Counting in Sawila
Language overview
Sawila, or Tanglapui, is a Papuan language that belongs to the Alor-Pantar languages family. It is spoken in the Alor-Pantar Archipelago of Eastern Indonesia, where it counts about 3,000 native speakers. The name Tanglapui is also used for the Kula language spoken on the same island, even though they have only marginal mutual intelligibility.
Due to lack of data, we can only count accurately up to 9,999 in Sawila. Please contact me if you can help me counting up from that limit.
Sawila numbers list
- 1 – sundana
- 2 – yaku
- 3 – tuo
- 4 – araasiku
- 5 – yootine
- 6 – yootingsuno
- 7 – yootingyaku
- 8 – yootingtuo
- 9 – yotaraasiku
- 10 – adaaku
- 11 – adaaku garising sundana
- 12 – adaaku garising yaku
- 13 – adaaku garising tuo
- 14 – adaaku garising araasiku
- 15 – adaaku garising yootine
- 16 – adaaku garising yootingsuno
- 17 – adaaku garising yootingyaku
- 18 – adaaku garising yootingtuo
- 19 – adaaku garising yotaraasiku
- 20 – adaaku ma-raku
- 30 – adaaku ma-tua
- 40 – adaaku ma-araasiku
- 50 – adaaku ma-yootine
- 60 – adaaku ma-yootingsuno
- 70 – adaaku ma-yootingyaku
- 80 – adaaku ma-yootingtua
- 90 – adaaku ma-yootarasiku
- 100 – asaka dana
- 1,000 – riibu dana
Sawila 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 rendered by specific words, namely sundana (or dana when used as multiplier) [1], yaku [2], tuo (or tua when used as multiplier) [3], araasiku [4], yootine [5], yootingsuno [6] (5+1), yootingyaku [7] (5+2), yootingtuo [8] (5+3), and yotaraasiku [9] (5+4). As noted, the Sawila language follows a quinary (base 5) numeric system.
- Tens are formed starting with the word for ten (adaaku), followed by its multiplier (modified for twenty, thirty and ninety), prefixed by ma-, except for ten itself: adaaku [10], adaaku ma-raku [20], adaaku ma-tua [30], adaaku ma-araasiku [40], adaaku ma-yootine [50], adaaku ma-yootingsuno [60], adaaku ma-yootingyaku [70], adaaku ma-yootingtua [80], and adaaku ma-yootarasiku [90].
- Compound numbers are formed starting with the ten, followed by the word garising, and the unit (e.g.: adaaku garising araasiku [14], adaaku ma-yootingsuno garising yootine [65]).
- Hundreds are formed starting with the word for hundred (asaka), then the multiplier separated with a space: asaka dana [100], asaka yaku [200], asaka tua [300], asaka araasiku [400], asaka yootine [500], asaka yootingsuno [600], asaka yootingyaku [700], asaka yootingtuo [800], and asaka yootarasiku [900].
- Thousands are formed starting with the word for thousand (riibu), then the multiplier separated with a space: riibu dana [1,000], riibu yaku [2,000], riibu tua [3,000], riibu araasiku [4,000], riibu yootine [5,000], riibu yootingsuno [6,000], riibu yootingyaku [7,000], riibu yootingtuo [8,000], and riibu yootarasiku [9,000].
Write a number in full in Sawila
Let’s move now to the practice of the numbering rules in Sawila. 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 Alor-Pantar Languages: History and Typology. Second Edition.
by Marian Klamer, editors Saint Philip Street Press (2020)
[ Amazon.com]
Source
- Number in Abui and Sawila (pdf), by František Kratochvíl, in Papers from 12-ICAL, Volume 1 (2014)
Trans-New Guinea languages
Abui, Huli, Lavukaleve, Ndom, Savosavo, Sawila, Tobelo, Tolaki, and Western Pantar.
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.