Counting in Romani

Language overview

Romani (Rromani) is a Indo-European language from the Indo-Aryan group, spoken by the Romani people. As a macrolanguage, or generic language, it is divided in seven main dialectal groups (Balkan, Baltic, Carpathian, Finnish Kalo, Sinte, Vlax Romani, and Welsh Romani), and counts about 3 million speakers.

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

Romani 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 ten are specific words, namely yek [1], duy [2], trin [3], shtar [4], panj [5], shov [6], efta [7], oxto [8], en’a [9], and desh [10].
• From eleven to sixteen, numbers are formed with the word for ten (desh), followed by -u- and the unit digit: desh-u-yek [11], desh-u-duy [12], desh-u-trin [13], desh-u-shtar [14], desh-u-panj [15], and desh-u-shov [16]. From seventeen to nineteen, the -u- is replaced by a simple dash: desh-efta [17], desh-oxto [18], and desh-en’a [19].
• The tens are formed by putting the multiplier unit, then the word var (times) and the word for ten separated with dashes, except for ten, twenty and thirty: desh [10], bish [20], triyanda [30], shtar-var-desh [40], panj-var-desh [50], shov-var-desh [60], efta-var-desh [70], oxto-var-desh [80], and en’a-var-desh [90].
• Compound numbers from twenty-one to twenty-nine are formed by linking the ten and the unit with -te-, apocoped in -t- before a vowel (e.g.: bish-te-yek [21], bish-te-duy [22], bish-t-efta [27]). The thirties series uses only a dash to link the ten and the unit (e.g.: triyanda-yek [31], triyanda-duy [32]). As the other tens end with the word for ten (desh), their compound are formed on the ten compounds (e.g.: panj-var-desh-u-yek [51], shov-var-desh-u-panj [65], efta-var-desh-efta [77], oxto-var-desh-en’a [89]).
• The hundreds are formed by prefixing the word for hundred (shel) with the multiplier digit separated with a space, except for one hundred itself: shel [100], duy shel [200], trin shel [300], shtar shel [400], shtar panj [500], shtar shov [600], shtar efta [700], shtar oxto [800], and shtar en’a [900].
• One thousand is barij [1,000].

Write a number in full in Romani

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

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Indo-Aryan languages

Dzambazi Romani, Gujarati, Hindi, Kalderash Romani, Odia, Rohingya, and Romani.

Other supported languages

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