I have argued in a previous article, The Coptic Numerical Notation System Must Change, that we should abandon our old alphabetical numerical system and replace it by the Hindu-Arabic system because our old system is not fit for the needs of the modern world in arithmetic and in both pure and applied mathematics. This system possesses ten digits: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9. The most important digit in this system which gives it the greatest advantage over other numerical systems, and which perhaps marks the greatest achievement by India, is ‘0’. This digit is called in English ‘zero’,[1] which has been derived from the Arabic word ṣifr (صفر), which, on its part, had been derived from the Sanskrit śūnya ( शून्य ), meaning nothing, empty, or vacant in both languages. It is often called ‘o/oh’, perhaps because of the similarity between the 0 digit and the o letter. Zero serves as a cardinal number, while the ordinal number is 0th (zeroth).
Without this ‘0’ digit, and its use as both a number and a place holder in the Hindu-Arab numerical notation system, modern mathematics, physics, chemistry, and computer sciences would be unimaginable to develop and advance.
Zero has three important functions:
- As a numeral meaning ‘no amount’. So, for example, 3+0 = 3, 7-0 = 7, 9-9 = 0.
- As a place-holder, filling in empty spaces of missing units in combined numbers, such as 1,234,067 (an example already used in a previous article). Here, zero has no positional value of its own and is just a place-holder for the hundreds position. Compare this with, for example, 4 in the example, where four is not a position-holder, but has a positional value of 4,000. In this function, zero means ‘no units of this multiple’.
| Position | Millions | Hundred thousands | Ten thousands | Thousands | Hundreds | Tens | Units |
| Number | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 6 | 7 |
| Digital positional value | 1,000,000 | 200,000 | 30,000 | 4,000 | 000 | 60 | 7 |
- As a special number, as it sits halfway between −1 and +1 on the number line. A number line is a mathematical device, represented by an infinitely extended straight line on each direction and with points on it placed at equal intervals that represent the real numbers, positive or negative, according to their distance from the point that represents the number zero. The numbers on the number line increase as one moves from the left to the right and decrease as one moves from the right to the left. Numbers to the left of the zero point are negative numbers, while numbers to its right are positive numbers. In this function, zero has an independent value midway between +1 and -1.
Figure 1: The line number[2]
Although the Copts have 27 symbols (numerals) [compare with the 10 of the Hindu-Arabic system] to represent numbers, it has no equivalent to the ‘0’ digit – neither as a numerical symbol (0) nor as a word (zero) to describe it. As we adopt the Hindu-Arab numeration system in Coptic, we are in urgent need to develop a Coptic word to describe the digit ‘0’. We have seen that the English derived their word for 0 from the Arabic word. This happened in the sixteenth century. Although the Indians invented this new numerical notation system, it was through the Arabs that the system reached Europe in the Middle-Ages. Nations in Europe that had much contact with the Middle East and North Africa in the Middle-Ages, did the same: the French call it ‘zéro’, the Italians ‘zero’, the Portuguese ‘zero’, the Spanish ‘cero’. But nations that had no much contact with Arabs derived their word for 0 from the Latin, ‘nullus’, meaning none. The Germans thus call it ‘null’ and the Russians call it ‘нуль’ (transliteration: nul’).The Greeks, however, resorted to their own language, and used ‘μηδέν’ (transliteration: midén), which had the original meaning of ‘nothing’.
The word for ‘nothing’ does exist in Coptic: [3]
Figure 2: The word in Bohairic Coptic meaning ‘nothing’
In Bohairic Coptic, ehli is grammatically used as an indefinite pronoun or as a noun (with the indefinite article, in its singular and plural form); and although it is sometimes used to mean ‘somebody’ and ‘something’, it is more often used to mean ‘no body’ and ‘nothing’. In the negative sense, ehli is used:
- On its own, as in Jeremiah 17:6 and 50:3.
- With the indefinite article (ou and han), as in Psalm 38 (39): 5 and Acts 5:36.
- With the negation of the perfect tense or with `mmon, the Coptic word for negation, as in Matthew 11:27.
Ehli, therefore, could be used in Coptic to mean the numeral and cardinal number, ‘zero’. Used as a numerical digit, it will be, as in other Coptic numbers, functioning grammatically as a noun; and there is no need to give it a gender as with Coptic numbers from 1-10 and 20 (the rest of Coptic numbers are neutral). For the ordinal number, pimahehli, would give the ordinal word, the zeroth.
Figure 3: A suggested Coptic word for zero and zeroth
Without developing and agreeing on a word for zero we cannot adopt the Hindu-Arabic system of numerical notation; and without that we will have to settle for our old system which is not fit for the modern world. The ten Coptic digits of the decimal system used in the Hindu-Arabic system will thus be:
Figure 4: The ten Coptic digits in the Hindu-Arabic numerical notation system
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[1] It is also given other names: nought, naught and nil.
[2] Taken from Math Is Fun.
[3] See Alexis Mallon, Grammaire copte : avec bibliographie, chrestomathie et vocabulaire (Paris, 1907), p. 685; Mu’awad Dauod Abdel Nour, قاموس اللغة القبطية للهجتين البحيرية والصعيدية (The Cultural Coptic Orthodox Centre, Cairo, 2013), p. 685; Adeeb B. Makar, The Abbreviated Coptic-English Dictionary (St. Antonius Coptic Orthodox Church, San Francisco Bay Area, CA, 2001), p. 243.