The influence of the place-value structure of the Arabic number ...

Number, the simplest and most universal idea;
for number applies itself to men, angels, actions, thoughts,
– every thing that either doth exist or can be imagined.
(John Locke, 1689)
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
No other set of symbols is so widely spread in its use and understanding as the Hindu-
Arabic or Western number system (henceforth referred to as Arabic number system). Its
constituting digits (i.e., 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9) are known to and understood in their
meaning by literate but also a lot of illiterate individuals all over the world, thereby, being
more prevalent and more universally employed than any language or script.
Nevertheless, the Arabic number system is only one out of the approximately 100
systems of numerical notation known. According to Chrisomalis (2004, p. 38) “a numerical
notation system is a visual but primarily non-phonetic structured system for representing
numbers”. Thus, numerical notation systems can be clearly differentiated from lexical
numeral systems reflecting the number words used to transcode symbolic digital numerical
input into spoken or written number words (henceforth referred to as number word system).
Obviously, there are specific correspondences between the numerical notation system and the
lexical numerical system. For instance, in the herodianic Greek number system the symbols
representing 5, 10, 100, 1000, and 10,000 were derived from the first letter from their
corresponding number words (see Löffler, 1912 for a more detailed dicussion). However,
unlike digital numerical notation systems such as the Arabic number system, number word
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