It occurred to me the other day, I don't really think of
hexadecimal numerals as numbers. I think this is for the
same reason I don't think of ID numbers or credit card numbers
as numbers. When I read these, I say each digit.
Although both may be written 123, there is a clear difference
between one, two, three and than one hundred, twenty-three.
In the former I am thinking of an identifier. The digits are
merely being used as symbols. In the latter, one hundred, twenty-three
is an amount. I visualize some number of things.
What are hexadecimal numerals?
A hexadecimal numeral is
usually described
as a number's representation in
base 16.
That is, rather than writing a number with 10 possible digits,
we use 16 possible digits. Usually these 16 digits are 0 through 9 and
A through F.
Programmers and web designers see these an awful lot, as hexadecimal numerals
are a way of
specifying colors
for the web.
How should we read hexadecimal numerals?
If a numeral represents a number, it should be read as a number.
We cannot use the same names as we do for decimal numbers, though.
For example, saying ten for 1016 could be confusing.
Instead, I propose an unambiguous system for naming hexadecimal numbers.
I'm not the
first
person
to
suggest this, but
I would like the names to be as similar to the words we are used to.
For example, Jon Purdy's suggestion that 2016 be pronounced
“twentex” is not ideal, because twenty has a hard and then a
soft syllable, but twentex is two hard syllables.
I propose the following pronunciations for hexadecimal digits:
| 0 |
zero |
1 |
one |
2 |
two |
3 |
three |
| 4 |
four |
5 |
five |
6 |
six |
7 |
seven |
| 8 |
eight |
9 |
nine |
A |
hey |
B |
bee |
| C |
see |
D |
dee |
E |
ee |
F |
eff |
For two digits, we could use:
| 10 |
hexy |
| 20 |
twexy |
| 30 |
thrixy |
| 40 |
fourxy (forks-ee) |
| 50 |
fixy |
| 60 |
sexy |
| 70 |
senexy |
| 80 |
eighxy (ache-see) |
| 90 |
nixy |
| A0 |
haehexy (hey-hexy) |
| B0 |
baexy (bake-see) |
| C0 |
seehexy |
| D0 |
deexy |
| E0 |
eexy |
| F0 |
effexy (effects-see) |
I'm sure these suggestions aren't perfect, either, but hopefully they will be
easier to use than some of the other suggestions. Words continually evolve,
even as I can make them up these neologisms. For example, my inital plan for
AO (haehexy) as haexy wouldn't work with a southern accent. It would have been ambiguous
with 10 (hexy).