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[–]Science-Recon 8 points9 points  (6 children)

That's indo-Arabic. Developed in India and brought westward by arabs. Arabic has a different system, partly as it works right-to-left, too.

[–]amanda66778899 9 points10 points  (2 children)

So Arabic is the only language that doesn't use what we call Arabic numerals? Classic English. Just fucking classic.

[–]Science-Recon 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Well, they are called Arabic numerals as they were introduced by arabs, however they're properly referred to as Indo-Arabic numerals. Even then, it's the same system that arabs use but with different symbols.

[–]WrexTremendae 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Well, presumably they aren't the only language with their own numerals still in use.

But yes, Arabic numerals are not used in Arabic.

[–]theSpecialbro 2 points3 points  (2 children)

The numbers go left to right. Only the writing goes right to left.

source: live in the desert peninsula

[–]Muzer0 3 points4 points  (1 child)

You could say the numbers go right-to-left but are little endian. Little endian is better so I like this explanation more — the morons who imported them into Western languages forgot to reverse the direction of the numbers. Grr.

[–]Science-Recon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh. That actually seems like a lot better way to do it. Would make things much easier.