date created:: 2024-11-30 23:47
date modified:: 2024-12-09 17:40
Status:: 🌿budding

8.1 Kaktovik numerals are a base-20 system of numerical digits for use in the Iñupiaq language

Kaktovic numerals are a base-20 system of numerical digits designed for use with the Iñupiaq language. They were created by Alaskan Iñupiaq students in Kakotvik, Alaska in 1994. The shape of each digit indicates the number it represents.

Since Iñupiaq uses a base-20 counting system with a sub-base of 5, Arabic numerals (which use a base-10 system) are inadequate for counting in Iñupiaq. Quantities are counted in scores (as in French quatre-vingts 'eighty') with a intermediate numerals for 5, 10 and 15.

I really like the fact that the number of strokes in the numerals represents the number itself. I believe the original form of the Arabic numerals did something similar but that has been lost overs the years. Having the the number represented in the digit makes addition and subtraction much more intuitive