greek and latin numbers and numerals

8/3/2019 Greek and Latin Numbers and Numerals

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/greek-and-latin-numbers-and-numerals 1/5

Greek and Roman Numbers and

Numerals

One way to compare related languages is to look at the words used for numbers. Likecontemporary Western culture, the Greeks and Romans had their own shorthand forwriting numbers, but it lacked a number of features including the use of zero and placevalue.

Aegean Numerals

The earliest written numerals in the areas where Greek was eventually spoken are now

known as Aegean. These were originally used by the Minoan civilisation, an early BronzeAge culture destroyed by the eruption of Thera, the largest volcanic eruption in recordedhistory (though still nothing compared to Mount Toba, which nearly wiped out the humanrace completely!)

Attic Numerals

An early Greek system used by 600 BCE, this was ancestral to Roman numerals and usedthe first letters of various numbers in Greek along with I for units. It runs as follows:

Ι – 1Π – Πεντε – 5Δ – Δεκα – 10Η- Ηεκατον – 100 – Note: in archaic Greek, “H” was used to represent an “h” sound.X – Χιλιοι – 1000.Μ – Μυριον – 10 000.

These numerals are combined rather like Roman numerals though without the subtractive

principle, so the number 4444, for example, would be written ΧΧΧΧΗΗΗΗΔΔΔΔΙΙΙΙ.

There were also, as in Roman, numerals representing five times a lower number ratherthan tens, which were written as Π, often archaically with the right leg shorter than theleft, with the smaller numeral inside it.

This system was taken over and changed by the Etruscans and eventually inspired Romannumerals.



Ionic Numerals

These are similar to quite a few other systems, being based on the alphabet. This is alsodone, for example, with runes, Gothic, Hebrew and early Arabic, though of course Arabiccame later to use Arabic numerals. Each letter represents a number, with later letters for

multiples of ten and then hundreds:

Letter Number Letter Number Letter Letter

α 1 ι 10 ρ 100

β 2 κ 20 ς 200

γ 3 λ 30 σ 300

δ 4 μ 40 τ 400

ε 5 ν 50 υ 500ϝ 6 ξ 60 φ 600

ζ 7 ο 70 χ 700

η 8 π 80 ψ 800

θ 9 ϙ 90 ω 900

ϡ 1000

This system put a tick (') after a series of letters meaning a number rather than a word, butit also means that every Greek word also has a numerical value, which may be theexplanation for the “Number of the Beast” mentioned in the Bible. This fact has been usedin numerology and is also significant in Jewish mysticism and some names used in theHebrew Bible because Hebrew used a similar system.

There was also an M used for 10 000, which was a legacy from the Attic numerals, and thewhole system came into use around 400 BCE.

Large numbers: The Book of Revelation, which also mentions the Number of the Beast,also names a much larger number in words – 100 million. However, this was quite

cumbersome, using the words “μυριαδες μυριαδων”, or “myriads of myriads.”Archimedes, in his paper “The Sand Reckoner”, in which he estimated the number ofgrains of sand needed to fill the Universe, invented a system for expressing largernumbers. Since he arrived at a figure of a thousand decillion (long scale) or onevigintillion (long scale), he needed to express it. The system is described in the paper.

In the early Christian Era, astronomers invented a more sophisticated system which diedout in the fifth century. It introduced a zero and was used for fractions of degrees but notfor whole numbers.



Etruscan Numerals

The Etruscans of the Italian peninsula took the older Greek system and adapted it to theirnumbers, then their system in turn was adopted and adapted by the Romans. Thesymbols used were:

I – 1Λ – 5Χ – 10

t – 50C – 100. It can be seen from this symbol that the idea that “C” stands for a hundred ispure coincidence, as the Etruscan word for that number, though unknown, is unlikely tohave begun with a C since it was not Indo-European and its alphabet does not have thisletter. They were used like Attic numerals.

Perhaps significantly, the Etruscan words for 17, 18 and 19 consisted of the words forthree, two and one placed before the word for 20. This seems to anticipate the Romanpractice of writing smaller numbers before larger ones to indicate subtraction, as covered

below.

Roman Numerals

These have a long history, as they are still used today and originated, like the Etruscan

numerals, on tally sticks, but like them also, were influenced by Attic numerals. They only began to be replaced in the fourteenth century when Europeans acquired Indian-Arabicnumerals from the Islamic culture of what would become Spain and Portugal. Arabicnumerals were initially not trusted because they did not seem to represent numberspictorially, and were banned from use in accounts for a while.

Much of the system is very well-known, particularly the lower numbers:I – 1V – 5

X – 10L – 50C – 100D – 500M – 1000

Numbers one lower unit less than a higher unit, such as four, forty or four hundred,ultimately came to be written in two different ways. The older method was simply towrite four symbols from the lower letter, thus: CCCCXXXXIIII – 444. Another methodwas occasionally used in Imperial times, where the next letter in the sequence preceded bythe lower one was used instead, like this: CDXLIV – 444. This became the norm later,though both forms are acceptable. Also in mediaeval times, the system was extended to



use almost all other letters of the alphabet to write various other whole numbers whichdon't fit directly into the system.

Larger numbers can be written in two different ways. One method is to use a line above aletter to indicate multiplication by a thousand. The other method can be illustrated by

thinking of the numbers C, D and M in a different way. C is an opening bracket thus: (. Dis I followed by a closing bracket: I). M can also be written as (I). Each additional bracketthen indicates a larger number:

(I)) – 1500( ( I ) ) – 10 000.

Numbers from 1 to 10 in Latin and some of its descendants (the

Romance languages)

Number Latin Catalan French CastilianSpanish Portu-guese Italian Romanian Dalmatian

I - 1 Unum Un Un Un Um Uno Unu Join

II - 2 Duo Dos Deux Dos Dois Due Doi Doi

III - 3 Tres Tres Trois Tres Três Trei Trei Tra

IV - 4 Quattuor

Quatre Quatre Cuatro Quatro Quattro Patru Kwatro

V - 5 Quinqu

e

Cinc Cinq Cinco Cinco Cinque Cinci Čenc

VI - 6 Sex Sis Six Seis Seis Sei Şase Si

VII - 7 Septem Set Sept Siete Sete Sette Şapte Sapto

VIII - 8 Octo Vuit Huit Ocho Oito Otto Opt Guapto

IX - 9 Novem Nou Neuf Nueve Nove Nove Nouă Nu

X - 10 Decem Deu Dix Diez Dez Dieci Zece Dik

Notes: Catalan is spoken in parts of northern Spain and southern France, in the Balearic

islands and Andorra by a total of more than 11 million people, making it the largestlanguage in Europe which is not official in any major country. It is the “central” Romancelanguage, with the most features in common with the others.

Castilian Spanish is referred to as such in order to distinguish it from Spanish spokenelsewhere in Spain than Castile and outside Spain, but in most respects is synonymouswith Spanish.

Dalmatian, also known as Vegliot, is an extinct language intermediate between Italian and

Romanian spoken in the northwestern Balkan area, in a country known as the Republic ofRagusa, but died out when its last speaker, Tuone Udaina, was killed in an explosion in1898.



Latin and Greek number words compared with each other and other

related languages

Number Greek Latin Gothic Gaulish Hittite Sanskrit TocharianA

English

1 Εις , μια,ενας –

Eis, mia,

enas

Unum,una, unus

Ains Un-? Siyas Eka Sas One

2 Δυο- duo Duae,

duo

Twai Dui-? Daus Dvi Wu Two

3 Τρεις -

treis

Tres Threis Tri Teriyas Tri Tre Three

4 Τεσσαρε

ς -tessares

Quattuor Fidwor Petwar Meyawas Catur Shtwar Four

5 Πεντε -

pente

Quinque Fimf Pimp Panc Pany Five

6 `Εξ - hex Sex Saihs Suex Sas Sak Six

7 `Επτα -

hepta

Septem Sibum Sextam Sipta Sapta Spat Seven

8 'Οκτω -

okto

Octo Ahtau Oxtu Asta Okat Eight

9 'Εννεα -ennea

Novem Niun Nam Nava Nyu Nine

10 Δεκα -

deka

Decem Taihun Decam Dasha Shak Ten

11 `Ενδεκα -

hendeka

Undecim Ainlif Ekadasha Eleven

12 Δω δεκα

- dodeka

Duodeci

m

Twalif Dvadasha Twelve

13 Τρεις και

δεκα –treis kai

deka

Tredecim Threistaih

un?

Tridecam Trayodas

ha

Thirteen

Notes: Gothic is the earliest language used to write actual books which is closely relatedto English. The Goths were instrumental in the sack of Rome in 410 CE, which was inrevenge for their treatment by the Romans. At this point, Gothic grammar is said to bemore inflected than Latin. Their edition of the Bible, the Codex Argenteus, was printed insilver on purple in the fourth century, over a thousand years before printing becamewidespread in Europe. The Gauls were the Celtic people of today's France and their

records survive today in other scripts than their own, though they may have had theirown writing. The Hittites lived east of Greece and started the Iron Age by inventing ironsmelting. The Tocharians were a people in Taklamakan and the easternmost “Aryans”.

greek and latin numbers and numerals

Documents