This one is a bit different, though: it looks at number systems ordered by complexity (for example, Mandarin with things such as "nine-ten-seven" for "97" are less complex than monstrosities such as the French "four-twenty-ten-seven").
I had a quick look through - it's a very interesting page. But I wonder why Nimbian is so supposedly strange? It's a pretty ordinary system, if you overlook the fact that it uses 12 as a base rather than 10.
The French do do things weirdly, don't they? ;) I sometimes think "quatre-vingt" and so on might be a relic from Basque, which has a vigesimal system as basic. It's just a theory, but I can't think of any other reason why one would use a perfectly normal decimal system up to 69, and then start doing bizarre things like quatre-vingt-dix-neuf and soixante-douze.
I skimmed the subject line too quickly, and thought it said "Number of Systems of the World", which seemed like an awfully reductionist anthropological project. And a Stephenson reference.
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Numbers on zompist.com
This one is a bit different, though: it looks at number systems ordered by complexity (for example, Mandarin with things such as "nine-ten-seven" for "97" are less complex than monstrosities such as the French "four-twenty-ten-seven").
Re: Numbers on zompist.com
The French do do things weirdly, don't they? ;) I sometimes think "quatre-vingt" and so on might be a relic from Basque, which has a vigesimal system as basic. It's just a theory, but I can't think of any other reason why one would use a perfectly normal decimal system up to 69, and then start doing bizarre things like quatre-vingt-dix-neuf and soixante-douze.
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