James E Wilson wrote:
Joe Buck wrote:
The digits we use come from the Arabs, and look much the same in Arabic.
Check an Arabic-language site, for example http://www.aljazeera.net/ .
In English, we call them "Arabic Numerals", but that is a bit of a
misnomer. Once upon a time, a long time ago, some Arabs used digits
that looked something like the ones we use today, but not anymore.
Arabic actually has its own set of digits which are quite different from
the ones that we use.
as far as i know,
you are both right and wrong. the arabic numerals we know (and indeed acquired
from the arabs) are characteristic of the western arabic dialects.
For example today in Morocco, that is what you will see. The eastern
arabic dialects, e.g. in Egypt, use quite different numerals closer
to Indian roots.
i certainly find the Wikipedia article inconsistent with what I have
read elsewhere, e.g.
http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/HistTopics/Arabic_numerals.html
which shows al-Banna al-Marrakushi's form of the numerals to be very similar
to our own, and with my personal observations in Morocco.
