7 replies to this topic

[varalu]

Tamil - தமிழ்

You have heard of this very old language ?
If yes.. You should have been able to appreciate its richness.

Its so rich and one of the most ancient languages that started in the southern most state of India called Tamil Nadu.
Its so rich with many features.... It has some of the best book - If you have heard of Thirukkural, Silapathigaram etc etc. These are some of the books that proves you the power of this language.

I know theses stuff already and i know very little about numbers in this powerful language.
Recently, one of my friends sent me a mail that explained more about numbers in Tamil and the extent to which it can extend.

So... here is it for you.. Actually the mail contained few other things in random fashion and i have put some effort in consolidating and bringing you the actual content which i have listed below...

The power of numbers in Tamil (Ancient Indian language)

The below things are in a particular order
ie - Number in digits - Tamil Equivalent word - English word for that number

Quote

1 = ONDRU -one
10 = PATTU -ten
100 = NOORU -hundred
1000 = AaYIRAM -thousand
10000 = PATTAYIRAM -ten thousand
100000 = NOORAYIRAM -hundred thousand
1000000 = PATTU NOORAYIRAM - one million
10000000 = KOODI -ten million
100000000 = ARPUTHAM -hundred million
1000000000 = NIGARPUTAM - one billion
10000000000 = KUMBAM -ten billion
100000000000 = KANAM -hundred billion
1000000000000 = KARPAM -one trillion
10000000000000 = NIKARPAM -ten trillion
100000000000000 = PATHUMAM -hundred trillion
1000000000000000 = SANGGAM -one zillion
10000000000000000 = VELLAM -ten zillion
100000000000000000 = ANNIYAM - hundred zillion
1000000000000000000 = ARTTAM - ?////
10000000000000000000 = PARARTTAM -- anyboby know
100000000000000000000 = POORIYAM - <>?#%^&
1000000000000000000000 = MUKKODI - &^*^%^#
10000000000000000000000 = MAHAYUGAM - ????????????????

So... when you go through the above list, you can see that there are no words for the digits in English and i doubt if there are words for those in any of the world languages. But as you can see there are words for those in Tamil and people do use it in daily life.


What do you think?
Enlighten me if there are any language in the world which does the job and so powerful.

[dre]

Quote

So... when you go through the above list, you can see that there are no words for the digits in English and i doubt if there are words for those in any of the world languages. But as you can see there are words for those in Tamil and people do use it in daily life.

I have a hard time imagining people using digits above trillions in everyday life.

[Galahad]

Yeah, I agree with dre here, I find it rather difficult to imagine someone often using billions or such in everyday life... Other than say, microbiologists or something like that...

Anyways, here are some more names for numbers... And I added their equivalents in Serbian language...

Quote

10⁰ = 1 = ONDRU -one - jedan
10¹ = 10 = PATTU -ten - deset
10² = 100 = NOORU -hundred - sto
10³ = 1000 = AaYIRAM -thousand - hiljadu
10⁴ = 10000 = PATTAYIRAM -ten thousand - deset hiljada
10⁵ = 100000 = NOORAYIRAM -hundred thousand - sto hiljada
10⁶ = 1000000 = PATTU NOORAYIRAM - one million - milion
10⁷ = 10000000 = KOODI -ten million - deset miliona
10⁸ = 100000000 = ARPUTHAM -hundred million - sto miliona
10⁹ = 1000000000 = NIGARPUTAM - one billion - milijarda
10¹⁰ = 10000000000 = KUMBAM -ten billion - deset milijardi
10¹¹ = 100000000000 = KANAM -hundred billion - sto milijardi
10¹² = 1000000000000 = KARPAM -one trillion - trilion
10¹³ = 10000000000000 = NIKARPAM -ten trillion - deset triliona
10¹⁴ = 100000000000000 = PATHUMAM -hundred trillion - sto triliona
10¹⁵ = 1000000000000000 = SANGGAM -one zillion quadrillion - kvadrilion
10¹⁶ = 10000000000000000 = VELLAM -ten zillion quadrillion - deset kvadriliona
10¹⁷ = 100000000000000000 = ANNIYAM - hundred zillion quadrillion - sto kvadriliona
10¹⁸ = 1000000000000000000 = ARTTAM - quintillion - kvinitilion
10¹⁹ = 10000000000000000000 = PARARTTAM -- ten quintillion - deset kvintiliona
10²⁰ = 100000000000000000000 = POORIYAM - hundred quintillion - sto kvintiliona
10²¹ = 1000000000000000000000 = MUKKODI - one sextillion - sekstilion
10²² = 10000000000000000000000 = MAHAYUGAM - ten sextillion - deset sekstiliona
10²³ = 100000000000000000000000 = ???- hundred sextillion - sto sekstiliona
10²⁴ = 1000000000000000000000000 = ???- septillion - septilion
10²⁵ = 10000000000000000000000000 = ???- ten septillion - deset septiliona
10²⁶ = 100000000000000000000000000 = ???- hundred septillion - sto septiliona

It would be interesting to see these numbers in some other language aswell...

[dre]

Quote

It would be interesting to see these numbers in some other language aswell...

Well that covered Russian and Ukrainian as well, spelled the same and mean the same from what I can see.

[vlvrajan]

Galahad, on Feb 12 2008, 03:23 PM, said:

Yeah, I agree with dre here, I find it rather difficult to imagine someone often using billions or such in everyday life... Other than say, microbiologists or something like that...

Anyways, here are some more names for numbers... And I added their equivalents in Serbian language...



It would be interesting to see these numbers in some other language aswell...

Hey,

I think, Tamil is unparalleled in this.

Please understand, any language can use combination of two words - likeTen and thousand to denote 10,000, but having specific word for it is entirely different.

So in Tamil also, based on number of zeros added we can make combination as used in serbian, do you have specific words representing the figures, like Million, Zillion etc.

I think That is the point.

any combination

[TheDarkHacker]

I don't believe there are names for million,zillion on other languages.Anyway,this is how i translated this numbers.I will show you how this words would be on my language,Macedonian-used in my country Macedonia.I am not sure how much this is correct and i am not sure do you want to see this words on latin or cilyric.Order:
Number in digits - Tamil Equivalent word - Macedonian word

Quote

1 = ONDRU -one - еден
10 = PATTU -ten - десет
100 = NOORU -hundred - сто
1000 = AaYIRAM -thousand - илјада
10000 = PATTAYIRAM -ten thousand - десет илјади
100000 = NOORAYIRAM -hundred thousand - сто илјади
1000000 = PATTU NOORAYIRAM - one million - милион
10000000 = KOODI -ten million - десет милиони
100000000 = ARPUTHAM -hundred million - сто милиони
1000000000 = NIGARPUTAM - one billion - милијарда
10000000000 = KUMBAM -ten billion - десет милијарди
100000000000 = KANAM -hundred billion - сто милијарди
1000000000000 = KARPAM -one trillion - трилион
10000000000000 = NIKARPAM -ten trillion - десет трилиони
100000000000000 = PATHUMAM -hundred trillion - сто трилиони
1000000000000000 = SANGGAM -one zillion quadrillion - квадралион
10000000000000000 = VELLAM -ten zillion quadrillion - десет квадралиони
100000000000000000 = ANNIYAM - hundred zillion quadrillion - сто квадралиони
1000000000000000000 = ARTTAM - quintillion - квинтилиони
10000000000000000000 = PARARTTAM -- ten quintillion - десет квинтилиони
100000000000000000000 = POORIYAM - hundred quintillion - сто квинтилиони
1000000000000000000000 = MUKKODI - one sextillion - секстилион
10000000000000000000000 = MAHAYUGAM - ten sextillion - десет секстилион
100000000000000000000000 = ???- hundred sextillion - сто секстилион
1000000000000000000000000 = ???- septillion - септилион
10000000000000000000000000 = ???- ten septillion - десет септилиони
100000000000000000000000000 = ???- hundred septillion - сто септилиони

[Okara KAmi]

I'm malayali, a close cousin to the tamils, originating in the same time and region. Contrary to what one might believe this post is about, I think our number system is inefficient. My argument is based off of the original use of numbers. Numbers, like words, ideas, movements, and kisses, are used to convey a message. There are 3 pigeons on a tree. The number 3 is used to convey the amount of pigeons that i refer to.

But what happens when numbers grow smaller or larger? What if I wanted to say that micro-organism is 0.00000000000000044 times the size of a human hair? Now my use of that number 0.0000000000000044, becomes somewhat obsolete. Why? Because those many zero's inhibit my capacity to judge that number. Want proof? Look up at the two times I posted that small number. Did you notice that the second instance of that '44' number is 10x as large as the first? Yea, I took out a 0, but how likely is it for someone to pick that up? Not very.

To solve that problem, we have scientific notation. So the first number would be 4.4 x 10^-16, while the second number would be 4.4 x 10^-15. Now you can easily tell that those numbers are different. Problem solved. How does that apply to Tamil's form of numeric classification? Well look at how they have gone about labeling their numbers. 10000000000000000000000 = Mahayugam. Where, in the God's blue earth, will I refer to this number as Mahayugam? How much easier would it be if I just said 1.0 x 10^22? Language, all languages, are made to express culture, while communication sentiments. "A systematic means of communicating by the use of sounds or conventional symbols," says WordNetWeb, defining the word as an entity that revolves around the transfer of information. When I tell you that "ende mollil oru mahayaguthande athire kodhugu ondu." (translation: there's like ten sextillion mosquitos on me x_x ahh)

Like scientific notation, adding prefixes to numbers decreases the amount of nomenclature risks we take. Wha if English was set up like this:

10: ten
100: hundred
1000: thousand
10,000: quagmire
100,000: giggidy giggidy
1,000,000: million
10,000,000: fofillion
100,000,000: pikachu
...and so on...
it would be a lot harder to communicate numbers. It's easier to understand 10 million, than it is to comprehend 'pikachu' means, right? I'm not saying Tamil Nadu was wrong in the language they created, but I think for the world today, where progress and prosperity is defined selfishly upon science and economics, (and not at all on culture ;_, that number system has become long out dated.