Abbreviations for Systematic Numeric Prefixes
Each of the prefixes in Systematic Numeric Nomenclature: Dozenal (SNNz) begins with a sequence of digit root syllables, and ends with a "glue" suffix indicating whether the prefix is a multiplier, reciprocal, positive power, or negative power. Abbreviations for these prefixes represent each digit root, and each corresponding "glue" suffix, as a single letter.
Abbreviations for Digit Roots
Each digit root begins with a unique initial letter, which is used as its abbreviation. This uniqueness was achieved by carefully selecting among existing words for numbers from classical Latin and Greek. A "purist" approach of using only Latin roots, or only Greek roots, would have resulted in collisions (e.g. digit roots for 6 and 7 would have been hex and *hept in pure Greek, or *sext and sept in pure Latin). By choosing in one case a Greek root (e.g., hex for 6) and in another case a Latin root (e.g., sept for 7), such collisions are avoided.
The roots for the first ten digits (0 through 9) are idential with those which the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry chose for composing Systematic Element Names (temporary names for transuranium chemical elements). To support dozenal base, SNNz extends these with two additional roots, dec and lev, to represent ten and eleven as single digits (ᘔ and Ɛ). The choice for ten (dec) was obvious. The choice for eleven (lev), as a truncation of English eleven, appears to break the Classical pattern; however, even this root can be granted a Classical etymology.
Digit | Available Classical Roots | Abbr | Language Selection | Rationale | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Greek | Latin | ||||
0 | *ouden | nil | n | Latin | Greek ouden would collide with oct (and would also be hard to reduce to a single syllable). |
1 | *hen | un | u | Latin | Greek *hen would collide with hex. |
2 | bi | *di | b | Greek | Latin *di would collide with dec. |
3 | tri | tri | t | Both | Same in both languages (discounting Latin *tert(i)). |
4 | *tet(r) | quad(r) | q | Latin | Greek *tet(r) would collide with tri. |
5 | pent | *quint | p | Greek | Latin *quint would collide with quad(r). |
6 | hex | *sext | h | Greek | Latin *sext would collide with sept. |
7 | *hept | sept | s | Latin | Greek *hept would collide with hex. |
8 | oct | oct | o | Both | Same in both languages. |
9 | enn(e) | *non | e | Greek | Latin *non woud collide with nil (and might be confused for "not"). |
ᘔ | dec | dec | d | Both | Same in both languages. |
Ɛ | ? | lev | ℓ | Latin | Truncation of English eleven < OE endleofan literally "one left" (after counting to ten). Fancifully, from Latin laevus, lev‑ "on the left" or "to the left" (eleven being the natural number just to the left of dozen on the number line). |
The abbreviation for lev can, in theory, be simply a lower case Latin L (l), but since in some fonts this may be hard to distinguish from the numeral 1 or the upper case Latin I, this wiki will use the following alternate letter:
Code | Glyph | Name | Description |
---|---|---|---|
U+2113 | ℓ | SCRIPT SMALL L |
|
Abbreviations for Glue Suffixes
SNNz distinguishes its mulitplier, reciprocal, positive power, and negative power prefixes by terminating them with distinct "glue" suffixes, each of which may be abbreviated with a single character:
Form | Glue Suffix | Code | Glyph | Name | Description | Rationale | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Multiplier |
| U+2022 | • | BULLET | black small circle | conveys sense of "times" (multiplication) | |
U+002A | * | ASTERISK | star (on phone keypads) | ||||
Reciprocal | ‑infra· | U+005Cx | \ | REVERSE SOLIDUS | backslash | conveys sense of a denominator "under" the horizontal bar in a vulgar fraction | |
Power | Positive | ‑qua· | U+2191x | ↑ | UPWARDS ARROW | upward pointing arrow | conveys sense of "raising" the order of magnitude |
U+0040x | @ | COMMERCIAL AT | at sign | vaguely resembles the "Q" in ‑qua· | |||
Negative | ‑cia· | U+2193x | ↓ | DOWNWARDS ARROW | downward pointing arrow | conveys sense of "lowering" the order of magnitude | |
U+0023x | # | NUMBER SIGN | pound sign, hash, crosshatch, octothorpe | "hash" or "sharp" is evocative of "sh" sound in ‑cia· |
Where two abbreviations are specified, the first is favored in environments with full support for Unicode or full typesetting; these are the symbols this wiki will use. The second is an alternate symbol taken from the ASCII character set, and may be used in disadvantaged environments without full support for Unicode.