Apupiwe

Lesson 9: Numbers§

Numbers are base 10, like English, but completely regular.

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
po fi sa ka da te ufo oma kefi mape

Yes, 6 is ufo. Enjoy it. The digits 6 to 9 have two syllables because the language ran out of short sounds.

The place words are yawu 10, loki 100, munno 1000, tonen million and siwin billion. Say the digit, then the place word, biggest first. A 1 before a place word is dropped, and places with a zero are skipped:

Number Said Literally
10 yawu ten
12 yawu sa ten two
15 yawu te ten five
20 sa yawu two ten
50 te yawu five ten
99 mape yawu mape nine ten nine
100 loki hundred
105 loki te hundred five
365 ka loki ufo yawu te three hundred six ten five
2026 sa munno sa yawu ufo two thousand two ten six
250 000 sa loki te yawu munno two hundred five ten thousand

Nothing is irregular, and there are no teens and no "-ty". English makes you learn eleven, twelve, fifteen and fifty one by one, but here they fall out of the rule. munno, tonen and siwin take a whole number in front, as in the last row.

To count things, put the number after the thing: totu sa "two dogs", dili oma "seven days". A label puts pi between the thing and the number: dili pi yawu da "day 14", dunan pi yawu "month 10" (October). Labels also give order, so there are no separate words like "third": gimu pi ka "the third time", ewo pi fi "the first person", and with fugi "end", gimu pi fugi "the last time". From 100 up, a label is read digit by digit.

Phone numbers, codes and years are read digit by digit too, so 2026 as a year is sa po sa ufo. Phone numbers and codes are grouped in threes from the right.

mimi is the decimal point, so fi mimi te is 1.5, and guti is minus. Half is timon. As a number, 0.5 is po mimi te. A third is fi pi ka "one of three".

If you ever need a base-6 number, say senali first and then read its digits. The dictionary also lists base-6 words such as nobi and miko. They belong to the optional senary measurement system, and ordinary counting doesn't use them.

Amounts and comparing§

"Than" is se: ke kudu se guyi ben "bigger than that house". For the most, compare with everything: ke kudu se we "biggest" (bigger than all). For less, use ke with the opposite word: ke meli "smaller". "As … as" is fu: kudu fu bu "as big as it".

fu before a number means "about": ewo fu ka yawu "about 30 people". A range is se … tun: se te tun yawu "from 5 to 10". For limits you have konsin ka "at least 3" and mu ke se ka "not more than 3", which is how you say "at most". And for "enough" there's pasu tonya "enough food".

Units have their international names and come first, like any counted thing: kilamita te "5 km".