Wyldian Dragon Treasure Counting!

Wyldian Dragon Treasure Counting!

The Wyldian Dragon Treasure Counting System!

PART ONE: SYMBOLS.

Because I don't want to do this entire thing in an image file, I will be substituting common Romanized characters for the actual Wyldian characters. Please note that the characters I chose are just the characters that look closest to the actual Wyldian symbols. They have nothing to do with pronunciation whatsoever.

r - This represents the shwlur (pronounced shoo-luhr) or "claw." It has a value of 1 (one) unit

y - This represents the ddymat (pronounced th-eye-m-ah-t, with a hard "th" as in "That") or "hand" (sometimes translated as "talon" when pertaining to dragons); it has a value of 5 (five) units. There are five claws (or fingers) on a hand.

x - This represents the bothwr (pronounced both-oor, with a short "o" sound and then a long "oo" sound) or "body." It has a value of 20 (twenty) units. There are four "hands" in a body. (Remember, a dragon's hind-talons can grasp nearly as well as their fore-talons.)

These three symbols together are used to create the first 99 "simple" digits. I say "simple" because Wyldian Dragon Treasure Counting is a Base-100 system. In other words, the combined symbols that make the numbers up through ninety-nine are considered single-digit and therefore "simple." (I suggest you keep reading straight down, but if
you want to, you can go to parts two or four for a little more information on this.)

w – This represents the thwrar (pronounced thoo-r-ah-r, with a soft "th" as in "with" and a long "oo" sound) or "wing." It serves as a place-holder, sort of like the numeral "0." A wing can hold nothing. In use in numbers, w is pronounced wn.

PART TWO: MATH MOMENT

Let's talk about number systems as a point of reference before we move on. Our standard decimal number system is a Base-10 system. If you want to have some fun with exploring what that means, search for "Base Ten Blocks"

The short is, our standard decimal system has a ones column, a tens column, a hundreds column, a thousands column, and so forth.

We have ten numerals in our decimal number system, specifically 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9. The concept of ten is expressed as "10," with the numeral "1" in the tens column and "0" in the ones column. It means there is one group of tens and no groups of ones. We have no specific numeral for the concept of ten because a complete group of ten becomes a "1" in the next column. Ten groups of ten become one group of one-hundred (100). Ten groups of one-hundred becomes
one-thousand (1000).

In a Base-5 system, you would have a ones column, a fives column, a twenty-fives column, a one-hundred-twenty-fives column, and so forth. 10 in a base-5 system would mean one group of five and no groups of ones. No numeral above "4" would appear in a base-5 system, because a complete group of five becomes a one in the next column. (So, the
count would be 1, 2, 3, 4, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 20, 21, 22, 23…) 23 would mean two groups of five units and three groups of one unit. In our number system, it would be 5+5+3=13.

The Babylonian Number System is a Base-60 system. The Babylonians combined two basic symbols for digits one through fifty-nine. (Google "Babylonian Numerals" if you want to see how.)

So, when I say that this Wyldian number system is base-100, I mean that there are 99 numerals in total, and those numerals are created from the three basic symbols from above (r, y, and x). The first column is the ones column, the second column is the 100s column, the third column is the 10,000s column, and so forth.

Our decimal number system is positional. A tally system is not a positional system. It doesn't matter where you put the tally mark. || is | | is | | and you can't really look at it any other way. In our number system, 12 is not the same as 21.

The Wyldian number system is also positional. xyrrr is not the same as y'xrrr.

I think that really covers the basic math knowledge you might want move on. I like to think that it's really simple. If you hit a wall reading through this and need to know something more, comment and tell me. I'll try to edit and fix it up.

PART THREE: COMBINING THE SYMBOLS

Combining the symbols seems simple and straightforward to me, but I came up with it. So, let's start with "r". For each individual unit up to four, you put an individual "r" symbol.

So, r is 1, rr is 2, rrr is 3, and rrrr is 4.

A single r is pronounced an.
rr is pronounced ar.
rrr is pronounced ac. ("C" makes the hard "K" sound.)
rrrr is pronounced as.

Now, think, how many fingers are on a single hand? That's right, five! So, when you reach five, you have a full hand. Therefore...

y is 5, yy is 10, and yyy is 15.

A single y is pronounced in.
yy is pronounced ir.
yyy is pronounced ic.

(If you're wondering how to get 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, and all those other numbers, we'll get there. Stay with me.)

Now many "hands" are in a body? (We're including feet in the general category of hands here, remembering that a dragons hind-talons grasp as well as their fore-talons.) That's right, four! So, just like you have a full hand with five claws, you have a full body with four hands. Therefore...

x[/x] is 20, xx is 40, xxx is 60, and xxxx is 80.

A single x is pronounced yn (eye-n).
xx is pronounced yr (eye-r).
xxx is pronounced yc (eye-c).
xxxx is pronounced ys (eye-s).

Now, we take these basic facts and combine them to create the full set from 1 to 99.

r is 1 and is pronounced an.
rr is 2 and is pronounced ar.
rrr is 3 and is pronounced ac.
rrrr is 4 and is pronounced as.
y is 5 and is pronounced in[/in].
yr is 6 and is pronounced inan. It combines the basic sound for the single hand symbol with the basic sound for the single claw symbol.
yrr is 7 and is pronounced inar. It combines the basic sound for the single hand symbol with the basic sound for two claw symbols.
yrrr is 8 and is pronounced inac.

I hope you're catching on here. You add together the number of each symbol you need to get to the number you want. It's like adding pennies, nickels, and strange quarters that are only worth twenty cents together using the smallest number of coins to get the amount of coinage you want.

Here are some more examples.

yyr is 11 and is pronounced iran.
xyr is 26 and is pronounced yninan.
xxyyyrr is 57 and is pronounced yricar.
xxxxyyyrrrr is 99 and is pronounced ysicas.

See if you can come up with the right combinations on your own for other numbers! Can you make your age in Wyldian numbers? Feel free to ask me if you've got it down.

PART FOUR: BREAKING INTO THE HUNDREDS

So you made it to ninety-nine and you want to add one more thing to the horde of treasure that you're counting. Good for you! I'm sure you're wondering, "What do I do now? Do I make another x for the next complete group of twenty?"

The answer is, quite simply, no.

When we get to "9" in our wondrous decimal system, we don't add one and use another single-digit numeral to show the value of 10. We put a "1" in the tens column and leave a "0" in the ones column, which produces the two-digit number 10.

Remember when I said that Wyldian Dragon Treasure Counting is a Base-100 system? Remember when I said that numbers one through ninety-nine (or, you know, an through ysicas) are the "simple" digits?

A complete group of one hundred is shown by one "r" in the hundreds column and nothing in the ones column. That nothing is filled with the "w" placeholder to keep it from being confusing. After all, if "r" alone can be either one or one-hundred, that would just be... confusing.

r'w means 100 and is pronounced anwn or anllwn. (You could write it an'wn or an'll'wn, but all those apostrophes can get confusing later down the line.)

(Little digression here: Pronouncing the "ll" sound! I go over this in several places, but I'll do it again for kicks. Put your tongue in the position like you're about to make the "L" sound, as found in "like." Instead of actually making the "L" sound, just blow across your tongue. It comes out like a sort of angry cat hiss noise. If you're not sure that you're doing it right, or if you want other explanations, do a search for "Welsh LL Sound" and you'll surely find some great websites with explanations. I know I have.)

The "ll" sound comes in as a verbal cue that there are multiple columns in the number. It sort of does the same thing that the apostrophe does, but verbally instead of visually. Some dragons decided it was less confusing to stick in a verbal cue, so they started using it. I like it, so I use it, too. (The Rainbow Dragons don't like it much because they find it makes them spit when they talk, and they feel that spit-talk is uncivilized. They only use it in times when otherwise it would be confusing, like in x'r, which would be verbally ynan without the "ll" and therefore sound like 21, a considerably smaller number than 2001.)

Why is there that apostrophe? Well, if there weren't, then you might get confused when you see rr.

rr is 2, as you recall. But if it's one r in the first column and one r in the second column, then it means 101. So, visually, we break the columns with that little ', making r'r mean 101 pronounced anllan (or anan, if you're a non-hisser.)

Now you can make numbers up to 9,999! Try making your birth year!

Some examples!

r'xyr is 126 and is pronounced anllyninan.
yyyrrrr'xxxxy is 1985 and is pronounced icasllysin.
xx'w is 4000 and is pronounced yrllwn.

Do you want to break into the ten-thousands? Just add another column, as you would when you hit 999 in our number system.

r'w'w is 10,000 and is pronounced anllwnllwn.
y'rr'x is 50,220 and is pronounced inllarllyn.

Anyone going for the millions? Again, add another column.

r'w'w'w is 1,000,000 and is pronounced anllwnllwnllwn.
r'xxyr'yyrrr'r is 1,261,301 and is pronounced anllyrinanlliracllan. (Yeah, it only took me ten minutes to piece that monster together. I'm not exactly as fluent as your average dragon.)

PART FIVE: WHAT THE HECK IS THAT?

See the number r'xxyr'yyrrr'r as a reference.

Here's a trick when you're trying to figure out what the Wyldian Dragon Counting Number is in the regular number system.

Start at the right. Multiply anything from the far right of the number to the farthest right apostrophe by one.

So, you have r (which is 1) times one, and that makes 1.

Multiply anything between the farthest right apostrophe and the second-farthest-right apostrophe by 100.

So, you have yyrrr (which is 13) times 100, and that makes 1,300.

Multiply anything in the next set to the left by 10,000 (100 times 100, or 100 squared).

So, you have xxyr (which is 26) times 10,000, and that makes 260,000.

Multiply anything in the next set to the left by 1,000,000 (which is 100 times 100 times 100, or 100 cubed).

So, you have r (which is 1) times 1,000,000, and that makes 1,000,000.

Now just add those things together. 1,000,000+260,000+1,300+1=1,261,300

IN CONCLUSION

This is a lot easier to express when you can include little diagrams and use superscript! I will be following this up with an image file chart that shows the numbers 1 through 99 and also outlines the column system visually.

I hope you have been intrigued and not entirely confused. If you enjoyed the read, then please tell me so the little math nerd in my soul will be able to jump for joy.