More Scadrian number fun

[+Oltux72 he/him]

While @Eri looked at unambiguous fractions, there is another occasion where Scadrians use numbers of their own choice on screen. Steris does a ranking with numbers up to 100. Now this may be seen as choosing an arbitrary positive number or as a fraction with essentially a utility rating between 0 and 1. There are also 100 clips to the boxing and there are coins of 10 boxings, not 16.

I am afraid we are forced to conclude that Northern Scadrial uses two number systems. Contrary to what one may assume languages do borrow numbers. A language that has done so is, likely not so incidentally, Korean. But these numbers still use the same base. I have been unable to find an example of a language that has done that. Anyway, in such cases of borrowing it is usual that the borrowed numbers are from a more advanced or prestigious culture and allow counting up to higher numbers.

Hence I suspect that the base-16 system is Terris, based on Rashek being Terris, but has never stomped out the old native numbers of the Central Dominance, which are based on 10, with 100 being the largest number word in the native numbers, so if you go beyond 999, you need to go base-16, which we know from the reproduced broadsheets to have much higher number words.

Edited July 18, 2021 by Oltux72
typo

[Mage he/him]

Sounds right to me. If I had to guess, the relationship between base 16 and base 10 is similar to High Imperial vs. Normal Speech. I'm not an anthropologist or anything, but I suspect that so many number systems are based on 10 just because that is how many fingers humans have.

[Szeth Pancakes he/they]

4 hours ago, Mage said:

I'm not an anthropologist or anything, but I suspect that so many number systems are based on 10 just because that is how many fingers humans have.

I do believe that is the theory that is most widely accepted.

[Frustration]

10 hours ago, Oltux72 said:

While @Eri looked at unambiguous fractions, there is another occasion where Scadrians use numbers of their own choice on screen. Steris does a ranking with numbers up to 100. Now this may be seen as choosing an arbitrary positive number or as a fraction with essentially a utility rating between 0 and 1. There are also 100 clips to the boxing and there are coins of 10 boxings, not 16.

I am afraid we are forced to conclude that Northern Scadrial uses two number systems. Contrary to what one may assume languages do borrow numbers. A language that has done so is, likely not so incidentally, Korean. But these numbers still use the same base. I have been unable to find an example of a language that has done that. Anyway, in such cases of borrowing it is usual that the borrowed numbers are from a more advanced or prestigious culture and allow counting up to higher numbers.

Hence I suspect that the base-16 system is Terris, based on Rashek being Terris, but has never stomped out the old native numbers of the Central Dominance, which are based on 10, with 100 being the largest number word in the native numbers, so if you go beyond 999, you need to go base-16, which we know from the reproduced broadsheets to have much higher number words.

I think it's more a translation thing Brandon does, like how a Dozen in SA is actually ten.

so 100 is actually 256

[+Oltux72 he/him]

5 hours ago, Frustration said:

I think it's more a translation thing Brandon does, like how a Dozen in SA is actually ten.

so 100 is actually 256

Possible. Any ideas how to tell this apart? We would need some external source of numbers.

[AquaRegia he/him]

I also find this fascinating.  Inconsistencies like this do seem to require explanations; however, I find myself wondering if it's possible that we are thinking about these details more deeply than even Brandon does.  He is a rusting genius... but we have WAY more spare time on our hands than he does.

[Halyo_Alex he/him]

This isn't any sort of hard truth answer, but my personal headcanon is that Brandon is writing this stuff as though we're (or he's) using Connection to translate what's being said, etc, so that it makes sense for Earth readers as best it can.

[Frustration]

1 hour ago, AquaRegia said:

I also find this fascinating.  Inconsistencies like this do seem to require explanations; however, I find myself wondering if it's possible that we are thinking about these details more deeply than even Brandon does.  He is a rusting genius... but we have WAY more spare time on our hands than he does.

And there are more of us.

It's been my motto for a long time as a aspiring writer, "No matter how smart you are, your readers are smarter."