Alphabetical notation of numbers

Greek

Note 1. In Byzantine times, instead of digamma (ϝ), the value 6 began to express stigma (ϛ) , the ligature of the letters sigma (σ) and tau (τ) .

Note 2. The archaic letters koppa (ϟ) and sampi (ϡ) are not even included in the classical 24-letter ancient Greek alphabet , but are still rarely used to write numbers (with values ​​of 90 and 900, respectively).

To write numbers, both lowercase and uppercase letters could be used. Order: hundreds, tens, units. Numbers from the words of the text differed in that a line was drawn above them and (or) a line was put after the number (“numerical apostrophe”). Thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands were denoted by the same letters as simple units, tens, hundreds, but with a stroke at the bottom left:, α σ λ δ '= 1234.

In the printed books, due to the lack of letters for koppa and sampi, similar signs were usually used: Jewish lamed (ל) instead of koppa and a sign like the capital Russian letter “E” instead of sampi. The stigma was put lowercase even in numbers typed in capital letters.

Arabic

• Abjadiya

Cyrillic

The letter-to-letter Cyrillic system reproduces Greek. In the standard Church Slavonic version, used today, it has the following form:

To write numbers, almost exclusively lowercase letters are used (even as part of text typed in some capital letters), although occasionally you can find examples of the use of capital letters. The order is usual: hundreds, tens, ones, but in numbers ending in 11, 12, ..., 19, the last two characters are rearranged according to the Slavic reading (one-for-twenty, that is, first “one”, and then “twenty” = ten). Thousands, tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands are denoted by the same letters as ordinary units, tens, hundreds, but a special “҂” sign is placed on the left (or lower left). To distinguish from ordinary words of the text, a special “ titlo ” sign is placed above the number (above the single or penultimate letter). Example: Slave = 1234.

Notes:

• The numeral value 5 was originally carried by the ordinary letter e , the so-called narrow e , but since, according to Church Slavonic spelling, it could not be at the beginning of the word or in isolation, later another version of it began to be used є , the so-called wide e , from which the Ukrainian subsequently developed the letter "є" .
• For the numerical value 6 in ancient times, both the usual letter “zelo” (() and mirror-inverted were used.
• The letter “i” has no points in the numerical use.
• For the same reason as for 5, for a numeric value of 70, not the usual letter “o” is usually used, but its so-called “wide” variant (ѻ, this symbol in Unicode is misunderstoodly called “round omega”, English round omega )
• The value 90 in the most ancient Cyrillic texts was expressed not by the letter “h” , but by the sign “coppa” (ҁ) borrowed from the Greek.
• In Ukrainian Church Slavonic publications until the last quarter of the 19th century (and in Western Ukraine and later), not the usual letter “c” (very narrow and small in semi- standard fonts) was used in the meaning 200, but its large round version (wider than the capital “C ", But smaller vertically).
• The value 400 in antiquity was expressed by the letter izhitsa (ѵ) , later the so-called “ik” is a y-shaped sign used only as a number and as part of the digraph “uk” (ѹ). The use of numerical value ika is typical for Russian publications, and izitsa - for the old Ukrainian, later South Slavic and Romanian.
• In the value of 800, both “naked” omega (ѡ) and (more often) the composite “from” sign (ѿ) could be used; for more details see the article “ Omega (Cyrillic) ”.
• The value 900 in antiquity was expressed in small yus (ѧ) , somewhat similar to the corresponding Greek letter “sampi” (Ϡ) ; later in this meaning the letter "c" began to be used.

In addition, ancient versions of the Cyrillic notation of numbers could differ as follows:

• before and after the number, and sometimes between the “numbers”, dots were set;
• a title sign could be placed above each letter, or it could be long and cover the whole number;
• in the case of monetary amounts, the titlo was sometimes replaced by the superscript ligature "ru", "de" or the letter "a", respectively, with the symbols of the ruble , deng or altyn ;
• large numbers (tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands) could be expressed not as a “҂” + letter for tens or hundreds, but as a letter for units, specially circled; different ways of such a contour corresponded to different categories: a solid circle - tens of thousands ("darks"), dotted - hundreds of thousands ("legions"), of commas - millions ("leodrons"), of crosses - tens of millions ("vrana") and t.; however, for large numbers, these notations were rather unstable;
• in old-printed books of Western Ukrainian origin, more accurately reproducing the Greek notation, a stroke (sometimes looking like an accent over the last letter) could be put at the end of the numbers.
• Church Slavonic isopssephia

Tibetan

In Tibet, the Tibetan alphabet is used to number pages and books in libraries. From 1 to 30 - simple letters, from 31 to 60 - the same letters with vocalization gigu, from 61 to 90 - with vocalization by jabby, from 91 to 120 - drenbu, from 121 to 150 - naro. A similar system is used in Tibetan astrology kartsi.

• “Creounity Time Machine” is a numismatic date converter, including the following alphabetical systems: Russian Cyrillic, Jewish, Georgian, etc.
• “Titlo” is a translator of numbers from a modern record to a record in Cyrillic and Glagolitic letters (and vice versa), etc.

• Jeromonom Alѵpіy (Gamanovich), Grammar of the Church Slavonic language , Jordanville: Holy Trinity Monastery, 1964. [There are reprints.]
• BA van Groningen, Short manual of Greek palaeography , Leiden: AW Sijthoff's Uitgeversmaatschappij NV, 1955.
• G. Ifrah, The universal history of numbers , NY etc .: John Wiley & Sons, 2000. ISBN 0-471-39340-1 .