| Numeral systems by culture | |
|---|---|
| Hindu-Arabic numerals | |
| Western Arabic Eastern Arabic Indian family |
Khmer Mongolian Thai |
| East Asian numerals | |
| Chinese Counting rods Japanese |
Korean Suzhou |
| Alphabetic numerals | |
| Abjad Armenian Āryabhaṭa Cyrillic |
Ge'ez Greek (Ionian) Hebrew |
| Other systems | |
| Attic Babylonian Brahmi Egyptian Etruscan |
Inuit Mayan Roman Urnfield |
| List of numeral system topics | |
| Positional systems by base | |
| Decimal (10) | |
| 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 | |
| 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 20, 24, 30, 36, 60, more… | |
The Etruscan numerals were used by the ancient Etruscans. The system was adapted from the Greek Attic numerals and formed the inspiration for the later Roman numerals.
| Etruscan | Decimal | Symbol * |
|---|---|---|
| θu | 1 |  |
| maχ | 5 |  |
| śar | 10 |  |
| muvalχ | 50 |  |
| ? | 100 |  or C |
There is very little surviving evidence of these numerals. Examples are known of the symbols for larger numbers, but it is unknown which symbol represents which number.
Thanks to the numbers written out on the Tuscania dice, there is agreement about the fact that zal, ci, huθ and śa are the numbers up to 6 (besides 1 and 5). The assignment depends on the answer to the question whether the numbers on opposite faces on Etruscan dice add up to seven, like nowadays. Some dice found don't show this proposed pattern.
An interesting aspect of the Etruscan numeral system is that some numbers, as in the Roman system, are represented as partial subtractions. So "17" is not written *semφ-śar as users of the Arabic numerals might reason. We instead find <ci-em zaθrum> — literally, "three away from twenty". The numbers 17, 18 and 19 are all written in this way.
The general consensus
Despite the continuing debate specifically about which of huθ and śa are "four" and "six", the general agreement among Etruscologists nowadays is the following:
| Etruscan | Decimal |
|---|---|
| θu | 1 |
| zal | 2 |
| ci | 3 |
| huθ | 4 |
| maχ | 5 |
| śa | 6 |
| semφ | 7 |
| cezp | 8 |
| nurφ | 9 |
| śar | 10 |
| *θuśar | 11 |
| *zalśar | 12 |
| *ciśar | 13 |
| huθzar | 14 |
| *maχśar | 15 |
| *śaśar | 16 |
| ciem zaθrum | 17 |
| eslem zaθrum | 18 |
| θunem zaθrum | 19 |
| zaθrum | 20 |
| cealχ | 30 |
| *huθalχ | 40 |
| muvalχ | 50 |
| śealχ | 60 |
| semφalχ | 70 |
| cezpalχ | 80 |
| *nurφalχ | 90 |
Recently (2006) S. A. Yatsemirsky (PDF) has presented evidence that zar = śar meant ‘12’ (cf. zal ‘2’ and zaθrum ‘20’) while halχ meant ‘10’. According to his interpretation the attested form huθzar was used for ‘sixteen’, not ‘fourteen’.
The words for 17, 18, and 19 may have influenced Latin duodeviginti (18) and undeviginti (19), literally "two-from-twenty" and "one-from-twenty" (with Etruscan -(n)em apparently meaning "from"). Both these forms of 18 and 19 have disappeared from modern Romance languages.
The numerals seem to show that Etruscan is not an Indo-European language, because of the apparent impossibility in finding viable regular sound change correspondences between the Etruscan numerals and those in Proto-Indo-European.
See also
External links
- http://users.tpg.com.au/etr/etrusk/tex/grammar.html#num
- http://www.mysteriousetruscans.com/language.html
 |
This number article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
