Counting in Huttese

Language overview

The Huttese language, also known as Huttish, is a fictional language that belongs to the Star Wars universe. It is the native language of the Hutts, who originally came from the planet Varl, and adopted Nal Hutta as their homeworld. This language has been created by Ben Burtt, sound designer for the Star Wars movies, and is mostly based on the Quechua language (some influences of English, Polish and even Hindi have been noted).

Due to lack of data, we can only count accurately up to 16₁₀ (20₈) in Huttese. Please contact me if you can help me counting up from that limit.

The octal numeral system

Huttese numbers follow the octal numeral system, or base-8, which can be explained by the fact Hutts have eight fingers. To better understand the octal numeral system, let’s start with a more familiar one: the decimal system. In the decimal system (or base-10), we have ten digits, from zero to nine. When we add 1 (one) to 9 (nine), we get 10 (ten), or the unit 1 (one) followed by 0 (zero). This system is positional (the digits represent the units, and their rank the matching power of ten). Thus, 132 decomposes in 100 + 30 + 2 = 1*10² + 3 *10¹ + 2 *10⁰. This system is also known as a positional decimal numeral system.
Base-8 uses digits from 0 to 7. Its first ten is eight in decimal (8₁₀ = 10₈), the base is noted in subscript. The decomposition of an octal number (in a positional system) is the same as the one of a decimal number, only the base changes: (132)₈ = 1*8² + 3 *8¹ + 2 *8⁰. If we carry it out, we get the matching decimal number, here 90.

Huttese 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).

• The digits from one to seven are: bo [1], dopa [2], duba [3], fwanna [4], k’wanna [5], kita [6], and goba [7].
• The two only documented tens are: hunto [10₈/8₁₀], and donocha [20₈/16₁₀].
• The octal teens are: biska [11₈/9₁₀], boboba [12₈/10₁₀], goboba [13₈/11₁₀], joboba [14₈/12₁₀], soboba [15₈/13₁₀], koboba [16₈/14₁₀], and foboba [17₈/15₁₀].
• The highest huttese number documented is jujumon, or one hundred in the decimal system [144₈/100₁₀].

Books

Source

• Wookieepedia (Star Wars Wiki)

Star Wars languages

Bocce, Ewokese, Gunganese, Huttese, Jawaese, Mandalorian, Neimoidian, and Shyriiwook.

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.