How to count in Aloápam Zapotec

Enter a number and read it spelled out in Aloápam Zapotec.

Language overview

Aloápam is a Zapotecan language from the Oto-Manguean languages family spoken around San Miguel Aloápam and San Isidro Aloápam, in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, by about 2,500 speakers.
Due to lack of data, we can only count accurately up to 999 in Aloápam Zapotec. Please contact us if you can help us counting up from that limit.

Aloápam Zapotec numbering rules

  • Digits from one to nine are specific words: ttubi [1], chupa [2], tsunna [3], ttapa [4], gayu [5], xxupa [6], gasi [7], xxunu [8], and jaa [9].
  • Numbers from ten to nineteen are specific words too: tsii [10], sinia [11], tsi’inu [12], tsi’intsagüi [13], sitá [14], tsinu [15], sixupa [16], tsini [17], sixunu [18], and chennia [19]. We can however recognize in some of them the word for ten (tsii) followed by the unit (e.g.: sixunu [18] is a contraction of tsii [10] and xxunu [8]).
  • The word for twenty is galhia. Numbers from twenty-one to twenty-nine are formed by adding the suffix -erua to the digit root: ttuerua [21], chuperua [22], tsunerua [23], ttaperua [24], gayuerua [25], xxuperua [26], gasierua [27], xxunuerua [28], and jaerua [29].
  • The word for thirty is rerua. Numbers from thirty-one to thirty-nine have two forms, depending if they follow the previous vigesimal rule or the new decimal one. In vigesimal, they are formed by adding the suffix -erua to the root of the words for eleven to nineteen: sinierua [31], tsi’inuerua [32], tsi’intsagüierua [33], sittaerua [34], tsinuerua [35], sixupaerua [36], tsinierua [37], sixunuerua [38], and chenniaerua [39]. In the decimal system actually used, they follow the numbering rules or regular compound numbers.
  • Aloápam Zapotec originally used only the vigesimal system. Nowadays, the decimal system is gradually taking its place, hence some tens have different forms if they follow the vigesimal system or the decimal one (seventy and ninety being the last two tens really following the vigesimal rule): tsii [10], galhia [20], rerua [30], chua [40], medi gayua [50] (half-hundred, previously chua yu’u tsii, 50+10), gayuna [60] (previously tsunna galhia, 3*20), gayuna yu’u tsii [70] (60 + 10), ta [80] (previously ttapa galhia, 4*20), and ta yu’u tsii [90] (80 + 10).
  • Regular compound numbers from thirty-one to sixty-nine, and from eighty-one to eighty-nine, are formed by saying the ten, then the word yu’u (and/plus), and the digit (e.g.: rerua yu’u chupa [32], medi gayua yu’u ttapa [54], gayuna yu’u xxupa [66]). The digit one, when compound, is shortened from ttubi to ttu (e.g.: medi gayua yu’u ttu [51]). Seventies and nineties are formed by adding the words for eleven to nineteen to the previous ten (e.g.: gayuna yu’u sinia [71], ta yu’u sixunu [98]).
  • Hundreds are formed by saying the multiplier digit before the word for hundred (gayua): ttu gayua [100] (note the use of the short one, ttu), chupa gayua [200], tsunna gayua [300]… We can note here again the vigesimal system in use: as gayua is formed on gayu (five), it can be read as the contraction of five times twenty.

Books

Numbers list

1 – ttubi
2 – chupa
3 – tsunna
4 – ttapa
5 – gayu
6 – xxupa
7 – gasi
8 – xxunu
9 – jaa
10 – tsii
11 – sinia
12 – tsi’inu
13 – tsi’intsagüi
14 – sitá
15 – tsinu
16 – sixupa
17 – tsini
18 – sixunu
19 – chennia
20 – galhia
30 – rerua
40 – chua
50 – medi gayua
60 – gayuna
70 – gayuna yu’u tsii
80 – ta
90 – ta yu’u tsii
100 – ttu gayua

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