Cancellative Orders

left order in Q and Q is a semigroup of left quotients of S if every q∈Q can be written as q=a^*b for some a, b∈S where a^* denotes the inverse of a in a subgroup of Q and if, in addition, every square-cancellable element of S lies in a subgroup of Q. Perhaps surprisingly, a semigroup, even a commutative cancellative semigroup, can have non-isomorphic semigroups of left quotients. We show that if S is a cancellative left order in Q then Q is completely regular and the {\cal D}-classes of Q are left groups. The semigroup S is right reversible and its group of left quotients is the minimum semigroup of left quotients of S. The authors are grateful to the ARC for its generous financial support.