On Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:35:35 -0700, Peter Münster
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