SECTION III: NUMBERS
IIIa – Plurals
This language pays little attention to the distinction,
ever-present in European languages, between this dog
and
these dogs
– both are usually
saiók·ellu. There are no plural
endings
. This may seem likely to cause ambiguity, but if
so it's a form of ambiguity that's accepted as trivial; it is
always possible to explicitly pluralise a noun by bringing in the
irregular adjective lo plural, several
(as in
l·a saiók·ellu, these
dogs
– see Va), but this is
used very sparingly. Once the fact they're plural has been
established there's no need to repeat it – so it's
ruk·a saiók two dogs
, never
l·a ruk·a saiók several two dogs
.
The numbers emme and ruk (one
and two
)
occur almost as often as lo, marking things that occur alone
or in pairs – emme·ra saiók is
one dog
or just a dog
, ruk·a
ianúr·ap is my two legs
or just my
legs
.
None of the pronouns (see following section) carries a
distinction between singular and plural either – so for
instance both it
and they
can translate as
is – but all of them may be accompanied
by number words where appropriate:
| pa |
I (first-exclusive, subject) |
| lo pa |
we , my friends and I (plural ditto) |
| uton·na |
you, ye (second-polite, object) |
| l·a uton·na |
you guys, you-all (plural ditto) |
| is·on |
(to) it (third-neuter, oblique) |
| ruk·on is·on |
(to) them both (dual ditto) |
The pronoun-suffixes (see VIc) cannot be
modified in this way – adding the plural adjective to
saiók·ap my/our dog(s)
makes the dogs
unambiguously plural, not their owners.
IIIb – Person
Person
is the term used for one of the dimensions along
which pronouns are classified. As in most languages, three
categories are recognised: first person
means I/we
;
second person is you
; and third person covers everything
else (he/she/it/they
or normal nouns). Where
European languages tend to subdivide each person
category
into singular
and plural
forms, this one has
different criteria for subdividing each person
.
- FIRST PERSON: EXCLUSIVE vs INCLUSIVE
-
Exclusive we
is the kind of we
that leaves out the
addressee (forgive us!
), whereas inclusive we
is
the kind that refers to both the speaker and the addressee (as
in shall we dance?
), and perhaps others (so we all
agree?
). In practice this works very much like the
familiar singular/plural distinction, because I
is
invariably exclusive, and inclusive is automatically plural.
- SECOND PERSON: FAMILIAR vs POLITE
-
This is like the Shakespearean English (or French) division
between
thou
(tu
), used to address family,
friends, servants, or animals, and ye
(vous
), used
to address superiors and (respectable) strangers. Its
usage varies with the social standing of the speaker and the
addressee.
- THIRD PERSON: NEUTER vs EPICENE
-
This is explained in detail under the slightly misleading
heading of gender (IVa); neuter is used
to designate animals, objects, or ideas while epicene is used to
point at people.
IIIc – Counting
The basic cardinal numbers are:
| emme |
one |
| ruk |
two |
| chu |
three |
| thamme |
four |
| panei |
five |
| fonei |
six |
| iro |
seven |
| botu |
eight |
| sachaso |
nine |
| ikh |
ten (ik before a hyphen) |
| |
|
Higher numbers are built up as hyphenated phrases using these
elements; the whole expression acts almost as a single compound
word (see Xa), with regular adjective
endings on the last element (see
Va). However, the hyphenated forms
do not obey the usual restrictions on consonant clusters in
compounds, and each of the bits obeys the normal stress rules
for an independent word (IIb).
|
| |
| ik-t-emme |
eleven (ten+1) |
| ik-ta-ruk |
twelve (ten+2) |
| ik-ta-chu |
thirteen (ten+3) |
| ik-ta-thamme |
fourteen (ten+4) |
| ik-ta-panei |
fifteen (ten+5) |
| ik-ta-fonei |
sixteen (ten+6) |
| ik-t-iro |
seventeen (ten+7) |
| ik-ta-botu |
eighteen (ten+8) |
| ik-ta-sachaso |
nineteen (ten+9) |
| rúkikh |
twenty (ruk·ikh, 2 tens )
|
| rúkik-t-emme |
twenty-one |
| chúikh |
thirty |
| thammeikh |
forty |
| paneikh |
fifty |
| foneikh |
sixty |
| iroikh |
seventy |
| botuikh |
eighty |
| sachasoikh |
ninety |
| sachasoik-ta-sachaso |
ninety-nine |
| ajakh |
a hundred (again kh- becomes
k-)
|
| ajak-t-emme |
a hundred and one |
| iro-ajak-t-ik-t-iro |
seven hundred and seventeen |
| ik-ajakh |
a thousand (ten hundred) |
| satoe |
ten thousand (one word – a myriad )
|
| ik-satoe |
a hundred thousand (ten myriad) |
| ajak-satoe |
a million (a hundred myriad) |
| ik-ajak-satoe |
ten million (a thousand myriad) |
| itullu |
a hundred million (etc, e.g. 10¹² =
satoe-itullu)
|
Thus:
-
ik-ta-sachaso-ajak-ta-sachasoik-ta-panai =
1995
-
rúkik-ajak-t-emme·ra moulakh =
2001
years
-
thammeik-ta-botu-ajak-ta-sachasoik-ta-ruk =
4892
The comparative marker bei (see Va)
also serves to form ordinals (the Nth
):
- chu bei kua
the third man
;
-
rúkik-t-iro·ra bei moulakh·ap
my
27th year
SECTION IV: Nouns
![[MAIL]](../props/email.png)
1995–2001