingthusiasm is created by Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne. Our senior producer is Claire Gawne, our editorial producer is Sarah Dopierala, and our music is ‘Ancient City’ by The Triangles

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Anonymous

One of my friends taught me to count on my hands in binary, so that tends to be my go-to in most circumstances. (There are some numbers e.g. 4 where you end up sort of flipping the bird on one or both hands, so I try not to use it in polite company lol). If anyone's curious, it's done using each finger to represent a different digit (no pun intended!) of the complete binary number, where an extended finger represents 1 and a curled-in finger is 0. I start at the right pinkie, so for example 10 in decimal (or 1010 in binary) would have the right ring and index fingers extended, and the pinkie, middle, and thumb curled in. The fun thing is that using one hand will let you count to 31, but then once you add the second hand you can get all the way up to 1023.

Anonymous

Thank you for the wonderful episode. I have just joined Patreon, therefore my comment is a bit late. Nevertheless, two comments: 1) I saw Russian people counting: they extend all fingers of one hand (lefr hand?). Then they take the index finger of the other hand to curl down the pinky of the first hand = 1, then to curl down the ring finger =2, curl down middle finger =3, etc. to 5. Second remark 2) When I was in 3rd and again in 5th grade in elementary school in the 1970s, we were taught in the maths lessons to add and subtract in a counting system of the base of 3 and then of 4. So we did as children, what Positronic Girl suggested for the teachers' curriculum. I liked this brain challenge a lot, since maths was my favourite subject. However, looking back, I am not sure whether this might have been very confusing for the students who struggled with maths.