Counting in Burushaski
Language overview
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
by Ilija Casule, editors LINCOM (2009)
[ Amazon.com]
Parlons bourouchaski
by Etienne Tiffou, editors L’Harmattan (1999)
[ Amazon.com]
Dictionnaire du bourouchaski du Yasin
by Etienne Tiffou, editors Peeters (2014)
[ Amazon.com]
Isolate languages
Ainu, Basque, Burushaski, 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.