Counting in High Valyrian

Language overview

The High Valyrian language is a fictional language developed by the linguist David J. Peterson for the television series Game of Thrones, adaptation of the A Song of Ice and Fire series of novels by George R. R. Martin. If High Valyrian is not really used in the everyday life of Essos and Westeros, it is still a language of learning and education among the nobility of the Free Cities, a bit like Latin in medieval Europe. Since the premiere of HBO new series, House of the Dragon, High Valyrian has its own writing system, consisting of 3 types of glyphs: logographic (whole words), paradigmatic (nominal paradigms and inflections), and alphabetic (phonetic).

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

Declensions and genders in High Valyrian

High Valyrian has four grammatical numbers (singular, plural, collective, and paucal), and four genders (lunar, solar, terrestrial, and aquatic). All numbers are adjectives, hence the numeral adjectives are declined according to their class (I, II or III) and their gender as other High Valyrian adjectives. In other words, numbers agree with the nouns they modify in case and number. Here are some examples in nominative plural: lanti vali (“two men”, lunar), lantyz azantyssy (“two knights”, solar), lanta dōra (“two stones”, terrestrial), lantra hāedri (“two younger sisters”, aquatic). With a paucal word, like lentun (“community”), the numeral is set in its plural form (mēriar lentun, “one community”), whereas with a collective word, like mentyr (“army”), the numeral is set in its singular form (mēre mentyr, “one army”).

High Valyrian 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: mēre [1] (-ior, class II), lanta [2] (-ys, -on, -or, class I), hāre [3] (-ior, class II), izula [4] (-ys, -on, -or, class I), tōma [5] (-ys, -on, -or, class I), bȳre [6] (-ior, class II), sīkuda [7] (-ys, -on, -or, class I), jēnqa [8] (-ys, -on, -or, class I), and vōre [9] (-ior, class II).
• The tens are formed by prefixing the -epsa root with the multiplier digit where the ending a is replaced by a e, lengthening it into a ē, except for ten itself: ampa [10], lantēpsa [20], hārēpsa [30], izulēpsa [40], tōmēpsa [50], bȳrēpsa [60], sīkudēpsa [70], jēnqēpsa [80], and vōrēpsa [90]. The words for tens are not inflected.
• In compound numbers, the ten follows the standard juxtaposition process of coordination, i.e. the final vowel is lengthened, and main stress shifts to the last syllable. Besides, the unit is set before the ten, separated with a space (e.g.: hāre ampā [13], tōma izulepsā [45], jēnqa sīkudepsā [78]).
• The hundreds are formed by setting the multiplier digit before the word for hundred (gār), except for one hundred itself: gār [100], lanta gār [200], hāre gār [300], izula gār [400], tōma gār [500], bȳre gār [600], sīkuda gār [700], jēnqa gār [800], and vōre gār [900]. The word for hundred is not inflected, and compound hundreds are formed straightforward (hāre gār izula jēnqepsā [384], bȳre gār jēnqa hārepsā [638]).
• The word for thousand is pyrys.

Write a number in full in High Valyrian

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

Articles

Sources

• High Valyrian Number System
• Valyrian Numerals

Game of Throne languages

Dothraki, and High Valyrian.

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.