From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Philippe Verdy wrote, > > > So it seems that tone marks used in the latin transcription of Mendé ¡re not > > marked in the Kikaku script. It would be interesting to have some book prints > > available to see if there are punctuation signs or symbols to mark word > > separation, as well as digits or numbers (some syllables in the Kikaku script > > closely ressemble to the European digits, and I wonder if an alternate notation > > was used to mark numbers, or dates, or simply commercial quantities for market > > exchange and accounting or for marriage dotations, or for customary judiciary > > decisions, in countries where most of negocations were performed orally). > > Does anyone have access to a copy of the following?: > Tuchscherer, K.T. 1996. The Kikakui (Mende) syllabary > and number writing system. Ph.D., London School of > Oriental and African Studies. > > Based on the title, it seems that Kikakui might have additional symbols > for numbers.
With the help of your suggestion (Tuchscherer) I found this reference in Google: http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/AMU/amu_chma_18.html also http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/AMU/amuchmapdf/amuchma18.pdf [quote] 3. CURRENT RESEARCH INTERESTS * Konrad Tuchscherer concluded a Ph.D. dissertation on the 'Kikakui' tradition of writing among the mende of Sierra Leone. This is a phonographic scribt for writing the Mende language and a number writing system used to write Mende number words: "Like the dyllabic characters of the writing system, the numerals of the decimal based number writing system are written from right to left, from greater units to lesser units. Any number, other than zero, can be written in the system. Interestingly, while the numerals are decimal based, Mende number words are conceptualized largely on a vigesimal (base twenty) system of counting. The two systems overlap: numerals are written decimally and read aloud vigesimally" (African Languages and Cultures, Vol.8, No.2, 1995, p. 172). He is preparing a further study of the 'Kikakui' number system. [/quote] So there may exist lots of references about African numeral systems at Buffalo University where they were studied... Looking at its online "BISON" catalog, there are many references for the "Kikaku" search keyword. The report above quotes other sources at the Department of Mathematics, in the University Paris-Sud at Orsay, France.
