Counting in Lowland Oaxaca Chontal
Language overview
Lowland Oaxaca Chontal (Huamelultec or Huamelula Chontal) is one of the three Chontal languages, or Tequistlatecan languages, belonging to the Hokan language family. It is spoken on the costal area of Oaxaca, Mexico, and counts about about 1,100 speakers.
Due to lack of data, we can only count accurately up to 100 in Lowland Oaxaca Chontal. Please contact me if you can help me counting up from that limit.
Lowland Oaxaca Chontal numbers list
- 1 – ñulyi
- 2 – ukwe’
- 3 – fane’
- 4 – malpu’
- 5 – mague’
- 6 – k’anchux
- 7 – kote’
- 8 – malfa’
- 9 – penla’
- 10 – mbama’
- 11 – mbamaj ñulyi
- 12 – mbamaj ukwe’
- 13 – mbamaj fane’
- 14 – mbamaj malpu’
- 15 – mbamaj mague’
- 16 – mbamaj k’anchux
- 17 – mbamaj kote’
- 18 – mbamaj malfa’
- 19 – mbamaj penla’
- 20 – ñuxans
- 30 – fane’ jmbama’
- 40 – ukwej ñuxans’
- 50 – maguej mbama’
- 60 – fanej ñuxans’
- 70 – fanej ñuxans mbamaj
- 80 – malpuj ñuxans
- 90 – malpuj ñuxans mbama
- 100 – maxñu
Lowland Oaxaca Chontal 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).
- Numbers from one to nine are rendered by specific words: ñulyi [1], ukwe’ [2], fane’ [3], malpu’ [4], mague’ [5], k’anchux [6], kote’ [7], malfa’ [8], and penla’ [9].
- Tens are formed following a vigesimal system (of base 20): mbama’ [10], ñuxans [20], fane’ jmbama’ [30] (3*10), ukwej ñuxans’ [40] (2*20), maguej mbama’ [50] (5*10), fanej ñuxans’ [60] (3*20), fanej ñuxans mbamaj [70] (3*20+10), malpuj ñuxans [80] (4*20), and malpuj ñuxans mbama [90] (4*20+10).
- Compound numbers are formed starting with the ten, followed by the unit separated with a space (e.g.: ñuxans’ ukwe’ [22], mague’ mbamaj malpu [54]) or not (e.g.: fane’ mbamajmague [35], mague’ mbamajukwe [52]).
- The word for hundred is maxñu.
Write a number in full in Lowland Oaxaca Chontal
Let’s move now to the practice of the numbering rules in Lowland Oaxaca Chontal. 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
The Grammatical Structure of Oaxaca Chontal
by Viola Grace Waterhouse, editors Literary Licensing (2013)
[ Amazon.com]
Hokan languages
Kiliwa, and Lowland Oaxaca Chontal.
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.