Why is it that languages can use different characters for letters (as in English and Japanese) but worldwide, the same characters are used for numbers?  Seems odd...

Have you been taking your medication?

Anyway, it probably has something to do with science and mathamatics more than anything else. Because science is conducted on a global scale today, SI units, Periodic IDs, and numbers are globally kept the same for simplicity and to avoid confusions in translation. Why they would use Latin characters is anybody's guess. Probably has something to do with the scienctific revolution ocuring in Europe.

i think it is because the world wants to be a global community (watch this space) and to achieve this the world will eventually revert to one currency, number system, language etc. . . . .

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Ah..... Pippen-san,

Sumimasen demo iie (excuse me but, no)..... Nihongo (Japanese) does have different Kanji (characters) for numbers.  The Japanese have just "assimilated" the western style of numbers for communication convenience ........ and because they tend to chase after "modern" western-type stuff and like to "fit in".  But they do have their own whole number system

The Japanese number system is more like Roman Numerals in the way the system works.  Can be very confusing for a gaijin (foreigner)....which is why they tend to use OUR numbers when dealing with us.  "Ni" is "two"...... "Ju" is "ten".  So "twelve" is "Ju Ni" (10 + 2) ...... and "twenty" is "Ni Ju" (2 X 10).  There is no million.....it is 100 - 10,000's  .

It gets even weirder...... cause you use different "designators" depending on WHAT it is that you are counting.  There are designators for "flat things" like paper...... designators for "round things" like a bottle....... and so on.  Then there is the fact that there are a few different counting systems..... one for ordinal numbers..... one for people...... one for the days of the month.... one for...... and so on.

Anyway....... off on a tangent here..... sorrry.

best,

..................john

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In the European "Dark Ages", after the fall of the Western and Eastern Roman Empires, the centers of knowledge was centered in Northern Africa, and with Islamic scholars and academics. Islam spread throughout Northern Africa and into the Iberian Peninsula, and would have spread northward into the rest of Europe, save for (name of battle forgotten) but led by Charlemagne.. <memory fails>,  In either event, the Moors kept the knowledge up in the Iberian peninsula until they were finally defeated in 1492.

Basically, trade etc., with the Arabs brought about the educating influences - not the "Suez Canal"...

If you ask my wife, she would tell you I spend too much time on it...