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On my first visit to India I was confused to find that big numbers were expressed in 'lakh', which is 100,000. So a million could be "ten lakh". This unit wou
by bboreham 11y ago
On my first visit to India I was confused to find that big numbers were expressed in 'lakh', which is 100,000. So a million could be "ten lakh".
This unit would be useful for discussing house prices where I live, but doesn't seem to have caught on.
- DanBC 11y agoLakh is controversial on Stack Exchange. A bunch of people use it, and few other people want to crush anything that's not US English and edit it out.
- bane 11y agoOther than India, is Lakh used in any other English speaking countries or dialects?
- kissickas 11y agoNRIs have spread it around, I hear it all of the time here in the GCC but usually only from Pakistanis or Indians. Most people are familiar with it and understand it though.
- partisan 11y agoNRI: Non-resident Indian GCC: (Persian) Gulf Cooperation Council (Countries) Had to look them up just like many people have to look up lakh after seeing it on Stack Overflow.
- DanBC 11y agoI have no idea. It's used a lot in India, and on any site that has many users from India, so my attitude is "suck it up cultural fascists". There's a bunch of loan words in English from India, and a few more aren't going to hurt. (Edit: this sounds a bit grumpy, it's not meant to be.)
- bane 11y agoWell, I mean, sometimes word usage only goes one way. Not using it in place of something more widely understood just means that whatever is written will be more comprehensible to a wider audience. As an American I resist using highly localized idioms and slang (when I'm aware they're localized), I'm pretty sure Brits and Aussies, etc. do as well. I've also only ever seen it in Indian sourced English language news -- and I have to look up what quantity it refers to every single time because it simply doesn't exist in any other English language using population I'm aware of.
- DanBC 11y agoSure, they're mildly confusing. But you don't go around changing the words that other people use, and I doubt you say "US English only", and I hope you accept that (eg) baseball references are baffling to many people (who have little exposure to this niche sport played by a small number of people). One of the things missed by the "US / UK english only" crowd is that there are a bunch of subtle differences that have nearly opposite meanings. Tabling something means either put it forward for discussion, or remove it from discussion. A moot point is something that's open for discussion, or something where discussion is pointless. At least when someone uses lakh or crore I know I don't know what they mean and look it up. (and look it up is highlight + right click and select "search").
- bane 11y agoMost U.S. English speakers should be able to tolerate dialectal variants on some words and meanings, and maybe even have a passing familiarity with some idioms and slang. I generally think sports metaphors should be out in international forums, and I'm not even sure they should generally be assumed in local forums either (I don't even have a passing interest in most sportsballs and sometimes have trouble following references even to U.S. local sports). Good points on the opposite meaning idioms. Perhaps the most right way to deal with things is to just use the number, or use scientific notation?
- plonh 11y agoI assume you use "football" for only its proper meaning.
- kalleboo 11y agoSimilarly Japanese makes extensive use of "man" (万) for 10,000
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]