Counting in Indojisnen
Language overview
The Indojisnen language has been designed by David J. Peterson for the Syfy TV series Defiance, aired from April 2013. He also developed the Castithan, the Irathient and the Kinuk’aaz languages for the same series, and is already known for the Dothraki language of Game of Thrones. Spoken by the Indogene people, one of the Votan races, it is a polysynthetic language which allows the expression of several words in a single one. Their script is based on a hexagonal pattern, and their numeral system is of base 7.
The septenary system
The Indojisnen language follows a septenary numeral system, which is a base 7 system. To better understand this numeral system, let’s start with a more familiar one: the decimal system. In the decimal system (or base-10), we have ten digits, from zero to nine. When we add 1 (one) to 9 (nine), we get 10 (ten), or the unit 1 (one) followed by 0 (zero). This system is positional (the digits represent the units, and their rank the matching power of ten). Thus, 132 decomposes in 100 + 30 + 2 = 1*102 + 3 *101 + 2 *100. This system is also known as a positional decimal numeral system.
Base-7 uses digits from 0 to 6. Its first ten is seven in decimal (710 = 107), the base is noted in subscript. The decomposition of a base-7 number (in a positional system) is the same as the one of a decimal number, only the base changes: (132)7 = 1*72 + 3 *71 + 2 *70. If we carry it out, we get the matching decimal number, here 71.
Indojisnen numerals
The Indojisnen numbers, as the letters, are two nested hexagons, named hexaglyphs. Each digit and ten (in base 7) is represented by a single glyph, in which the internal hexagon could represent the tens, and the external hexagon the units, by adding one stroke per unit in a clockwise direction in one the hexagons or the other. Nevertheless, the only attested ten is 3510 (or 507). It is therefore only a guess.
1 7
2 7
3 7
4 7
5 7
6 7
50 7
Indojisnen numbering rules
Now that you’ve had a gist of the most useful numbers, let’s move to the writing rules for the tens, the compound numbers, and why not the hundreds, the thousands and beyond (if possible).
- The only attested Indojisnen number name is agengo which stands for 716 in base 7, or 1022 in base 10.
- We do not know much about the Indojisnen numbers at the moment, but we will share any piece of information we could have as soon as we get it.
Articles
 |
David J. Peterson After his linguistics studies at University of California, David J. Peterson has been chosen by HBO to create the Dothraki language for its series Game of Thrones. He then invented many other languages for television, the movie industry, and literature. |
Defiance languages
Castithan, Indojisnen, Irathient, and Kinuk’aaz.
Other supported languages
As the other currently supported languages are too numerous to list extensively here, please select a language from the full list of supported languages.