All modern languages as we are aware, have words and figures separately,
to represent numbers in writing. Of this, figures is nothing but an abbreviated
way of mentioning the respective word, in a easier and faster way. As such, the
figures should have developed in later stages of language development when the
demand for numerical representation in writing grew to intensive levels.
We observed that the numeral system of modern languages have two
components ie words and figures.Each language has its own set of words and
figures for this purpose.How many items constitute a set?
Let us take
English,for example.
Description No. of words used No of figures used
One, two, three……. 100 10
only
Up to
hundred
Thousand 1
Million 1
Billion 1
Total words
used 103
We observed earlier that, in the beginning Man would have done counting
using his 10 fingers only. It,therefore follows that the first natural language
would have had 10 words only for the 10 numbers.Later,when Man had to
represent, more than 10, he would have, extended the concept naturally and
said” ten plus one, ten plus two…. “etc. So, an essential attribute, of the
numeral system of the first language, should be a structure, complying with the
above principle.With respect to the numeral system ,the natural language, in
its evolution, could have adopted decimal system only, for the simple reason
that man has 10 fingers only and he could have used 10 fingers only for
counting.When he had to represent
numbers in writing, alphabet letters (as in Roman numerals) would have been his natural
choice.Later during the course of evolution of language,he would have invented
the figures like 1,2,3,etc to represent numbers in writing in a easier
figurative fashion.
In the early stages of
evolution of writing, words like one, two etc.would have been freely employed
to represent numbers. Later, when the need to use numbers increased, Man would
have felt the need for abbreviated characters to represent the numbers, in an
easier way. Then, he would have struck on the idea of using the familiar alphabet characters to
represent numbers. Thus, in English, the first letter of the alphabet ie.” a”
would have started representing the word one. So, it appears that the use of
alphabet letters for representing numbers figuratively, could be one of the
essential attributes of the first natural language. Let us examine the above principles in
relation to Tamil language. You will be surprised to know that Tamil numeral
system has the capacity to represent any number of any value with just 10 basic
numbers. With this ten numbers, denoting any large number is done on a very
simple and a logical method.
Let me illustrate this.
The ten basic numbers are
from 1 to 10. Suppose you want to indicate 11, it is nothing but 10 + 1. So it
is called by a word
that is made up of
words for 10 + 1. Likewise 20 is 2 tens .So it is called by a word comparing 2, 10 ! It is so easy and
natural! Then for 100 one word and for 1000 another. Two separate words for 90
and 900 are there for phonetic reasons.
Thus the entire numeral system in Tamil has only 14 words, as follows.
No
of words
For 1 to 9 – 9
10
- 1
90
- 1
100
- 1
900 - 1
1000 - 1
Total -
14
This means the English
speakers would have, had to coin 101 separate words for their number system. Let
me illustrate the simplicity of Tamil numerals.
Tamil 1-Onru
11-
Pathinonru= Pathu(10) + Onru(1)
12-Panirendu=Pathu(10)+Rendu(2)
Likewise upto 19
Tamil : 20-Irupathu means
two tens (Iru(2)+ Pathu(10))
30- Muppathu
means three tens (Mu+Pathu)
40-Narpathu means four tens (Nal+Pathu)
( Like wise it
goes for all multiples of tens except 90)
English: 20-twenty does not mean
two tens
30-thirty does not three tens
As mentioned earlier Tamil used
its alphabet letters for indicating numerals, like, most of the word languages
using Arabic numerals. Further, one unique feature of Tamil numerals is that all
numerals end with the same sound viz. `u pronounced like voo in the word
voodoo. The first ten numbers Onru,Irandu,Nalu,Ainthu etc.
The sole exception is the word for 1000.
Tamil has advanced numeral system as well.While in English the
maximum number that can be denoted is 'trillion' that is(1,000,000,000,000 or
1012 )
or a million million million in British usage,Tamil has a
word 'Maha Yugam' meaning
100,000,00,000,00,000,00,00,000 or 10 to the power of 22 !
.
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