![symbols for numbers in different languages symbols for numbers in different languages](http://trevor-hopkins.com/banks/marain3.gif)
Some people write 3 with a flat top, others with a curvy top. Many Europeans write 1 with a long "hat" (looking a lot like an American 7) while Americans tend to write it either as a single straight line, or with a short "hat" and a base. Many computer geeks and engineers often cross their 0's to distinguish them from the letter O, but this doesn't work for Danish-speakers, for whom Ø is a different letter. Third, the numerals are written differently in different parts of the world, when written by hand: We call our numerals "Arabic" (or "Hindu-Arabic" if we're being more accurate) but they are not the same as the classical Arabic or Hindu numerals. So there was a huge advantage to people in switching from other numeral systems to the modern one, back in the day when most calculation was done by hand. Go look up the Greek-Hebrew one it's great for making secret codes but lousy for doing long division. And most other number systems were worse than Roman numerals. Doing it in Roman numerals is a lot harder: DLXXIV × IX: first you have to unpack the subtractives IV and IX to form IIII and VIIII then you multiply each digit on the left by each on the right then you sort them in descending order and then you group up any IIIII's to make V's and so on. If you want to multiply 574 × 9, you can multiply 500 × 9, 70 × 9, and 4 × 9 and then add up the results. The big difference is in place value, which means you can calculate one digit at a time and add up the results quickly. Over time, more characters and symbols were added to accommodate the needs of other regional languages.First, not all numeral systems are created equal! It is actually a lot easier to do arithmetic with Hindu-Arabic numerals (the ones we use) than with Roman numerals, Mayan numerals, Greek-Hebrew numerals, or Babylonian numerals. As Islam spread around the world, it took the Arabic script with it. This script dates back to around 400 AD, although its first large-scale use was to write the Qu’ran. Unlike the other previously mentioned scripts, Arabic is written from right to left. Around 660 million individuals use Arabic script to communicate in a number of languages, including: Urdu, Pashto, Arabic, Punjabi, Persian, Malaysian, and Kurdish (to name a few). ArabicĪrabic is the third most widely used script in the world. This script consists of thousands of characters and is considered the oldest continuously utilized form of writing in the world, with evidence of its use dating back to as early as the Shang Dynasty of 1200 BC. In fact, an estimated 1.34 billion people around the world use Chinese characters in written communication. The characters of this writing script are considered logograms and used in several different languages across Asia, including: Chinese, Korean, and Japanese. The second most widely used script in the world is Chinese, also known as hanzi, kanji, or hanja. Some of the major language families that utilize this script include: Germanic, Romance, Polish, Austronesian, and Turkish (among others). The Latin alphabet is also used as the basis for the International Phonetic Alphabet, which is used to express the phonetics of all languages. This script originated in present-day Italy and has since spread around the world with the help of several historic events, most notably: the Roman Empire, Christianity, and European colonization.
![symbols for numbers in different languages symbols for numbers in different languages](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/29/16/73/291673c9260953b58e802484df712381.jpg)
![symbols for numbers in different languages symbols for numbers in different languages](https://thewaythetruthandthelife.net/index/2_background/2-1_cosmological/2-1-11_math/2-1-11-01_numbers-functions/2-1-11-01-01_number-symbols/alphabet.gif)
Around 4.9 billion people or 70% of the global population relies on this alphabet, which generally consists of an average of 26 letters, to write a range of languages. Latin is an alphabet type of script and the most widely used in the world. The Most Popular Writing Scripts in The World 1. This article takes a closer look at some of the most widely used writing scripts in the world. An alphabet uses separate symbols that represent a specific sound to form a word. Syllabary is a script that uses symbols to represent the syllables in a word. Logograms are written by using one character to represent an entire word or idea. These writing scripts can be classified into the following categories: logogram, syllabary, and alphabet. Languages from around the world are written by using a number of scripts.