From: "Idris Samawi Hamid" <ishamid@colostate.edu>
To: "mailing list for ConTeXt users" <ntg-context@ntg.nl>
Subject: Re: %18 or 18% : incorrect placement of the percentage sign ?
Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2008 16:07:31 -0700 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <op.t5tg6tz7nx1yh1@ihamidnb.libarts.colostate.edu> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20080131223535.GA16318@gaston.couberia.bzh>
On Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:35:35 -0700, Peter Münster <pmlists@free.fr> wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 31 2008, Steffen Wolfrum wrote:
>>
>> Any native arabic speaker out there? Is it %18 or 18% ??
>
> Hello,
>
> I don't know nothing about Arabic script, but wouldn't it be logic to ask
> for "%81 or 18%" ?
Hmm, this could be a long discussion...
In ancient times, Arabic numerals (whence our own) were pronounced as
follows (translation):
1234 => "4 and 30 and 2 hundred and a thousand"
Writing from right to left one would write 4 first, then 3, etc., giving
the same output as writing from left to right. So the oft-repeated mantra
that "numbering in Arabic is LR" is a half-truth. Today, Arabs, Persians
etc. read numerals the same way westerners do; so the effect is that it is
more convenient to enter numeral-strings as LR. But when the numbers were
read in reverse (actually it is we that read numbers in reverse when you
think about it, "Arabic numerals" after all) they were written RL and
looked the same as our LR version.
So taking Peter's logic to its conclusion we should be writing 18 as 81,
not the other way around ;-)
Best wishes
Idris
--
Professor Idris Samawi Hamid, Editor-in-Chief
International Journal of Shi`i Studies
Department of Philosophy
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO 80523
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next prev parent reply other threads:[~2008-01-31 23:07 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 20+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2008-01-31 9:27 Steffen Wolfrum
2008-01-31 12:44 ` Mr Dietrich Rordorf / MDPI
2008-01-31 15:08 ` Idris Samawi Hamid
2008-01-31 15:48 ` Steffen Wolfrum
2008-01-31 15:51 ` Idris Samawi Hamid
2008-01-31 20:25 ` Henning Hraban Ramm
2008-01-31 22:54 ` Idris Samawi Hamid
2008-01-31 22:59 ` Hans Hagen
2008-01-31 22:35 ` Peter Münster
2008-01-31 22:42 ` Hans Hagen
2008-01-31 23:11 ` Idris Samawi Hamid
2008-02-01 2:50 ` Arthur Reutenauer
2008-02-01 9:22 ` Hans Hagen
2008-02-01 7:07 ` Otared Kavian
2008-02-01 11:15 ` Steffen Wolfrum
2008-02-01 12:14 ` Otared Kavian
2008-02-01 14:32 ` Arthur Reutenauer
2008-02-08 9:12 ` Arthur Reutenauer
2008-01-31 23:07 ` Idris Samawi Hamid [this message]
2008-02-01 9:06 ` Hans Hagen
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