Counting in Oromo
Language overview
Language belonging to the Cushitic family, Oromo (also known as Afaan Oromoo or Oromiffa), is spoken by the Oromo people, mainly in Ethiopia, but also in Kenya. It counts about 35 million speakers, hence the third most spoken language in Africa.
Due to lack of data, we can only count accurately up to 1,000 in Oromo. Please contact me if you can help me counting up from that limit.
Oromo numbers list
- 1 – tokko
- 2 – lama
- 3 – sadi
- 4 – afur
- 5 – shan
- 6 – jaya
- 7 – torba
- 8 – saddeet
- 9 – sagal
- 10 – khudan
- 11 – khuda-tokko
- 12 – khuda-lama
- 13 – khuda-sadi
- 14 – khuda-afur
- 15 – khuda-shan
- 16 – khuda-jaya
- 17 – khuda-torba
- 18 – khuda-saddeet
- 19 – khuda-sagal
- 20 – digdama
- 30 – soddoma
- 40 – afurtama
- 50 – shantama
- 60 – jaatama
- 70 – torbatama
- 80 – saddeetama
- 90 – sagaltama
- 100 – dhibba
- 1,000 – kuma
Oromo 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 zero to nine are specific words, namely duwwa [0], tokko [1], lama [2], sadi [3], afur [4], shan [5], jaya [6], torba [7], saddeet [8], and sagal [9].
- The tens are formed by adding the suffix -(a)tama to the matching multiplier digit root, with the exception of ten, twenty and thirty: khudan [10], digdama [20], soddoma [30], afurtama [40], shantama [50], jaatama [60], torbatama [70], saddeetama [80], and sagaltama [90].
- Composed numbers from eleven to ninety-one are constructed by saying the modified ten first, followed by the digit separated with a hyphen. The composed ten either looses its ending -n (khudan [10] gives khuda-tokko [11]) or sees its ending modified from -a to -ii (digdama [20] gives digdamii-lama [22]).
- The word for hundred is dhibba, and the word for thousand is kuma.
Write a number in full in Oromo
Let’s move now to the practice of the numbering rules in Oromo. 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
Parlons oromo : une langue de la corne de l’Afrique
by Christian Bader, editors L’Harmattan (2006)
[ Amazon.com]
Cushitic languages
Oromo, and Somali.
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.