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Guest
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| Posted: Mon May 16, 2005 12:46 am
Post subject: what do you call the prisoners' counting numerals? |
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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? |
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Mark Brader
Guest
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| Posted: Mon May 16, 2005 1:05 am
Post subject: Re: what do you call the prisoners' counting numerals? |
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| Quote: | Well, they're not exlusive to prisoners, but you see them often in
[tales] 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.
...
What do you call them?
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Tally marks.
--
Mark Brader, Toronto "Constrain your data early and often."
msb@vex.net -- C. M. Sperberg-McQueen |
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Tony Cooper
Guest
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| Posted: Mon May 16, 2005 1:13 am
Post subject: Re: what do you call the prisoners' counting numerals? |
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On Sun, 15 May 2005 19:05:50 -0000, msb@vex.net (Mark Brader) wrote:
| Quote: | Well, they're not exlusive to prisoners, but you see them often in
[tales] 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.
...
What do you call them?
Tally marks.
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Hopefully, our Laura is elsewhere. I don't think she does calypso.
--
Tony Cooper
Orlando FL |
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Mark Brader
Guest
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| Posted: Mon May 16, 2005 1:29 am
Post subject: Re: what do you call the prisoners' counting numerals? |
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| Quote: | What do you call them?
Tally marks.
Hopefully, our Laura is elsewhere. I don't think she does calypso.
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I didn't have a-spira-tions to a response like that!
Let's see, there's Mark Brader, Mark Barratt, Mark Odegard, Mark Israel...
--
Mark Brader, Toronto "Do people confuse me with Mark Brader?"
msb@vex.net --Mark Barratt |
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the Omrud
Guest
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| Posted: Mon May 16, 2005 1:32 am
Post subject: Re: what do you call the prisoners' counting numerals? |
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spake thusly:
| Quote: | 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?
|
I've always called them "gate <something>". Gate marks? Gate
charts? Gate counts? Anyway, the five lines look like a five-bar
gate. I strongly suspect I got this from Dad, who was a draftsman.
--
David
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John Dean
Guest
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| Posted: Mon May 16, 2005 3:45 am
Post subject: Re: what do you call the prisoners' counting numerals? |
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casioculture@gmail.com wrote:
| Quote: | 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?
|
In the Brit Civil Service we always called it the five-bar gate system
because a completed tally of five items looks like a gate with four
horizontal bars and one diagonal. Very useful system for all kinds of
running total.
--
John Dean
Oxford |
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Mike Barnes
Guest
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| Posted: Mon May 16, 2005 4:00 am
Post subject: Re: what do you call the prisoners' counting numerals? |
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In alt.usage.english, John Dean wrote:
| Quote: | In the Brit Civil Service we always called it the five-bar gate system
because a completed tally of five items looks like a gate with four
horizontal bars and one diagonal.
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A five bar gate has five horizontal bars. The tally has four bars, not
five, and they're vertical, not horizontal.
But it's close enough for government work, I'd say.
--
Mike Barnes
Cheshire, England |
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M. J. Powell
Guest
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| Posted: Mon May 16, 2005 5:03 am
Post subject: Re: what do you call the prisoners' counting numerals? |
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In message <1116182797.015699.157470@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>,
casioculture@gmail.com writes
| Quote: |
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.
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That's also the method of scoring in cricket.
Mike |
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Sara Lorimer
Guest
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| Posted: Mon May 16, 2005 7:09 am
Post subject: Re: what do you call the prisoners' counting numerals? |
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<casioculture@gmail.com> wrote:
| Quote: | 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>
--
SML |
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R H Draney
Guest
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| Posted: Mon May 16, 2005 7:09 am
Post subject: Re: what do you call the prisoners' counting numerals? |
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Tony Cooper filted:
| Quote: |
On Sun, 15 May 2005 19:05:50 -0000, msb@vex.net (Mark Brader) wrote:
Well, they're not exlusive to prisoners, but you see them often in
[tales] 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.
...
What do you call them?
Tally marks.
Hopefully, our Laura is elsewhere. I don't think she does calypso.
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Hiding from the deadly black tarant'la, I suppose....
I've also heard of the scratches being called "counting in base one"....r |
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the Omrud
Guest
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| Posted: Mon May 16, 2005 1:47 pm
Post subject: Re: what do you call the prisoners' counting numerals? |
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Sara Lorimer spake thusly:
| Quote: | 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
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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.
--
David
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Mike Barnes
Guest
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| Posted: Mon May 16, 2005 2:18 pm
Post subject: Re: what do you call the prisoners' counting numerals? |
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In alt.usage.english, the Omrud wrote:
No it doesn't.
--
Mike "left handed" Barnes
Cheshire, England |
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J. J. Lodder
Guest
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| Posted: Mon May 16, 2005 2:19 pm
Post subject: Re: what do you call the prisoners' counting numerals? |
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Sara Lorimer <que.sara.saraDELETE@gmail.com> wrote:
| Quote: | 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
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Strange how counting and telling are mixed.
German and Dutch have 'zahlen', 'tellen', for counting,
and 'erzahlen', 'vertellen', for telling tales.
In English only the seconds meaning survives,
but it seems plausible that a trace of earlier usage survives
in 'tally',
Jan |
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the Omrud
Guest
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| Posted: Mon May 16, 2005 3:02 pm
Post subject: Re: what do you call the prisoners' counting numerals? |
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J. J. Lodder spake thusly:
| Quote: | Sara Lorimer <que.sara.saraDELETE@gmail.com> wrote:
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
Strange how counting and telling are mixed.
German and Dutch have 'zahlen', 'tellen', for counting,
and 'erzahlen', 'vertellen', for telling tales.
In English only the seconds meaning survives,
but it seems plausible that a trace of earlier usage survives
in 'tally',
|
It's a little old fashioned perhaps, but it survives in "bank
teller" (including Automatic ATM Machine), and also means a person
who counts votes at an election.
--
David
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Ross Howard
Guest
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| Posted: Mon May 16, 2005 4:14 pm
Post subject: Re: what do you call the prisoners' counting numerals? |
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On Mon, 16 May 2005 09:02:19 GMT, the Omrud <usenet.omrud@gmail.com>
wrought:
| Quote: | J. J. Lodder spake thusly:
Sara Lorimer <que.sara.saraDELETE@gmail.com> wrote:
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
Strange how counting and telling are mixed.
German and Dutch have 'zahlen', 'tellen', for counting,
and 'erzahlen', 'vertellen', for telling tales.
In English only the seconds meaning survives,
but it seems plausible that a trace of earlier usage survives
in 'tally',
It's a little old fashioned perhaps, but it survives in "bank
teller" (including Automatic ATM Machine), and also means a person
who counts votes at an election.
|
How about "till" (cash register)?
--
Ross Howard |
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