Silly question but since I am not a native english speaker I usually pronounce this in Italian "meno centoventitrč anno comune" but I was curious to hear how this is supposed to be pronounced. "onehundredtwentythree pre-common year" or "minus onehundredtwentythree common year"?
I am still struggling with Iuz being pronounced "Eye-ooze" instead of "Eeoozz" :)
I would say that the proper way to say and write would be this:
One hundred and twenty-three before Common Year.
Please note that the Common Year is not plural. 1 CY is the* Common Year. The calculation just continues from there, adding one year to another, but it's never "AFTER the Common Year", for the sake of simplicity.
I'm not a native speaker, but this is how I would say and I'm certain it would be clear to anyone who speaks English at almost any level. If the people who speak English as their first language wish to correct me, feel free to do so, please
*I think the real question is, why Common Year doesn't use definite article? I'm a bit too tired to think about this right now...
I think any of the ways people have suggested are fine. I'm lazy, so I tend to say "minus one twenty three common year," although actually I usually just say CY instead of Common Year. If I was being fancy, in-game, having an NPC speak I'd probably say "In the one hundred and twenty-third year before the Common Year." Meno centoventitrč anno comune sounds way cooler than any of those.
I say "negative one hundred and twenty-three CY" or "one hundred and twenty-three BCY" (for Before Common Year, though I'd just use the letters).
Sutemi wrote:
*I think the real question is, why Common Year doesn't use definite article? I'm a bit too tired to think about this right now...
Because we're imitating the way we speak using the real world Gregorian calendar. Something that happened 123 years before 1 AD would be "one hundred and twenty-three BC." At least, that's how I say it; we don't typically say "Before Christ" and obviously we wouldn't say "the Before Christ." It's always just BC (or BCE, or AD, or CE depending on whether it's in the common era/after Anno Domini or not). If I did pronounce every word instead of using the letters, I'd probably say "before the common year" (as Smillan suggested) just as I'd say "before the common era" if I were pronouncing each word in the CE system. So, basically, BCY could have a definite article if you were saying all the words, but it's just BCY if you're only using the letters. I'd say the definite article is optional, though; the calendar's just called CY, so you could totally just say "Common Year" and no one would look at you funny.
Anyway, the rule of thumb in contemporary American English as I've always used it is just that you say the date (with "negative" to indicate you're using negative numbers; I guess you could say "minus," but that's not how I learned it in math class) with the abbreviated form of the calendar you're using. You don't have to use the word "and" in "one hundred and twenty three," and I believe that's actually frowned upon by mathematicians, but it's what I always do.
Last edited by rasgon on Sat May 04, 2013 6:02 pm; edited 1 time in total
I pronounce -123 CY as "522 O.R.". Basically, Common Year is not used for events predating the year one, the prevailing system for recording dates in the Oeridian dominated parts of the Flanaess until that time is O.R. since it would be found in all contemporary records and there is no year 0 in the Common Year (or in any of the other calendars for that matter) making O.R. the system of choice when referring to anything before Overking Nasren's declaration of the Pax Aerdy. [/code]
Tarelton is correct, from the perspective of a character living in the Flanaess; there is no "BCY" calendar in-character, and I'm not even certain if mathematicians in the Flanaess have the concept of negative numbers yet.
We do use negative CY numbers a lot from an out-of-character perspective since it's easier than switching up calendars all the time, though.
Interesting Tarelton & Rasgon... I think I will use "before common year" with my NPCs, simply because I'm too simple to use two different calendars in our fast-flowing game sessions. I will explain the method Tarelton suggested to my players, but I'm sure that they will not want to use it
...You don't have to use the word "and" in "one hundred and twenty three," and I believe that's actually frowned upon by mathematicians, but it's what I always do.
As an editor, I feel compelled to second this point from Rasgon.
In American English, we do not, correctly, include the word 'and' between the hundreds and the tens when saying our numbers. '123' is correctly spoken as "One hundred, twenty three." '2,456' is spoken as "Two thousand, four hundred, fifty six." Commonly, people do include the 'and', but people also commonly say 'probly' when they mean 'probably'.
This is different than Spanish where 'y' ('and') is specifically included before the ones: '123' = "Ciento, venta y treis."
...You don't have to use the word "and" in "one hundred and twenty three," and I believe that's actually frowned upon by mathematicians, but it's what I always do.
As an editor, I feel compelled to second this point from Rasgon.
In American English, we do not, correctly, include the word 'and' between the hundreds and the tens when saying our numbers. '123' is correctly spoken as "One hundred, twenty three." '2,456' is spoken as "Two thousand, four hundred, fifty six." Commonly, people do include the 'and', but people also commonly say 'probly' when they mean 'probably'.
This is different than Spanish where 'y' ('and') is specifically included before the ones: '123' = "Ciento, venta y treis."
I've been taught to add it. If I participated in an English exam here and didn't use "and" when writing out large numbers, points would be deducted.
Actually I had to make a gentlemen's agreement with my teacher just to be allowed to use hyphens in fractions! I think you guys would suffer here a LOT if you had to take our exams, haha
Last edited by Sutemi on Mon May 06, 2013 5:44 am; edited 1 time in total
...You don't have to use the word "and" in "one hundred and twenty three," and I believe that's actually frowned upon by mathematicians, but it's what I always do.
As an editor, I feel compelled to second this point from Rasgon.
In American English, we do not, correctly, include the word 'and' between the hundreds and the tens when saying our numbers. '123' is correctly spoken as "One hundred, twenty three." '2,456' is spoken as "Two thousand, four hundred, fifty six." Commonly, people do include the 'and', but people also commonly say 'probly' when they mean 'probably'.
This is different than Spanish where 'y' ('and') is specifically included before the ones: '123' = "Ciento, venta y treis."
SirXaris
Whilst I don't know about mathematicians here, the 'and' is commonly used in British English (or just English as we tend to call it ) so I suppose which a tutor deemed correct would depend where they learned their own English.
On the original topic, though, I would have thought "One hundred (and) twenty three years before the Common Year" or any of the variations on this above would be how I would say it.
"Eye-ooze" and "Yooze" are equally acceptable. I forget where I saw it, but I dimly recall that both pronunciations are fine.
In the computer game Temple of Elemental Evil, the characters speak and you can hear how certain names and words are pronounced:
Iuz = Eye-ooz.
Oerth = O-earth.
Furyondy = Fur-yon-dee.
Also of note, in the Real World, the correct wording is: b.C.E., or "before the Common Era." Today, we live in the 2,013 year of the "Common Era." The "A.D." is a Catholic Church thing and is incorrect, as is the term "before Christ." Any decent encyclopedia will tell you that Jesus Christ was born in the year 2 .b.C.E. The modern calender is not based upon the year of his birth.
Also, there is no "0" year. It was 1 b.C.E. and then became 1 C.E. From the beginning of the year 1 b.C.E. until the end of the year 1 C.E. was a two year period of time, not three years. There is no "0" year. _________________ Mystic's web page: http://melkot.com/mysticscholar/index.html
Mystic's blog page: http://mysticscholar.blogspot.com/
I am definitely amongst those who would say:
"One Hundred twenty-three years before the common era".
My personal opinion on the "and" ... I don't care how it's commonly used, people say things that are incorrect all the time. And professors that are giving exams aren't necessarily correct. There's been a time or two in my day where I had to point out to a professor that they weren't necessarily right. (But, a "gentleman's agreement" is always the best way to go.)
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
Canonfire! is a production of the Thursday Group in assocation with GREYtalk and Canonfire! Enterprises
