[math-fun] Multilingual numerical ambiguity
The word "billion" means different things in two different dialects of English (British and American). Can anyone give other examples where one number word means two different things into two languages or dialects? Jim Propp
If you allow Nutrition and Chemistry as dialects, "calorie". Curiously, the ratios billion:billion and calorie:calorie are both 1000. Rich -----Original Message----- From: math-fun [mailto:math-fun-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of James Propp Sent: Wednesday, June 10, 2015 12:22 PM To: math-fun Subject: [EXTERNAL] [math-fun] Multilingual numerical ambiguity The word "billion" means different things in two different dialects of English (British and American). Can anyone give other examples where one number word means two different things into two languages or dialects? Jim Propp _______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com https://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
tíw is five in late egyptian pi is two in khmer san is three in chinese & japanese, seven in west frisian Probably many more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_numbers_in_various_languages On Wed, Jun 10, 2015 at 11:36 AM, Schroeppel, Richard <rschroe@sandia.gov> wrote:
If you allow Nutrition and Chemistry as dialects, "calorie". Curiously, the ratios billion:billion and calorie:calorie are both 1000.
Rich
-----Original Message----- From: math-fun [mailto:math-fun-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of James Propp Sent: Wednesday, June 10, 2015 12:22 PM To: math-fun Subject: [EXTERNAL] [math-fun] Multilingual numerical ambiguity
The word "billion" means different things in two different dialects of English (British and American). Can anyone give other examples where one number word means two different things into two languages or dialects?
Jim Propp _______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com https://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
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-- Mike Stay - metaweta@gmail.com http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~mike http://reperiendi.wordpress.com
I'm assuming that "tíw" is believed to have been pronounced like the modern English word "two"? Forgive me, but my late Egyptian is a bit rusty. :-) Jim On Wed, Jun 10, 2015 at 3:00 PM, Mike Stay <metaweta@gmail.com> wrote:
tíw is five in late egyptian pi is two in khmer san is three in chinese & japanese, seven in west frisian
Probably many more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_numbers_in_various_languages
On Wed, Jun 10, 2015 at 11:36 AM, Schroeppel, Richard <rschroe@sandia.gov> wrote:
If you allow Nutrition and Chemistry as dialects, "calorie". Curiously, the ratios billion:billion and calorie:calorie are both 1000.
Rich
-----Original Message----- From: math-fun [mailto:math-fun-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of James Propp Sent: Wednesday, June 10, 2015 12:22 PM To: math-fun Subject: [EXTERNAL] [math-fun] Multilingual numerical ambiguity
The word "billion" means different things in two different dialects of English (British and American). Can anyone give other examples where one number word means two different things into two languages or dialects?
Jim Propp _______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com https://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
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-- Mike Stay - metaweta@gmail.com http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~mike http://reperiendi.wordpress.com
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I believe that some people use capitalization to distinguish between the two units: "calorie" vs. "Calorie". Maybe we could distinguish between a billion and a Billion? :-) Jim Propp On Wed, Jun 10, 2015 at 2:36 PM, Schroeppel, Richard <rschroe@sandia.gov> wrote:
If you allow Nutrition and Chemistry as dialects, "calorie". Curiously, the ratios billion:billion and calorie:calorie are both 1000.
Rich
-----Original Message----- From: math-fun [mailto:math-fun-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of James Propp Sent: Wednesday, June 10, 2015 12:22 PM To: math-fun Subject: [EXTERNAL] [math-fun] Multilingual numerical ambiguity
The word "billion" means different things in two different dialects of English (British and American). Can anyone give other examples where one number word means two different things into two languages or dialects?
Jim Propp _______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com https://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
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The small calorie and large Calorie are distinguished by capitalization — not ideal, but it works. The old meaning of billion in England has been almost completely phased out by now, to avoid international misunderstandings in fields like diplomacy, science, and mathematics. —Dan
Rich wrote:
If you allow Nutrition and Chemistry as dialects, "calorie". Curiously, the ratios billion:billion and calorie:calorie are both 1000.
James Propp wrote
The word "billion" means different things in two different dialects of English (British and American). Can anyone give other examples where one number word means two different things into two languages or dialects?
-----
http://www.espnfc.co.uk/barclays-premier-league/story/2484581/manchester-uni... On Wed, Jun 10, 2015 at 3:33 PM, Dan Asimov <dasimov@earthlink.net> wrote:
The small calorie and large Calorie are distinguished by capitalization — not ideal, but it works.
The old meaning of billion in England has been almost completely phased out by now, to avoid international misunderstandings in fields like diplomacy, science, and mathematics.
—Dan
Rich wrote:
If you allow Nutrition and Chemistry as dialects, "calorie". Curiously, the ratios billion:billion and calorie:calorie are both 1000.
James Propp wrote
The word "billion" means different things in two different dialects of English (British and American). Can anyone give other examples where one number word means two different things into two languages or dialects?
----- _______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com https://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
-- Mike Stay - metaweta@gmail.com http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~mike http://reperiendi.wordpress.com
21st century scientists have switched over to SI units. The SI unit of energy is the Joule. 1 small calorie = 4.184 J. 1 large Calorie = 4184 J. Unfortunately, some scientists still have their heads wedged back in the 19th century. -- Gene From: Dan Asimov <dasimov@earthlink.net> To: math-fun <math-fun@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Wednesday, June 10, 2015 3:33 PM Subject: Re: [math-fun] [EXTERNAL] Multilingual numerical ambiguity The small calorie and large Calorie are distinguished by capitalization — not ideal, but it works. The old meaning of billion in England has been almost completely phased out by now, to avoid international misunderstandings in fields like diplomacy, science, and mathematics. —Dan
Rich wrote:
If you allow Nutrition and Chemistry as dialects, "calorie". Curiously, the ratios billion:billion and calorie:calorie are both 1000.
A reasonable false etymology for billion is "big stick", as _bille_ is a pool queue. Compare billiard, mille / million / milliard. On Wed, Jun 10, 2015 at 11:22 AM, James Propp <jamespropp@gmail.com> wrote:
The word "billion" means different things in two different dialects of English (British and American). Can anyone give other examples where one number word means two different things into two languages or dialects?
Jim Propp _______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com https://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
-- Mike Stay - metaweta@gmail.com http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~mike http://reperiendi.wordpress.com
tíw for two, and two for tíw.... On Wednesday, June 10, 2015, Mike Stay <metaweta@gmail.com> wrote:
A reasonable false etymology for billion is "big stick", as _bille_ is a pool queue. Compare billiard, mille / million / milliard.
On Wed, Jun 10, 2015 at 11:22 AM, James Propp <jamespropp@gmail.com <javascript:;>> wrote:
The word "billion" means different things in two different dialects of English (British and American). Can anyone give other examples where one number word means two different things into two languages or dialects?
Jim Propp _______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com <javascript:;> https://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
-- Mike Stay - metaweta@gmail.com <javascript:;> http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~mike http://reperiendi.wordpress.com
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-- Thane Plambeck tplambeck@gmail.com http://counterwave.com/
participants (6)
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Dan Asimov -
Eugene Salamin -
James Propp -
Mike Stay -
Schroeppel, Richard -
Thane Plambeck