Counting in Ainu

Language overview

Forty-two in Ainu The Ainu language (アイヌ イタク, transliterated in aynu itak), is a language isolate, which means it cannot be linked to any other living language. Historically spoken by the Ainu people on the Japan island of Hokkaidō, in the south of Sakhalin Island, in the Kuril Islands and on the southern tip of the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia, the Ainu language is currently on the verge of extinction. Oral language, it is written in a modified version of the Japanese katakana syllabary and in Latin letters.

Due to lack of data, we can only count accurately up to 1,000 in Ainu. Please contact me if you can help me counting up from that limit.

Ainu numbers list

  • 1 – shine
  • 2 – tu
  • 3 – re
  • 4 – ine
  • 5 – ashikne
  • 6 – iwa
  • 7 – arawa
  • 8 – tupe-san
  • 9 – shinepe-san
  • 10 – wa
  • 11 – shine ikashima wa
  • 12 – tu ikashima wa
  • 13 – re ikashima wa
  • 14 – ine ikashima wa
  • 15 – ashikne ikashima wa
  • 16 – iwan ikashima wa
  • 17 – arawan ikashima wa
  • 18 – tupe-san ikashima wa
  • 19 – shinepe-san ikashima wa
  • 20 – hot ne
  • 30 – wan e, tu hot ne
  • 40 – tu hot ne
  • 50 – wan e, re hot ne
  • 60 – re hot ne
  • 70 – wan e, ine hot ne
  • 80 – ine hot ne
  • 90 – wan e, ashikne hot ne
  • 100 – ashikne hot ne
  • 1,000 – ashikne shine wan hot ne

Ainu numbering rules

Now that you’ve had a gist of the most useful numbers, let’s move to the writing rules for the tens, the compound numbers, and why not the hundreds, the thousands and beyond (if possible).

  • Digits from one to nine are rendered by specific words: shine [1], tu [2], re [3], ine [4], ashikne [5], iwa [6] (and iwan when compound), arawa [7] (and arawan when compound), tupe-san [8], and shinepe-san [9].
  • The Ainu language is fully vicesimal, hence its tens are defined on base 20. The first tens are wa (and wan when compound) [10] and hot ne [20]. From thirty to ninety, upper tens are formed using multiplication (for scores, or multiples of twenty), addition (with the word ikashima, meaning in addition to or added to) and substraction (with the particle e meaning substracted or taken away from). Hence we have wan e, tu hot ne [30] (2*20 - 10), tu hot ne [40] (2*20), wan e, re hot ne [50] (3*20 - 10), re hot ne [60] (3*20), wan e, ine hot ne [70] (4*20 - 10), ine hot ne [80] (4*20), and wan e, ashikne hot ne [90] (5*20 - 10).
  • Compound numbers are formed by stating the unit, then the word ikashima (in addition to, added to), a comma above thirty, and the ten (e.g.: arawan ikashima wa [17], shinepe-san ikashima, ine hot ne [89]).
  • Hundreds also follow the vicesimal system: ashikne hot ne [100] (5*20), shine wan hot ne [200] (1*10*20), ashikne hot ikashima, shine wan hot ne [300] (5*(20) + 1*10*20), tu shine wan hot ne [400] (2*1*10*20), ashikne hot ikashima, tu shine wan hot ne [500] (5*(20) + 2*1*10*20), re shine wan hot ne [600] (3*1*10*20), ashikne hot ikashima, re shine wan hot ne [700] (5*(20) + 3*1*10*20), ine shine wan hot ne [800] (4*1*10*20), and ashikne hot ikashima, ine shine wan hot ne [900] (5*(20) + 4*1*10*20).
  • Compound numbers above one hundred follow too the vicesimal system: shine ikashima, ashikne hot ne [101] (1 + 5*20), wan e, iwan hot ne [110] (6*20 - 10), shine ikashima, wan e, iwan hot ne [111], shine ikashima, iwan hot ne [121] (1 + 6*20), wan e, arawan hot ne [130] (7*20 - 10), shine ikashima, wan e, arawan hot ne [131] (1 + 7*20 - 10)…
  • One thousand is ashikne shine wan hot ne [1,000] (5*1*10*20).

Books

Isolate languages

Ainu, Basque, Burushaski, Keresan, Korean, Purépecha, and Tunica.

Other supported languages

As the other currently supported languages are too numerous to list extensively here, please select a language from the full list of supported languages.