Counting in Aloápam Zapotec
Language overview
Aloápam Zapotec 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 3,400 speakers.
Due to lack of data, we can only count accurately up to 999 in Aloápam Zapotec. Please contact me if you can help me counting up from that limit.
Aloápam Zapotec 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
Aloápam Zapotec 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 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.
Write a number in full in Aloápam Zapotec
Let’s move now to the practice of the numbering rules in Aloápam Zapotec. Will you guess how to write a number in full? Enter a number and try to write it down in your head, or maybe on a piece of paper, before displaying the result.
Links
- I read numbers (.pdf in Spanish)
Oto-Manguean languages
Aloápam Zapotec, Choapan Zapotec, Copala Triqui, Isthmus Zapotec, Lachixío Zapotec, Mazahua, Rincón Zapotec, Santa Ana Yareni Zapotec, Sierra Otomi, and Tezoatlán Mixtec.
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.