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Counting in Burushaski

Language overview

Forty-two in Burushaski Burushaski (بروشسکی‎ romanized as burū́šaskī) is a language isolate, in the sense that it has no genealogical relationship with other language. It is spoken by the Burusho people in northern Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan, and counts about 112.000 speakers. The Burushaski language is written in an extended Perso-Arabic script.

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

Burushaski numbers list

  • 1 – hik
  • 2 – altó
  • 3 – iskí
  • 4 – wálti
  • 5 – číndi
  • 6 – mishíndi
  • 7 – thalé
  • 8 – altámbi
  • 9 – huntí
  • 10 – tóorimi
  • 11 – turma-hik
  • 12 – turma-alto
  • 13 – turma-iski
  • 14 – turma-wálti
  • 15 – turma-číndi
  • 16 – turma-mishíndi
  • 17 – turma-thale
  • 18 – turma-altámbi
  • 19 – turma-hunti
  • 20 – altar
  • 30 – altar-toorimi
  • 40 – alto-altar
  • 50 – alto-altar-toorimi
  • 60 – iski-altar
  • 70 – iski-altar-toorimi
  • 80 – walti-altar
  • 90 – walti-altar-toorimi
  • 100 – tha
  • 1,000 – sáas

Burushaski 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 (we use here the class dedicated to abstract counting): hik [1], altó [2], iskí [3], wálti [4], číndi [5], mishíndi [6], thalé [7], altámbi [8], and huntí [9].
  • The Burushaski languages follows a vigesimal number system (of base 20) for its tens: tóorimi [10], altar [20], altar-toorimi [30] (20+10), alto-altar [40] (2*20), alto-altar-toorimi [50] (2*20+10), iski-altar [60] (3*20), iski-altar-toorimi [70] (3*20+10), walti-altar [80] (4*20), and walti-altar-toorimi [90] (4*20+10).
  • Compound numbers from eleven to nineteen are formed starting with a form of the word for ten (turma), linked with a hyphen to the unit with no diacritic: turma-hik [11], turma-alto [12], turma-iski [13], turma-walti [14], turma-čindi [15], turma-mishindi [16], turma-thale [17], turma-altambi [18], and turma-hunti [19].
  • Compound numbers above twenty are formed starting with the ten, then the unit with no diacritic, linked with a hyphen (e.g.: altar-iski [23], alto-altar-turma-hunti [59]).
  • The word for hundred is tha [100].
  • The word for thousand is sáas [1,000].

Write a number in full in Burushaski

Let’s move now to the practice of the numbering rules in Burushaski. 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.

Books

Burushaski as an Indo-European Kentum Language Burushaski as an Indo-European Kentum Language
by , editors LINCOM (2009)
[Amazon.com Amazon.com]

Parlons bourouchaski Parlons bourouchaski
by , editors L’Harmattan (1999)
[Amazon.com Amazon.com]

Dictionnaire du bourouchaski du Yasin Dictionnaire du bourouchaski du Yasin
by , editors Peeters (2014)
[Amazon.com Amazon.com]

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.