Re: Arabic numbers

From: Ed Trager (ed.trager@gmail.com)
Date: Thu Mar 15 2007 - 19:28:30 CST

  • Next message: Don Osborn: "RE: Arabic numbers"

    Here's an idea:

    Why not just give the kids (or the teachers who set it up for the
    kids) the option to use *both* Arabic 01234... and Arabic-Indic ٠١٢٣٤
    numeral sets ?

    This way the kids will get the opportunity to learn both sets, which
    they are going to need to learn sooner or later anyway. I don't think
    anyone can argue with that, can they?

    - Ed Trager

    On 3/15/07, Behnam <behnam.rassi@gmail.com> wrote:
    > On 15-Mar-07, at 2:44 PM, Hans Aberg wrote:
    >
    > > On 14 Mar 2007, at 23:14, James Tu wrote:
    > >
    > >> We are working on a kid's website that targets 5 languages and one
    > >> of them is Arabic. We were wondering whether we should be using
    > >> (arabic numbers) vs ٠١٢٣٤٣٥٦٧٨٩ (indian
    > >> numbers, I found out that the real Arabic numbers are called
    > >> indian numbers. :) ) This will mostly be used when a user is
    > >> entering and ID number to log into the site.
    > >
    > > Though not a children's site, here is one in both English and Arabic:
    > > http://www.aljazeera.net/
    > > http://english.aljazeera.net/
    > >
    > > Hans Aberg
    >
    > The problem of Mr. Tu is a minor one, and characters to be used for
    > logging in is not really a language issue.
    > I also can not speak for Arabs but I give you another example of
    > adult sites, this one in Persian. The journalists of BBC Persian site
    > are very knowledgeable Persian writers and maintain an outstanding
    > standard of Persian writing. They KNOW that English numbers within
    > Persian text don't belong. Yet the numbers are English. This can only
    > be a technological limitation forced upon them.
    > http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/iran/story/2007/03/070315_v-iran-
    > nuclrear-reso3.shtml
    > I view this page with UTF-8 encoding. The numbers are English. I'm
    > told IE browsers on PC manage to display them in Persian (Indic).
    > Nevertheless the encoding is in English.
    > Many people may refer to this page and conclude that English numbers
    > in Persian text is an acceptable behavior in Persian language. It is
    > not.
    > How reliable would be our conclusion, when viewing Aljazeera?
    >
    > Behnam
    >
    >



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