Re: VMs: Arabic

[Bruce Grant <bgrant@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Rene Zandbergen wrote:

>  Letters, when used as numbers, follow the order
>  of the Hebrew alphabet, those peculiar to Arabic
>  coming last, they represent the units, tens,
>  hundreds, and a thousand. They are divided into
>  these Barbarous words: _
>  <List of barbarous words in aArabic script omitted>
>
> The principle is clear, this is how numbers are
> (were?) written also in Greek: iota-beta = 12,
> a number occurring often in astronimical works.
>
> But what about these barabarous words??
>  
I interpreted the term "barbarous words" to mean that that they aren't 
really words in Arabic, just a mnemonic device to remember the order of 
the corresponding letters in Hebrew, which is different.

That is, the first five letters in the Hebrew alphabet are: aleph, beth, 
gimel, daleth, he,  which are used to represent the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 
5 respectively. This system maps each Hebrew character to the Arabic 
character with the closest sound:  alif, ba, jim, dal, ha. However, the 
Arabic characters are in positions 1, 2, 5, 8, and 26 respectively in 
the Arabic alphabet.

So I think the "barbarous words" are just a way for an Arabic speaker to 
remember the Hebrew alphabetical order.

This reminds me of some English "barbarous words" I learned as a kid - a 
bit of doggerel for remembering the order of the signs of the Zodiac:

     " The ramble twins crab liverish
      Scaly scorpions are good water fish"

So "ramble" = Ram/Bull , "liverish" = Leo/Virgo. "scaly" = Libra, "good" 
= goat (Capricorn) and so on. Not good English, but it does the job.

Regards,

Bruce


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