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I corrected the assertion about Recorde's spelling;
a scan of the relevant page in the original book is on the right. -- Dominus01:12, 6 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]
The article currently claims that Zenzizenzizenzic is the notation, but it's not, it's a word that is one example of the notation. A notation is how to do all the different ways that you can write things. And that's the problem with the article- it's constrained by the title which locks it into being about the word; it's a dictionary article.- Wolfkeeper16:47, 19 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Can you rewrite "A notation is how to do all the different ways that you can write things." in a way that makes more sense, please? I have no idea what you're trying to say. And what is a word, anyway, but a notation for a thing? —David Eppstein (talk) 18:32, 19 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]
If we say an alphabetic sentence is a notation, then 'I ate the crab apple.' is a term in that notation. A notation is a way of writing things down, not something you've written in it. Zenzizenzizenzic is a term not a notation.- Wolfkeeper19:45, 19 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]
It's a way of writing down eighth powers. In that sense it's not dissimilar to mathematical notations still in use like , which still can be spelled out as "the logarithm of x"; one could imagine a modernized version of the zenzizenzizenzic notation in which we write for the eighth power of x, if only we didn't have much better alternative notations. —David Eppstein (talk) 20:12, 19 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]
OK, I can see what you mean, but that seems to be your OR (I don't mean that in a bad sense, but I don't think that notations are normally considered hierarchical, and the guy clearly did invent a general notation in the image). Actually, that is a thought, we could merge this with mathematical notation; mathematical notation is not very big.- Wolfkeeper20:23, 19 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]
See WP:NOTDICTIONARY, MOS:LEADPRON, and MOS:FIRST "Be wary of cluttering the first sentence with a long parenthesis containing alternative spellings, pronunciations, etc., which can make the sentence difficult to actually read; this information can be placed elsewhere." If the pronunciation is non-obvious, and we have reliable sources for the non-obvious pronunciation, then we can add it somewhere other than in the lead sentence. If the pronunciation is the obvious one, then I don't see the point of adding it at all, and if we don't have sources, we cannot add it. —David Eppstein (talk) 23:54, 14 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Easy for you to say. Obvious might be a bit presumptuous here. How do we know, for instance, that the "zizen" portions are not pronounced zeye-zen, with a long i sound? — Loadmaster (talk) 18:27, 22 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]