Journal of Media & Mass Communication Vol. 1, No. 1, June 2015
Counting and Numbers in German, Roman and
Arabic Languages
Abdulkerim Uzağan
Department of German Language and Literature, Faculty of Literary, Yüzüncüyıl University, Van, Turkey
Email: [email protected]
Abstract— In our survey we'll compare and give examples
how the ancient people count before they had Arabic-Indian
numbers. Only German and Arabic count same. The
Armenian latest alphabet "k" has the value of nine
thousand. The longest number in Romanic was 3888
(MMMDCCCLXXXVIII).Our aim to show how difficult
was counting before and how difficult is to teach in German
and Arabic languages. After zero was founded and
transferred from India to Europe become counting easier
than before. As a result we found out that most of
civilizations used alphabet to count and than most of them
they count from big to small numbers unlike Arabic and
German.
According to the survey made by bio psychologist
Onur Güntürkün from Ruhr University Bochum: we have
orientation thinking style. Chicks look at the food right
side see right food and left see left food but left send the
information to the right side of the brain and they eat
small food. Because they thought on the left side got
more food. According to this survey our brain functions
also like that.
The asymmetric writing matches with Latin, Cyrillic
and Greek system, but not matches with Semitic
languages. Arabic and Hebrew writing system are from
right to left. So what happen in our brain? Counting in
German and Arabic are similar. Written from left to right
but speak from right to left.
Scientist at UCL (University College London) have
discovered the area of the brain linked to dyscalculia, a
math learning disability. The finding shows that there is a
separate function in the brain used for counting that is
essential for diagnosis and an understanding of why
many people struggle with mathematics.
Index Terms—counting in different languages, Roman,
German, Arabic, Indian numerals, counting with the
fingers.
I. INTRODUCTION
When we teach German mostly we have difficulties to
teach counting. In our survey we found out that not only
Germans counting from small to big but also Arabs. In
other languages we couldn’t find this similarity. To say
21 (twenty one) must say first one and twenty (ein und
zwanzig). In Arabic also same logic: wahidwaishrun (one
and twenty) [1]. In Turkish we count from big to small.
In Hebrew they put ‘and’ when they count after twenty.
They write from right to left like Arabs but they don’t
count from small to big. Germans use this counting since
4000 years ago. Many civilizations were using letters to
count, but this method made them counting limited.
The Armenian language has 36 letters and the latest
letters is “k” and got value of 9000 and there was also no
zero in old system (Fig. 1).
Armenian numerals
II. GERMAN LANGUAGE
The Germanic languages are a branch of the IndoEuropean language family spoken natively by a
population of approximately 500 million people mainly
in North America, Oceania, Central Europe, western and
Northern Europe. There are West, North and East
Germanic. North Germanic languages are Norwegian,
Danish, Swedish, Icelandic and Faroese.
The East Germanic branch included Gothic,
Burgundian and Vandalic. All of East Germanic
languages are death. The last to die off was Crimean
Gothic, spoken in the late 18th century in some isolated
areas of Crimea. German belong to west Germanic
languages (German, English, Friesic, Dutch).[2]
In Old High German diutis means people wise. From
this word developed the word Deutsch which means
German language. It’s spoken primarily in Germany,
Austria, major part of Switzerland, Lichtenstein,
Luxembourg, the Südtirol (South Tyrol) region of Italy
the Opole Voivodship of Poland, parts of Belgium, parts
of Romania, the Alsace (Elsass) region of France and
parts of Denmark. Additionally, several former colonial
possessions of these countries, such as Namibia in Africa,
have sizable German – speaking populations. There are
German – speaking minorities in several eastern
ԱA 1ԲB 2ԳG 3ԴD 4ԵE 5ԶZ 6Էē 7Ըə 8Թt 9
Ժž10ԻI 20ԼL 30ԽX 40ԾC 50ԿK 60ՀH 70ՁJ 80
Ղł90Ճč 100ՄM 200ՅY 300ՆN 400Շš 500ՈO 600
Չč700ՊP 800Ջǰ900Ռṙ1000ՍS 2000ՎV 3000ՏT
4000
ՐR 5000Ցc 6000ՒW 7000Փp8000Քk9000
Figure 1. Armenian letters and numeral values
Manuscript received December 28, 2014; revised July 25, 2015.
©2015 Journal of Media & Mass Communication
doi: 10.12720/jmmc.1.1.12-15
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Journal of Media & Mass Communication Vol. 1, No. 1, June 2015
III. ROMANCE LANGUAGES
European countries including Russia, and in the United
States as well as countries in South America like
Argentina. Over 120 Million people speak German as
their native language. German is the third most popular
foreign language thought worldwide, and the second
most popular in Europe.
If you are an English speaker unfamiliar with German,
you may be surprised to learn that English and German
are closely related languages and share many words that
are very similar. For example:
This week, my father is with my brother in the city
Diese Woche ist mein Vater mit meinem Bruder in der
Stadt
Note also the general similarity of sentence structure
with English. The only real difference in the German is
that the verb is moved forward in the sentence. However,
there are many German sentences in which a verb form is
the last word in the sentence. There are eight basic
grammatical functions: case, gender, number, tense,
person, mood, voice and comparison.
German has genders every noun is masculine,
feminine or neuter (der, die, das).
Germans count from left to right and they put “and”
between two numbers after twenty. After hundred
become opposite little bit. First speak hundred and then
one
and
twenty
(hunderteinundzwanzig)
or
zweihundertfünfundsechzig (265) [3].
When we count in German over thousand, it’s also
different than English or other languages. English use
counting same like German until 19 from small to big.
Fourteen, fifteen, sixteen etc. Before they said also one
and twenty: an andtwentig, but later on it changed to
twenty
one.
For
example:
1995
(neunzehnhundertfünfundneunzig) it means 19 hundred
five
and
ninety
or
they
can
say
also
tausendneunhundertfünfundneunzig. When we say
thirteen “dreizehn” after entering Romanic counting into
Indo-Germanic even writing this number XIII first ten
and then three but pronounce was like that IIIX.
Fünfhundertfünfunddreißig (535)
The current number symbols were brought into
Western culture from India via Arabia. They reached
Italy 1200, Germany 1500. (Fig. 2)
11 to 29 German numerals
Romance languages sometimes called Latin languages
are modern languages that evolved from spoken Latin
between sixth and ninth centuries A.D. and thus form a
branch of the Italic languages within Indo-European
Italian language belongs to Indo-European language
family. Latin was the language of Roman Empire.
Today, more than 800 million people are native
speakers worldwide, mainly in Europe and Americas.
Additionally, the major Romance languages have many
non-native speakers and use as a lingua francas. This is
especially the case for French. Central, North and West
Africa, Madagascar, Mauritius use French language.
The five most widely spoken romance languages by
number of native speakers are Spanish (410 million),
Portuguese (216 million), French (75 million), Italian (60
million) and Romanian (25 million). There are around 57
Million speakers Italian. [4]
To count before they use each letters maximum three
times to count and more than three times they didn’t use.
For example: to say 83 LXXXIII must write the character
looks like that. Because they didn’t have zeroed counting
and had got limit to count. Multiply, divide, minus and
plus was difficult. After zero enter Europe counting
become easier than before.
Counting from one to ten not change so much, but
after ten become like German and English. They speak
First one and then ten (undici). It means they count first
small numbers and then big. After sixteen it changes to
ten seven (diciassette) until twenty. In German they
count after thirteen (dreizehn) until twenty first small
then big numbers. It continues until hundred from small
to big counting.
Celtic influence can be found in the system of
counting in French. In the most French speaking
countries there are no words for 70, 80 and 90. Instead
for 70 to 79 they combine tens with tens. Soixantedix
(70), soixantedix at onze (71), soixante-douze (72). 80 to
89 combine the number 4 with the numbers 20 and one.
For example in French 80 is 4 20s. 81 is 4 20s plus one
and so forth.
For numbers 90 to 99 they combine the numbers 4 and
20 and 10. For example: 90 is four 20s plus 10 (quatrevingt- dix). 91 is four 20s plus eleven (quatre-vingt-onze).
[5]
Roman numeral
elf
11
zwölf
12
einundzwanzig
dreizehn
13
zweiundzwanzig 22
vierzehn
14
dreiundzwanzig
23
fünfzehn
15
vierundzwanzig
24
sechzehn
16
fünfundzwanzig 25
siebzehn
17
sechsundzwanzig 26
achtzehn
18
siebenundzwanzig 27
neunzehn
19
achtundzwanzig 28
zwanzig
20
neunundzwanzig 29
21
Figure 2. Counting in German language
©2015 Journal of Media & Mass Communication
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Journal of Media & Mass Communication Vol. 1, No. 1, June 2015
To say in Romanic fifty must write L and to write 49
must be XLIX. It means must minus on the left numbers
from big number on the right. On the right sight symbols
must be added. (Fig. 3)
uno
1
due
2
undici
11
tre
3
dodici
12
quattro
4
tredici
13
cinque
5
quattordici
14
sei
6
quindici
15
sette
7
diciotto
18
otto
8
diciannove
19
nove
9
venti
20
dieci
10
ventono
21
they are called the Hindu-Arabic or Indo-Arabic
numerals.
Before the Arabs also using letters for counting and
each letter have a numeric value. Alif first letter in
Arabic has a value 1 and the letter ghayn biggest value
equal to 1000.Let us count in jafr and abjad. The word
Allah got value 66 (1+30+30+5) one alif two times l
andone hemze makes 66 [8]. This kind of numeral values
makes two kind of system to guess the events in the past
or future. We call it jafr and abjad. To use letters value
through counting each word like in Arabic for the
knowing the future (jafr and abjad) existed also in other
religions and cultures. But in Islam actually is not
allowed that kind of metaphysic calculation [9]. Because
according to Islam the future knows only Allah. Koran:
Neml 27/65. Say, "None in the heavens and earth knows
the unseen except Allah, and they do not perceive when
they will be resurrected." [10]
The explanation of the verses of the Qur’an according
to the technique of abjad is not fully appropriate to Islam.
Jafr and abjad are a kind of words-numeral games. (Fig.
4)
Figure 3. Roman numeral table
IV. ARABIC LANGUAGE
Arabic letters and numbers
Arabic language is the biggest Semitic language with
approximately 202 Million Speaker s. It’s widely spoken
by North Africans, Arabic Peninsula, Middle East and
Language Island in central Asians. It’s developed from
Aramaic alphabet. [7]
Arabic is Classical Arabic language of 6th century and
its modern descendants excluding Maltese. Arabic
belongs to Afro-asiatic family. Arabic is a Central
Semitic language, closely related to Aramaic, Hebrew,
Ugaritic and Phoenician.
Arabic has influenced many languages around the
world throughout history. Some of the most influenced
languages are: Urdu, Turkish, Malay, Bosnian, Swahili,
Persian, Kurdish, Somali, Indonesian, Tagalog, Pashto,
Panjabi, Kazakh, Hindi, Tigrinya, Sindhi and Housa.
Literary Arabic was a major vehicle of culture in Europe,
especially in science, mathematics and philosophy. As a
result, many European languages have also borrowed
many words from it.
Counting from small to big in Arabic can be explained
in the writing system because they write from right to left.
In Arabs got difficulties to count until they learned
how to use zero. Sıfır meansnil or zero in Arabic. This
word entered German language “Ziffer” and it means
digit or numbers. InTurkish we use “şifre” and means
password. Brahmagupta mentioned in his book
“Siddhanta” digit until nine and zero and counting rules.
773 Indian Astronomer Kankah came to Khalif el
Mansur palace with this book “Siddhanta”. Immediately
they translated in to Arabic language as a “Sindhind”.
Zero means for Indian language “sunya” not exists and
Arabs put the name “es-sıfır” means empty. Nil or zero
in Indian means also empty and in Malay language also
got two meaning “kosong” means empty and zero [6].
El Khwarizmi developed this counting system in 8th
century. So they introduced to Europe to make counting
easier through zero. European calls it Arabic numbers
and Arabs call it Indian numbers. In academic circles
©2015 Journal of Media & Mass Communication
Figure 4. Arabic alphabet, numbers and numeral values
V. COUNTING WITH THE FINGERS
In ancient Rome start counting using the little finger of
the left hand. In ancient Rome and in the middle ages,
bending the left little finger was 1. May be the reason for
using the left hand was that the right hand was used for
more important things. Also bending the little finger is
difficult. Yet we don’t know the reason for its use. As the
time advanced, people began to communicate 1using the
index finger in China and Japan, using the thumb in
Germany and France, and using the little finger in the
Philippines, etc.
The French start counting with their thumb and
when you order something using your fingers can make
the waiter misunderstanding. For example: if you want to
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Journal of Media & Mass Communication Vol. 1, No. 1, June 2015
According to the survey Turkish, Chinese, Korean and
Japanese learn easier Mathematic due their easy counting
and number systems.
order 2 teas showing your index and middle fingers. That
means you want three teas. Because even you close your
thumb they count the thumb also.
Across the world there are 27 types of counting
method using the fingers. Counting using the fingers
differs according to region, ethnicity and historical period.
11
Using index finger to show something in Malaysia
consider rude. You must show with your thumb. But to
counting in Malay culture start with index finger.
REFERENCES
T. GülerdiSatır and M. Ali KılayAraz, Imam and Preacher High
Schools Grade 9 Vocational Arabic Lessons, MEB Press. Ankara
2014, pp. 63.
[2] H. Bussmann, Dictionary of Linguistics, Alfred Kröner Press. 4th
Edition. Stuttgart, 2008, pp. 127, pp. 311.
[3] S. Durmuş and A. Grillo, “Dafis great,” Lehrbuch A1. 1.1., Stil
Matbaacılık, Istanbul 2013, pp. 22.
[4] A. Uzağan, Turkish- Malay Conversation Book, First edition, Van,
2010, pp. 47.
[5] O. Coşkun, D. Gündüzalp, and B. Aydın, Cache-Cache 1. Cahier
d’activités (hide and seek 1, activity not book) A1.1. MEBPress,
Ankara, 2014, pp. 51.
[6] B. Said Nursi, The Words, Risale-I Nur Collection, RNK, İstanbul
2009, pp. 390.
[7] R. Yazçiçek, “Bilgi değeri açisindan cefrve ebced–harflerve
rakamlar metafiziği,” –Jafr and Abjad from the Point of Value of
Knowledge: The Metaphysics of Letters and Numbers.
[8] H. Akarsu (Translator) and B. Said Nursi, The Words, Risale-iNur
Collection, First Published by RNK.6th edition, İstanbul 2009, pp.
390.
[9] R. Yazçiçek, “Jafr and abjad from the point of value of knowledge:
the metaphysics of letters and numbers,” Milelve Nihal, vol. 2, no.
1, pp. 75-114, 2004.
[10] A. R. M. I. A. I. Rassoul (Translater), “Al Qur’an Al karim,”
Neml(ant) 27/65. 23, Auflage, IB Verlag Islamische Bibliothek
2000, pp. 502.
[11] Y. Nishiyama, “Counting with the fingers” International Journal
of Applied Mathematics, vol. 85, no. 5, pp. 859-868, 2013.
[12] O. Lindemann, A. Alipour, and M. H. Fischer, “Finger counting
habits in middle eastern and western individuals: an online
survey,” Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 2011.
[1]
VI. CONCLUSION
Counting is a cultural technique that is acquired of life
by the most children in the first four years, and it
universally relies on the use of body parts, most often the
fingers.
Finger counting has been documented in almost all
cultures and present and past, making the hand the
“earliest calculating machine”. The word digit comes
from Latin and means finger or toe. But today the
meaning the numerals that can be combined with others
to write larger numbers, and that cannot be itself split
into other numerals (0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9). [12]
By learning German counting in German language
make students quite confused and not easy to teach them.
Especially it happens after the number twenty they
always confused, because must speak first small numbers
and then big numbers. Additionally have to put ‘and’. In
many languages are except Arabic not like that. Instead
to say 234 (zweihundertvierunddreissig), they can be
irritated and saying zweihundertdreiundvierzig (243).
Romanic numerals as a letters they still teaching in the
schools, but not other languages such as Arabic,
Armenian or Hebrew. It is suggested to teach pupils and
students as part of general knowledge.
For some cultures got numbers that they find it
unlucky numbers. For example 13 for European brings
unlucky. Some activity they avoid to do on 13th of
month. Jesus Christ 13th follower Judais Iscariots was in
the last supper betrayer. In Italy number 13 is lucky
number, because it is associated with the ‘Great
Goddess’, who is responsible for fertility and lunar
cycles. Many Italians believe 13 bring prosperity and life
and it is seen as especially lucky when gambling. But 17
is unlucky. When viewed as the Roman numeral XVII, it
is then changed anagrammatically to VIXI, which in
Latin languages translate ‘I have lived’ means I am death
or my live is over (Vixerunt). In Italy there is no 17th
floor. Hotels do not have a room 17and so on.13 for
Hebrew unlucky because 13th letter is m and remember
‘mavet’ means death.
Similar have Chinese, for them unlucky numbers is 4.
Some apartments owned by Chinese got floor 3A and 3B
but nothing 4 to avoid using number 4 because 4 is
remembering death. 5 and 6 also considered for Chinese
unlucky numbers, but also lucky numbers.
©2015 Journal of Media & Mass Communication
Abdulkerim Uzağan was born in Yayladağı,
Turkey on 01.08.1965.He received his degree
from Çukurova University, Education Faculty
-Department of German Teaching Adana
Turkey, 1988, Master degree from Gazi
University Education Faculty Department of
German Teaching, Ankara, Turkey, 1995, and
PhD degree from University of Bielefeld
Faculty of Linguistics and Literary Studies
Linguistics Department, Bielefeld Germany,
1999.
He started to work 1989 at Yüzüncüyıl University as a assistant for
German language and literature in Van Turkey. 1989 and 1994he went
to Germany Schwaebisch-Hall and Munich for language course through
Goethe Institute scholarship for two months. 1995 he finished his
master degree and went through scholarship of higher education of
Turkey for PhD. to Germany. After he finished his Military service 16
months as a lieutenant for air force defense in Gebze Kocaeli Turkey
2001 he continued to work at his previous university. 2002 he went to
Malaysia and worked there four years at University Malaya and
University Tun Hussein Onn as a lecturer for German language. 2007
and 2008 he was working as a teacher for German in Lefke High school
Cyprus and Cağaloğlu High school in Istanbul. 2009 he became
assistant professor at Yüzüncüyıl University Faculty of literary studies
German language and literature department. Since 2010 he is the head
of department. He is member of Germanist Association in Turkey
(Gerder) and also International Germanistik Verein (IVG). His PhD:
fiction and reality in novel trilogy “the thrones fall” from Bruno Brehm.
Research interests: Linguistics, comparative linguistics, contemporary
German literature.
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