Re: bidi language

John Cowan wrote:

> On a related topic: I have heard several Persian-speakers say
> that when
> handwriting it is customary to write numbers LTR with the
> most significant
> digit written first, as is done in Hebrew. But I have not been able
> to determine if the same is true when writing Arabic, or if the least
> significant digit is written first. Does anybody know?

My Arabic teacher says that he always writes number LTR, guessing in advance
how much space will be required for he number. But, then, he is a Moroccan,
and in North Africa they use European digits, and this might have influenced
the writing direction.

Moreover, different dialects use different word orders for saying high
numbers. E.g., "123" can be "hundred and twenty and three", "hundred and
three and twenty", or "three and twenty and hundred". I suspect that this
too can influence the way numbers are written.

_ Marco