--- Ong Yong Peng <yongpeng.ong@...> skrev:

> Hello, Sol,
>
> su~n~na means empty or void. It is interesting to
> point out that the
> Indians were probably first to grasp the concept of
> zero, and likely
> due to this concept of su~n~na. It takes the rest of
> humankind much
> longer to 'count' zero as a number. In fact,
> according to historians,
> the Arab numeral 0 comes from India.

In the Italian language and some others, all numbers
are taken over from latin - except zero, which I think
comes from Arabian "sifr". (On the other hand, there
may be a connection between the Teutonic null/noll and
the Latin nihil.) You can't express the concept "zero"
with Roman numbers (I, II, III etc.). That's why
Western chronology doesn't have a Year Zero - 1 B. C.
is immediately followed by 1 A. D.

Same in the Western version of Theravada chronololy in
Sri Lanka and Burma, by the way; but the Eastern
version in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia does have a
Year Zero. That's why the year 2500 was 1956 in Burma,
but 1957 in Thailand.

Gunnar


gunnargallmo@...