From: "Chris Jacobs" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > From: "John Cowan" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Jony Rosenne scripsit: > > > > > However, in Hebrew and Arabic, numbers are written left to right and so > > > are Latin and other LTR script quotations. So RTL really means mixed > > > direction, and the bidi algorithm is there to handle it automatically > > > with little user intervention. > > > > BTW, Peter Daniels told me viva voce that arabophones, like persophones > > and hebraeophones, do (hand)write numbers LTR starting with the most > > significant digit. But we still have no confirmation from a native > > arabophone. > > Sounds plausible. > > I do write numbers like 21 RTL, that's how I pronounce them. > > eenentwintig > einundzwanzig
These are apparent counter-examples in Germanic languages (German, Dutch) where you pronounce the units before the tens. However even in German, the higher-scaled digits are pronounced first. The special inversion of units and tens (with a joining "und" between them) is a local inversion that occurs in higher subgroups but subgroups of digits are still spelled ordered from highest to lowest scale (for example: 2100="einundzwanzighundert" for years or "zweitausendhundert" for cardinals; 21000="einundzwanzigausend").
