who can read roman numerals

For additional info on this, The Straight Dope did an article: http://www.straightdope.com/columns...ks-with-roman-numerals-use-iiii-instead-of-iv

 

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Sorry. Typo. Fixed. Thanks.

 

Not everyone on Earth knows "standard dates" because not everyone speaks English.

English is an amalgamation of foreign languages. Latin/ancient Roman was used as "the language of international communication, scholarship and science until well into the 18th century, when it began to be supplanted by vernacular languages."


Roman numerals are used now more for style.

 

Especially when we have such things as Google nowadays! :yes:

 

I'd think you'd have to work very hard to find someone who understands Roman numerals but doesn't understand Arabic numerals.

 

I think this depends on the generation. We were taught Roman numerals in elementary school. XXX means something totally different today than it did fifty years ago.

 

Somehow, with an obvsrse inscription in Latin (as is still the case with British coins today), Roman Numerals make more sense than Arabic ones.

 

Those "standard" dates (arabic numerals) are used by many people in the world. Has nothing to do with speaking English or not.

Reading dates in Roman numerals is not complicated indeed. But the "Gothic" font makes it a little more difficult. The ancient Romans did not use that, hehe.

Christian

 

I was also going to try and explain how to read them, but you've done a fine job.
As you said, it's not that hard once you read them a few times. I think it was cool to see them again on US coins when they put the Roman Numeral Date on the 1986 AGE.

 

It's worth noting that, while Roman numerals date back millennia, *standardized* Roman numerals are a more recent invention. The Romans themselves sometimes used all sorts of forms that are considered "wrong" today, like IXX for 19, IIX for 8, or IC for 99.

The symbols D and M for 500 and 1000 are also relatively modern, the Romans having used non-alphabetic characters for these large numbers.

 

You mean like ١٨٧٦?