The Paludal system

Numbers are dozenal unless marked "(dec)".

Version 0.3, 11 Oct 6859 DH (2026 CE). See Versions in Part 4 for what changed.

Paludal is a set of units, like metric, but counted in twelves instead of tens. This page is the short version: how to count, the handful of units you'd use every day, and how to tell the time. Everything else - the reasons behind each choice, and the less common units - is in the chapters that follow.

Counting in twelves

You already count in twelves more than you might think: twelve hours on a clock, twelve months in a year, twelve eggs in a carton, twelve inches in a foot. Dozenal writes these numbers with digits of their own.

It needs two more digits: X (said "dek") for ten and E ("el") for eleven. On a clock face, only the top three numbers change. Twelve, at the top, is written 10 and said "do": one full turn and nothing over.

A clock face in dozenal An ordinary twelve-hour clock face. The numbers 1 to 9 are unchanged. Ten o'clock is written X (dek), eleven o'clock E (el), and twelve at the top is written 10 (do): one full turn and nothing over. The old numbers 10, 11 and 12 are shown small outside the dial. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 X 10 E 11 10 12
A clock face in dozenal: 1 to 9 stay the same, ten and eleven become X and E, and twelve becomes 10.
Dozenal Said You know it as
X, E dek, el ten, eleven o'clock
10 do a dozen: a carton of eggs, a foot of inches, a year of months
16 do six a dozen and a half
20 two do two dozen: the hours in a day
100 gro a gross: a dozen dozen
1,000 mo a dozen gross (1,728 dec)

The semicolon is the dozenal point, said "dit". After it come twelfths, the marks around a clock face:

Dozenal Said You know it as
0;1 zero dit one a twelfth: one month of a year, five minutes of an hour
0;3 zero dit three a quarter: quarter past is the minute hand at 3
0;4 zero dit four a third: four months of a year
0;6 zero dit six a half: six inches of a foot, half past

Twelve splits evenly into halves, thirds, quarters and sixths, so those are all short, exact numbers.

The everyday units

Each one is close to something you already know.

Unit Symbol Size About as big as For example
pace p 1.45 m a long stride (two steps) an adult is about 1;2 p tall
dig di 1.01 cm a centimetre a credit card is 8;6 di long
iter ir 2.51 km a mile and a half a 5 km run is about 2 ir
lib li 1.77 kg a big bag of sugar a newborn baby is about 2 li, an adult 36 li
cub cu 1.77 L a big bottle of drink a wine bottle is 0;5 cu, a bucket 5;6 cu
tep °t 0.694 °C a little under a degree Celsius room 26 °t, body 45 °t
  • A cub of water weighs a lib, as a litre of water weighs a kilogram
  • Water freezes at 0 °t and boils at 100 °t

Bigger and smaller

Like metric's milli-, centi- and kilo-, Paludal has prefixes for smaller and bigger sizes, but each step is twelve instead of ten:

Prefix Symbol Means Like For example
tricia- t↓ ÷ 1,000 (1,728 dec) milli- t↓li ≈ 1 gram: an egg is about 50 t↓li
bicia- b↓ ÷ 100 (144 dec) centi- the dig is a bicia-pace
uncia- u↓ ÷ 10 (12 dec) deci- the unc is an uncia-pace
unqua- u↑ × 10 (12 dec) u↑p ≈ 17.4 m
biqua- b↑ × 100 (144 dec) hecto- b↑p ≈ 209 m
triqua- t↑ × 1,000 (1,728 dec) kilo- the iter is a triqua-pace
  • The most-used sizes have short names of their own - dig, unc, iter - and those are used instead
  • The arrow shows the direction: ↓ divides, ↑ multiplies. Typed without arrows, ↓ is c and ↑ is q (tcli)
  • Length and Time (Part 2) have tables for converting between all the named units

Telling the time

The day is cut into twelves, and each cut is one digit of the time.

Unit Symbol Size How many
chime ch 2 hours 10 (12 dec) in a day
spell sl 10 minutes 10 (12 dec) in a chime
moment mt 50 seconds 10 (12 dec) in a spell
breath br 4.17 seconds 10 (12 dec) in a moment
beat bt 1.04 seconds - about a second 4 in a breath

Units in italics aren't a power of twelve: a beat is 3 blinks, not a twelfth or a dozen of anything.

The time is written as three digits, counting moments since midnight:

Time Paludal Now
Midnight 000 00:00
Dawn 300 06:00
Noon 600 12:00
Dusk 900 18:00
Late evening E91 23:31

Half an hour is 3 spells, an hour is 6 spells (half a chime), and a film is about one chime.

How it fits together

How Paludal is built A chain of five boxes from top to bottom. The day (24 hours) divided by 100,000 (twelve to the fifth) gives the blink, 0.347 s. Light travels 2 × 10^7 paces a blink, which gives the pace, 1.45 m. A cube 0;1 pace on each side is the cub, 1.77 L. A cub of water weighs about a lib, 1.77 kg. Below, a bar one pace long is split into twelve uncs, and the first unc is drawn larger, split into twelve digs. day 24 hours the Earth ÷ 100,000(twelve to the fifth) blink time · 0.347 s base unit light travels2 × 10⁷ paces a blink pace length · 1.45 m base unit a cube 0;1 paceon each side cub volume · 1.77 L filled with water,weighs ≈ 1 lib lib mass · 1.77 kg base unit Every step is twelve 1 pace = 10 unc (12 dec) 1 unc (12.1 cm) = 10 dig (≈ 1 cm each)
How Paludal is built: the day gives the blink, light gives the pace, and a cube of water gives the lib - counted in twelves at every step.

Like SI, every unit is fixed to a constant of nature, so each one converts exactly to metric. The chapters below explain how: Principles covers the ideas behind the system, and Names lists every unit. To get a feel for the sizes, start with Thinking in Paludal in Part 3 (Everyday use).