Jeff Guevin wrote (on unicode@...):

> Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2001 20.08
> To: Unicode
> Subject: Re: Digits shapes
>
>
> Duly noted, Gentleman, and not surprising at all. The only question
> remains, I suppose, LTR > RTL > LTR or ....? There's gotta
> be at least one math historian on this list....

Or experts of writing systems... That's why I keep on cross-posting this
thread to the Qalam list (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/qalam).

> > From: Edward Cherlin <edward.cherlin.sy.67@...>
> >
> > This is an FAQ. Europeans call them Arabic numerals because that's
> > where Europe got them from. Same problem as native American Turkeys
>
> >> From: Marco Cimarosti <marco.cimarosti@...>
>
> >> Why is it surprising? Both Arabs and Europeans called the
> digits with the
> >> name of the people they have borrowed them from.
> >> It is the same reason why the maize in Italian is called
> "granturco" (lit.
> >> Turkish Corn). Clearly, the new breed of corn coming from
> America reached
> >> Turkey first, and Turks exported it in Italy
>
>