| Author |
Message |
Robert Bannister
Guest
|
| Posted: Sun May 22, 2005 5:54 am
Post subject: Re: what do you call the prisoners' counting numerals? |
|
|
John Dean wrote:
| Quote: | M. J. Powell wrote:
In message <1116182797.015699.157470@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>,
casioculture@gmail.com writes
Well, they're not exlusive to prisoners, but you see them often in
tails of prisoners using them in solitary confinement to count the
days; 1, 2, 3, 4 vertical scratches on the wall, and a fifth scratch
across them, and so on.
That's also the method of scoring in cricket.
For a very primitive form of scoring. No respectable scorer would use
the method and certainly not in any serious match.
|
No idea how it's done now, but as I recall from many decades ago, the
scorer wrote dots in the score book for each ball, replacing the dot
with a number for runs or a W for a wicket. I think there were a few
other, more esoteric symbols too.
--
Rob Bannister |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
Robert Bannister
Guest
|
| Posted: Sun May 22, 2005 5:58 am
Post subject: Re: what do you call the prisoners' counting numerals? |
|
|
Tony Cooper wrote:
| Quote: | On Mon, 16 May 2005 07:47:59 GMT, the Omrud <usenet.omrud@gmail.com
wrote:
Sara Lorimer spake thusly:
casioculture@gmail.com> wrote:
Well, they're not exlusive to prisoners, but you see them often in
tails of prisoners using them in solitary confinement to count the
days; 1, 2, 3, 4 vertical scratches on the wall, and a fifth scratch
across them, and so on.
As I said, nails and cement are not the only means of making them, ink
and paper seem to do just fine.
What do you call them?
Tally marks. Here are some other people make them:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tally_marks
Firstly, the example "from Europe" has the diagonal going the wrong
way. But more interestingly, these are of course tally marks, as
they are keeping count, but any other type of marks keeping count
would also be tally marks. These specific marks are, as John and I
have separately attested, called after the "gate" which they
resemble.
When I am employing tally marks, I make a vertical line for each of
the first four items, and a diagonal line through the four to indicate
the fifth. My diagonal goes \ (top left to bottom right). I am
left-handed.
Do right handed people make the diagonal /? I know that my check
marks are backwards compared to right-handed writers.
|
I'm right-handed and I use /, but The Omrud was wrong in stating "the
example 'from Europe'" - it said "Tally marks used in Europe and the
United States".
--
Rob Bannister |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Robert Bannister
Guest
|
| Posted: Sun May 22, 2005 6:03 am
Post subject: Re: what do you call the prisoners' counting numerals? |
|
|
Tony Cooper wrote:
| Quote: | I usually print, though, and even print when taking notes or
hand-writing large blocks of text. My cursive is so illegible - even
to me - that I print.
|
I blame computers. Once upon a time, I had quite neat handwriting, but
now, I can barely manage more than my signature. My shopping lists are
frequently unreadable even to me, and recently I had to write a short
letter by hand and it looked worse than a 5 year old could manage.
--
Rob Bannister |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| |
FAQ
Memberlist
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in