"Arabic Numerals"

Bob_Hallissy@... wrote:

> When I was a young lad in school (in America), the numbers we wrote were
> called "Arabic numerals" -- I presume in order to distinguish them from
> "Roman numerals". But these things we were taught to call Arabic
> numerals (i.e., Unicode U+0030 - U+0039) are not used by a some, if not
> many, peoples whose languages are written with Arabic script -- they
> favor what Unicode calls "Arabic-Indic Digits" (U+0660 - U+0669) or
> "Extended Arabic-Indic Digits" (U+06F0 - U+06F9)
>
> So a few questions:
>
> How did the term "Arabic numerals" come to be used for digits that
> aren't, well, Arabic?

Probably for the reason you presumed -- to distinguish them from Roman numerals.
Schoolchildren in the USA generally learn about Roman numerals long before they
are introduced to any scripts other than Latin, if ever.

U+0030 through U+0039 are, in fact, derived from Arabic.

> Is this term still being taught? Just in America or elsewhere? Is there
> a better term?

Unicode informally uses the term "European digits," in contrast to "Arabic-Indic
digits." (See Unicode Standard Annex #9, "The Bidirectional Algorithm.") But,
of course, "European" would not make a good contrast to "Roman." The choice of
modifier depends on which distinction you are trying to draw.

> Is there a traditional name for the group of digits starting with
> U+0660?

In English? Probably not, which is why Unicode had to invent the awkward term
"Arabic-Indic Digits."

-Doug Ewell
posting from work in Irvine, California