Universal 1356:
- Original
- All the bases of systems are divisible by the fundamental base.
- Standardized
- All the bases of numeral systems are divisible by the fundamental base.
- Keywords
- numeral
- Domain
- word formation
- Type
- unconditional
- Status
- achronic
- Quality
- statistical
- Basis
- 56 languages mentioned in Greenberg 1978a
- Source
- Greenberg 1978a: 270 (#21a)
- Counterexamples
- Coahuilteco (Hokan), with 3 and 20 as base, and Sora (Munda) with 12 and 20.
A serialized multiplicand is a base. Since both multiplication and addition are involved in this definition, a system without these operations cannot have a base. There can be, however, and commonly is, more than one base, e.g. 10, 100, 1000, 1 000 000 in English. The smallest base will be called the fundamental base. If all the bases are powers of the fundamental base, the system will be called ‘perfect’. There are only four numbers which figure as fundamental bases in perfect numeral systems of the world in order of frequency: 10, 20, 4 and 12. Most systems with 20 as a fundamental base have 100 as the next highest base rather than 400 = 20 x 20.