History: Internal grammar of numbers

Source of version: 4 (current)

It is clear that there exists an internal grammar of numbers in Lojban, even though it has not been fully worked out or made explicit. For example ''su'o re ci'' has to be understood as ''su'o(reci)'' and not as ''(su'ore)ci''. ''re ci ce'i'' has to be understood as ''(reci)ce'i'' and not as ''re(cice'i)'', so the rule is nothing as simple as left or right grouping. In fact the digits are usually joined the tightest, which is why I don't like making ''ji'i'' an exceptionally tight digit modifier. It is hard enough that we have to make out the value of each digit just from its position. Adding ''ji'i'' in the middle makes this harder by creating interference and breaking the three-digit groupings that we have to use to get the value of each one right. This is clearly incomplete, but it can serve as a starting point: {CODE(wrap="1",ishtml="0")} <pre-sign> = (ji'i|su'e|su'o|me'i|za'u|da'a)... <sign> = ma'u|ni'u <digit> = no|pa|re|ci|vo|mu|xa|ze|bi|so|dau|fei|gai|jau|rei|vai|ki'o|xo <real> = [[<pre-sign>][[<sign>](ci'i|pai|te'o|[[<digit>...][[pi [[<digit>...][[ra'e <digit>...]]) <complex> = [[<real>][[ka'o <real>] <n-tuple> = [[<complex>][[pi'e <complex>]... <fraction> = [[<real>][[fi'u <real>] <indef> = ro|so'a|so'e|so'i|so'o|so'u|no'o|rau|du'e|mo'a <quantif> = tu'o | [[pi][[<pre-sign>][[<indef>] | <real>[[ce'i] | <fraction> {CODE}