Most fractional metric prefixes end in "o" - e.g. micro, nano, pico, femto, etc.

And most multiplicative prefixes end in "a" - e.g. deca, mega, giga, tera, etc.

But there are a few outliers: deci should really be deco, centi > cento, milli > millo, etc.

Many people (OK, maybe just Americans) already pronounce "kilo" as "kila," demonstrating the linguistic bias towards this standardization.

An additional benefit is that this would tend to make learning English easier.
-- csea, Mar 30 2011

SI prefixes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SI_prefix
[DrBob, Mar 30 2011]

FFF http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FFF_System
I think I drank about a kilafirkin of wine last night. [nomocrow, Mar 30 2011]

+
-- Zimmy, Mar 30 2011


My first problem is that i think that, along with numbers, the metric system should be replaced with a duodecimal one. Leaving that aside though, "deco" would be pronounced "deko" and with the tendency towards schwa, this would be indistinguishable from "deca" in English unless it was pronounced in a "foreign" way, and many other languages use the metric system already, so there's almost nothing to learn.

So no. By all means reform the metric system so it works by dozens rather than tens and proceed to come up with consistent prefixes having done so, but not of this kind. I disagree with the metric system but even if i agreed with it, i wouldn't agree with this and the reasons stated are not valid. Sorry.
-- nineteenthly, Mar 30 2011


I believe the different endings are attributable to the assortment of greek and latin terms adopted in the metric system.

If the metric system wants consistent endings, it should come up with it's own prefices rather than stealing from other languages and then changing them. (-)

Incidentally, I wholly support [nineteenthly]'s move for a duodecimal system.
-- Twizz, Mar 30 2011


Interesting and thanks. If we chose a different way of expressing it, it would seem well to make them either a priori and compatible with various pronunciations (e.g. no l's or r's to avoid the difficulty faced by speakers of languages which lack one or the other) or to choose a widely known set of numbers. Perhaps abandon the whole idea and express it through duodecimal equivalents of standard form: a cubic gross of nautical miles or something.
-- nineteenthly, Mar 30 2011



random, halfbakery