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A bit of a tangent, but could someone tell me if I'm wrong about the following: Arabic being read right to left while digit significance increases right to left
by penteract 3y ago
A bit of a tangent, but could someone tell me if I'm wrong about the following: Arabic being read right to left while digit significance increases right to left means they use little-endian (although it looks like they say numbers in a middle-endian fashion like in German). This means users of left to right scripts made a mistake by not reversing the digits when copying the system.
What I can't find quickly is whether the Indian system where this originated wrote numbers in a big-endian or little-endian fashion. As far as I can tell, Indian languages are mostly written left to right, so should the first people to use the system with a right to left script have reversed the direction of digits?
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- cmenge 3y agoEastern Arabic digits are read left-to-right, surprisingly. So e.g. in license plates, phone numbers, etc. (where you read the digits separately), you go left-to-right. When speaking the numbers, you are right, the rules are the same as in German, e.g. Fifty-one is Whahed-wa-Khamseen, so similar to German Ein-und-fünfzig. P.S: I'm German and live in Saudi, but my knowledge of Arabic is limited, so take it with a pinch of salt.
- blackbrokkoli 3y agoAs another German living in SWAMA, I'd say this sounds correct. Additional fun fact, the locals here don't actually seem to be aware that they read numbers the other way 'round. I pointed this out to two Egyptians now, both of whom told me that they never noticed. What can I say, I guess it's all habit and intuition...