u/lyatich

As a preface I first need to say that I'm going to write numbers in a particular way. I will clarify which base the number I write is (either decimal or sexagesimal) by using the symbols ||10 and ||60 at the end of each number. Also, specifically for numbers in base-60, each individual digit will be separated with a semicolon ; to avoid confusion, so a number such as 𒌋𒐕||60 is 11||10, and 𒌋;𒐕||60 is 601||10.

So the question is, because Akkadians changed the previous Sumerian system by making it positional based specifically with a base of 60, how would they have read and spoke those numbers (in either academical or spoken language) considering its also a Semitic language?

In English a small number like 3||10 is read with the dedicated word "three" because it's a basic integer and it's also just one digit. Would the same happen in spoken Akkadian with a number like 𒌍𒐖||60 by having a specific word for it (because it's a single digit), or would the spoken language override the writing influence by saying something like "thirty-two" literally being "thirty (times) ten (plus) two"?

And now let's say we want to go big. In English if we surpass the number 9||10 then we have to reset the digit back to 0 and add 1 at the beginning, thus obtaining "ten" which is written as 10||10. Similarly a number such as 72||10 would be read as "seventy-two" so "seventy (times) ten (plus) two" because we are now at two digits in the number, and the first digit (7) is multiplicative of the position its currently at (so 7 multiplies 10). Would the same happen also in Akkadian?

Specifically a number like 72||10 is written as 𒐕;𒌋𒐖||60, but because in the writing we have written the numbers as 1;12||60, would they have said something like "1 (times) sixty (plus) twelve", or would have they said something just like "seventy-two" and not consider the mathematical way of writing it?

I hope the question is not confusing. I was trying really hard to find information about it, but I couldn't find anything.