Numeral Terms
Jim Grossmann
Here's the chapter on numeral terms for Goesk.
Chapter 3: NUMERAL TERMS
3.1 FORMING NUMERAL TERMS: Here are eleven basic numeral words.
zip ven teu dree feu foif ses sieven axt noin tien
zero one two three four five six seven eight nine ten
a) "-tien" suffixed to numeral terms "ven" to "noin" forms the numeral
terms for "11" through "19."
ventien teutien dreetien feutien foiftien
eleven twelve thirteen fourteen fifteen
sestien sieventien axtien nointien
sixteen seventeen eighteen nineteen
c) The suffix "-eux" multiplies the value of each numeral term "teu"
through "noin" by ten,
producing these terms:
teuleux dreeleux feuleux foifeux
twenty thirty forty fifty
seseux sieveneux axteux noineux
sixty seventy eighty ninety
d) The suffix "-uenyr" multiplies the value of each numeral term "ven"
through "noin" by one hundred, producing these terms:
venuenyr teuzuenyr dreezuenyr
one hundred two hundred three hundred
feuzuenyr foifuenyr sesuenyr
four hundred five hundred six hundred
sievenuenyr axtuenyr noinuenyr
seven hundred eight hundred nine hundred
e) The numeral terms just described can be juxtaposed in order of
decreasing value to form terms for non-round figures from "teuzeux-ven"
(21) two "noinuenyr-noineux-noin" (999). It is customary to hyphenate
words in phrases that stand for two-to-three digit figures.
(1) seseux-foif dreeleux-noin axteux-sieven teuleux-ven
sixty-five thirty-nine eighty-seven twenty-one
venuenyr-teuzeux-teu axtuenyr-foifeux-sieven
one hundred twenty two eight hundred fifty seven
f) Numeral terms for figures of one to three digits can be placed before
each of these words to produce terms for figures of four or more digits.
tausend tooses toonoin tooteutien
thousand million billion trillion
(2) teuzeux-teu tausend sievenuenyr-foifeux-teu tooses
twenty-two thousand seven hundred fifty two million
feu toonoin sesuenyr tooteutien
four billion six hundred trillion
g) Large figure terms occurring alone are less formal equivalents to large
figure terms preceded by "ven." Note the similarity to English phrases
such as "a thousand" vs. "one thousand."
(3) tausand ven-tausand tooses ven-tooses
a thousand one thousand a million one million
h) Numeral phrases can be arranged in order of decreasing value to produce
phrases for non-round figures of four or more digits. Written large
figure terms like "toonoin" are followed by commas when they occur
non-finally in a series.
(4) foif toonoin, sievenuenyr-seseux-ses tooses, venuenyr-feuzeux-axt
tausand, sesuenyr-foifeux-teu
five billion, seven hundred and sixty six million, one hundred forty
eight
thousand, six hundred fifty two
3.2 ORDINAL NUMERAL TERMS: These are derived from cardinal numeral terms
by adding the suffix "-aif" to the sole or last word in the term.
(0) venaif teuzaif dreezaif feuzaif
first second third fourth
sesuenyraif noin-tooses, sieveneux-sieven tausandaif
six hundredth nine million seventy seven thousandth
3.3 RATIO TERMS:
a) Multiplicative numeral terms are derived from carinal numeral terms by
adding the suffix "-soo" to the sole or last word in the term.
(1) teusoo dreesoo
twice as many/much three times as many/much
noin-tooses, sieveneux-sieven tausandesoo
nine million seventy seven thousand times as many/much
b) Reciprocal numeral terms are derived from cardinal numeral terms by
adding the suffix "-gin" to the sole or last word in the term.
(2) teugin dreegin feugin foifegin
one half one third one fourth one fifth
sesuenyrgin noin-tooses, sieveneux-sieven tausandegin
one six hundredth one nine million seventy seven thousandth
c) Both "vengin" and "vensoo" translate as either "one over one" or "just
as many/much."
d) Terms for fractions consist of multiplicative numeral terms immediately
followed by reciprocal numeral terms.
(3) teusoo-dreegin feusoo-foifegin
two thirds four fifths
sievenuenyr-seseux-axtesoo noin tausend, sesuenyr-teuzeux-dreegin
seven hundred sixty eight over nine thousand, seven hundred twenty three
e) Goesk has no special terms for fractions expressed as digits to the
right of the decimal point; one simply uses fraction-phrases containing
reciprocal numerals that stand for denominators like "1/10," "1/100,"
"1/1000," and so on.
(4) .5 foifesoo-tiengin
five tenths
3.14 dree-und-feutiensoo-venuenyrgin
three and fourteen one-hundredths
98.6 noineux-axt und-sesesoo-tiengin
ninety eight and six tenths
3.4 NUMERAL TERMS AS NOUNS: Numeral nouns stand for abstract numbers
or numeral symbols. For instance, "teu" can refer either to the positive
integer, 2, or to the symbol "2." Cardinal numeral nouns are neuter.
(0) Ven und ven sienant teu. Ik criebeut dreezoos teuzen.
One and one are two. I wrote three twos.
3.5 NUMERAL PHRASES ARE PECULIAR: The words in a numeral phrase are each
stressed separately, but only the last word in a numeral phrase takes
numeral-word affixes (as seen above), or flexional affixes (as shown here).
(1) nominative dree tausand, sievenuenyr-noineux-ses
(3,796 -- subject or predicate noun)
(2) accusative dree tausand, sievenuenyr-noineux-sesoe
(3,796 -- object)
(3) genitive dree tausand, sievenuenyr-noineux-seses
(of 3,796)
(4) dative dree tausand, sievenuenyr-noineux-sesoem
(to/for 3,796)
b) In numeral phrases, flexional affixes occur after numeral word affixes.
(5) genitive dree tausand, sievenuenyr-noineux-sesaifes
(of the 3,796th)
-aif = ordinal -es = nom. neut.
Kenji Schwarz
I'll jump on the bandwagon and post about my own current conlang's numeral
system. It's way boring compared to everyone else's so far; the main
system is basically lifted directly from the Tungusic languages, right down
to vocabulary. That's part of the idea behind Sayat, anyway.
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Sayat uses a decimal system of numeration; suffixes are used to derive
forms such as ordinals, distributives, iteratives, multiplicatives, and
collectives.
Use of collectives is fairly widespread (mandatory when counting objects in
any sort of grouping) and can get somewhat complicated: the correct
collective affix is determined by the "shape class" of the modified noun
and its relevance in the sentence.
The basic cardinal numbers (Sayat: tangurtil) are as follows:
1 umuun; umuukeen [diminutive form, used without much meaning now]
2 juur
3 ilan
4 digin
5 tunnga
6 nyungun
7 nadan
8 japkun
9 eigin
10 jaan
11 jaan umuun
12 jaan juur (etc.)
20 juur jaan
21 juur jaan umuukeen (etc.)
100 nyamadi
1000 mingan
10,000 tumen
One weird thing I've thrown in is a separate set of numerals used for 1)
complex numbers and 2) counting/ordering abstractions. Uh-huh. It's also
a little unusual in that it's more or less 5-based. If the Mac square-root
symbol doesn't come through email, that's what the squiggle below is <G>.
=88-1 eknen
=88-2 ngeiseik
=88-3 ngirook
=88-4 ngiraak
=88-5 van
=88-6 eknen-van
=88-7 ngeiseik-van
=88-8 ngirook-van
=88-9 konaarcing(.kan) [Lit. "a one-back (one)"]
=88-10 minggit(.ken) [ < term for "pair"]
=88-11 minggit.ik eknen [Fossilized dative construction]
=88-20 ngeiseik.minggit(.ken)
=88-50 van.minggit(.kan)
Note that in decades, /minggit/ becomes treated like an affix, and must
match the vowel harmony of the stem -- though this doesn't show up clearly
in the broad orthography I'm using here.
The -kan/-ken suffixes above are nominalizers, used to refer to "the number
9" as opposed to "9 (somethings)". These numbers are lifted from Koryak
and Chukchi. And Ainu.
Kenji