Numbers and Language, Part 2

Now to get to some hairy stuff: numbers in Eastern Asian languages.

As mentioned before, my first language is actually Mandarin, and my first word happened to be “five” in Mandarin. My mom was reading some book to me if I remember correctly, and she was counting, “one, two, three, four…” and I happened to say “five” on cue. Seemed to be an omen that I was destined to study math…

Anyhow, I’m going to go over some of the languages and dialects one-by-one, starting with Mandarin:

Number	Character(s)	Zhuyin	Pinyin
0	零／〇	ㄌㄧㄥˊ	líng
1	一	ㄧ	yī
2	二	ㄦˋ	èr
3	三	ㄙㄢ	sān
4	四	ㄙˋ	sì
5	五	ㄨˇ	wǔ
6	六	ㄌㄧㄡˋ	lìu
7	七	ㄑㄧ	qī
8	八	ㄅㄚ	bā
9	九	ㄐㄧㄡˇ	jǐu
10	十	ㄕˊ	shí
11	十一	ㄕˊ ㄧ	shí yī
12	十二	ㄕˊ ㄦˋ	shí èr
13	十三	ㄕˊ ㄙㄢ	shí sān
14	十四	ㄕˊ ㄙˋ	shí sì
15	十五	ㄕˊ ㄨˇ	shí wǔ
16	十六	ㄕˊ ㄌㄧㄡˋ	shí lìu
17	十七	ㄕˊ ㄑㄧ	shí qī
18	十八	ㄕˊ ㄅㄚ	shí bā
19	十九	ㄕˊ ㄐㄧㄡˇ	shí jǐu
20	二十	ㄦˋ ㄕˊ	èr shí
21	二十一	ㄦˋ ㄕˊ ㄧ	èr shí yī
30	三十	ㄙㄢ ㄕˊ	sān shí
40	四十	ㄙˋ ㄕˊ	sì shí
50	五十	ㄨˇ ㄕˊ	wǔ shí
60	六十	ㄌㄧㄡˋ ㄕˊ	lìu shí
70	七十	ㄑㄧ ㄕˊ	qī shí
80	八十	ㄅㄚ ㄕˊ	bā shí
90	九十	ㄐㄧㄡˇ ㄕˊ	jǐu shí
100	一百	ㄧˋ ㄅㄞˇ	yì bǎi
101	一百零一	ㄧˋ ㄅㄞˇ ㄌㄧㄥˊ ㄧ	yì bǎi líng yī
110	一百一十	ㄧˋ ㄅㄞˇ ㄧ ㄕˊ	yì bǎi yī shí
200	兩百	ㄌㄧㄤˇ ㄅㄞˇ	lǐang bǎi
1000	一千	ㄧˋ ㄑㄧㄢ	yì qīan
10000	一萬／一万	ㄧˊ ㄨㄢˋ	yí wàn
100000	十萬	ㄕˊ ㄨㄢˋ	shí wàn
1000000	一百萬／一百万	ㄧˋ ㄅㄞˇ ㄨㄢˋ	yì bǎi wàn
10000000	一千萬／一千万	ㄧˋ ㄑㄧㄢ ㄨㄢˋ	yì qīan wàn
100000000	一億／一亿	ㄧˊ ㄧˋ	yí yì

So there’s quite a bit to note here.

To start, each single number from 1 to 9 has its own unique character and gets suffixed to the expression depending on what’s in the tens digit. So, for example, 39 is denoted as “三十九” in characters. Additionally, these characters get prefixed to the powers of 10 when needing to denote something like 40 or 500, thereby involving some multiplication (Note how 40 is literally “four tens”).

I’ve also listed the vernacular for Taiwan, as one notable exception is for 2 as a prefix for 200 or higher, in which the character “兩” is used, as this character is used for counting 2 of things, a carryover of grammatical practices in Chinese. For example, 2000 would be written as “兩千”. The only time “二” is used is for 20. In Mainland China, however, the character “二” is used regardless.

Interestingly, there does exist one exclusive character that describes “20”, which would be “廿”, and it is commonly used for Chinese calendar dates. In fact there are characters for 30, 40, and 200, although they’re rarely used so we won’t discuss them.

One other important note is that in order to say something like “101” or “205”, you effectively need to add “0” to your speech, as literally saying “one hundred two”, for example, actually means “120” (this is short speech where “ten” is not stated). Similarly, you need to say “one ‘ten'” when talking about something that has a “1” in the tens place for numbers valued at 110 and above.

The absence of using “0” unlike how we do with Arabic numerals is also worth noting: Each power of 10 up to (and including) 10000 has its own unique word, thus circumventing the need to add “0” (hence making the word for 0 is pretty much exclusive and doesn’t get used like with Arabic numerals).

Anyway, the most notable difference in the Chinese numeral system is that higher numbers “reset” for every 10000, or 10⁴, unlike with Western systems (and the Arabic numeral system by consequence) where there’s a “reset” for every 1000, or 10³. There is a unique term for every 10⁴ⁿ, and in between, the terms for 10, 100, and 1000 get prefixed to whichever 10⁴ⁿ number we are dealing with, as noted with 1000000, for example, which is “one hundred ten-thousands” (again using multiplication). Below is a table for these unique terms (and to denote the single number, the character for “1” gets prefixed):

104n	Character	Zhuyin	Pinyin
104	一萬／一万	ㄧˊ ㄨㄢˋ	yí wàn
108	一億／一亿	ㄧˊ ㄧˋ	yí yì
1012	一兆	ㄧˊ ㄓㄠˋ	yí zhào
1016	一京	ㄧˋ ㄐㄧㄥ	yì jīng
1020	一垓	ㄧˋ ㄍㄞ	yì gāi
1024	一秭	ㄧˋ ㄗˇ	yì zǐ
1028	一穰	ㄧˋ ㄖㄤˊ	yì ráng
1032	一溝／一沟	ㄧˋ ㄍㄡ	yì gōu
1036	一澗／一涧	ㄧˊ ㄐㄧㄢˋ	yí jìan
1040	一正	ㄧˊ ㄓㄥˋ	yí zhèng
1044	一載／一载	ㄧˋ ㄗㄞˇ	yì zǎi

Although this system leaves little ambiguity, if any, in China, the term for a trillion (10¹²) is actually “一万亿” in official use as opposed to “一兆”, which is still officially used in Taiwan.

One last thing: on the characters for 1 through 9, different ones are used for financial and commercial settings. To differentiate them, the common use characters are referred to as “small writing (小寫／小写)” while the the financial/commercial characters are referred to as “big writing (大寫／大写)”. Additionally, the characters for 10, 100, and 1000 also fall under this system:

Number	Normal	Financial/Commercial
1	一	壹
2	二	貳／贰
3	三	參／叄
4	四	肆
5	五	伍
6	六	陸／陆
7	七	柒
8	八	捌
9	九	玫
10	十	拾
100	百	佰
1000	千	仟

Anyhow, let us observe how it is in Japanese, where we will discuss more grammar above anything else.

Number	Kanji	Hiragana	Rōmaji
0	零／〇	れい	rei
1	一	いち	ichi
2	二	に	ni
3	三	さん	san
4	四	し／よん	shi/yon
5	五	ご	go
6	六	ろく	roku
7	七	しち／なな	shichi/nana
8	八	はち	hachi
9	九	きゅう	kyū
10	十	じゅう	jyū
11	十一	じゅういち	jyūichi
12	十二	じゅうに	jyūni
13	十三	じゅうさん	jyūsan
14	十四	じゅうし／じゅうよん	jyūshi/jyūyon
15	十五	じゅうご	jyūgo
16	十六	じゅうろく	jyūroku
17	十七	じゅうしち／じゅうなな	jyūshichi/jyūnana
18	十八	じゅうはち	jyūhachi
19	十九	じゅうきゅう	jyūkyū
20	二十	にじゅう	nijyū
21	二十一	にじゅういち	nijyūichi
30	三十	さんじゅう	sanjyū
40	四十	よんじゅう	yonjyū
50	五十	ごじゅう	gojyū
60	六十	ろくじゅう	rokujyū
70	七十	ななじゅう	nanajyū
80	八十	はちじゅう	hachijyū
90	九十	きゅうじゅう	kyūjyū
100	百	ひゃく	hyaku
200	二百	にひゃく	nihyaku
300	三百	さんびゃく	sanbyaku
400	四百	よんひゃく	yonhyaku
500	五百	ごひゃく	gohyaku
600	六百	ろっぴゃく	roppyaku
700	七百	ななひゃく	nanahyaku
800	八百	はっぴゃく	happyaku
900	九百	きゅうひゃく	kyūhyaku
1000	千	せん	sen
2000	二千	にせん	nisen
3000	三千	さんぜん	sanzen
4000	四千	よんせん	yonsen
5000	五千	ごせん	gosen
6000	六千	ろくせん	rokusen
7000	七千	ななせん	nanasen
8000	八千	はっせん	hassen
9000	九千	きゅうせん	kyūsen
10000	一万	いちまん	ichiman
100000	十万	じゅうまん	jyūman
1000000	百万	ひゃくまん	hyakuman
10000000	千万	せんまん	senman
100000000	一億	いちおく	ichioku
1000000000000	一兆	いっちょう	icchou

I included more numbers here because it bears mention that some of Japanese’s grammar shows here. For example, with 300, 600, 800, 3000, 8000, and 1000000000000. I won’t get into specifics, though, but if you want to remember them, you might as well brute force try to memorize until you understand how Japanese grammar works.

Additionally, because Japanese uses a Kanji system borrowed from Chinese, there exist two ways to read Kanji depending on the context, and it shows with 4 and 7 and their “relatives”. These two ways are referred to as “kunyomi (訓読み)” and “onyomi (音読み)”, and it’s best described as sounding more “Japanese” for the former and more “Chinese” for the latter. Here’s the kunyomi and onyomi for the characters for 1 to 10, then for 100 and 1000:

Number	Kanji (漢字)	Kun (訓)	On (音)
1	一	ひと (hito)	イチ (ichi)
2	二	ふた、ふつ (futa, futsu)	ニ、ジ (ni, ji)
3	三	み (mi)	サン、サ (san, sa)
4	四	よ、よん (yo, yon)	シ (shi)
5	五	いつ (itsu)	ゴ (go)
6	六	む、むい (mu, mui)	ロク、リク (roku, riku)
7	七	なな、なの (nana, nano)	シチ (shichi)
8	八	や、よう (ya, yō)	ハチ (hachi)
9	九	ここの (kokono)	キュウ、ク (kyū, ku)
10	十	とお (tō)	ジュウ (jyū)
100	百	もも (momo)	ヒャク (hyaku)
1000	千	ち (chi)	セン (sen)

One thing to note: most often in dictionaries for kanji, kunyomi is given in hiragana while onyomi is given in katakana.

Anyhow, there are instances where the kunyomi is used onyomi for all nine. For example, with counting “things”, such as with objects (although the articles can differ for things like computers or sheets of paper, in which the onyomi is used instead as prefixes for the articles). In this instance, you’d be saying this instead: 一つ (hitotsu), 二つ (futatsu), 三つ (mittsu), 四つ (yottsu), 五つ (itsutsu), 六つ (muttsu), 七つ (nanatsu), 八つ (yattsu), 九つ (kokonotsu), 十 (tō).

Another instance would be for counting days, apart from “one day”: 一日 (ichinichi), 二日 (futsuka), 三日 (mikka), 四日 (yokka), 五日 (itsuka), 六日 (muika), 七日 (nanoka), 八日 (yōka), 九日 (kokonoka), 十日 (tōka). These also apply to the days of a month (such as second day of the month), although an exception exists for the first day of the month. Depending on the context, “一日” could be read as “いちにち (ichinichi)”, which refers to one day as a unit, or “ついたち (tsuitachi)”, which refers to the first day of a month. This is in similar fashion to French where the first day of a month is referred to as “le premier jour”. But what happens after ten days? Well, you now begin to just use the normal number and then suffixing “nichi” (and in the cases of 14 or 17, for example, “jyūyon” and “jyūnana” are used). For example, the 15th day of a month is referred to as “十五日 (jyūgonichi)”.

This kind of notion actually plays into how some names in Japanese work. A good example would be the siblings of Brock from Pokémon:

English Name	Japanese Name
Forrest	ジロウ (Jirō)
Salvadore	サブロウ (Saburō)
Yolanda	ヨモコ (Yomoko)
Tommy	ゴロウ (Gorō)
Cindy	ムツコ (Mutsuko)
Suzie	ナナコ (Nanako)
Timmy	ヤオキ (Yaoki)
Billy	クロウ (Kurō)
Tilly	トオコ (Tōko)

One last note on the use of kunyomi outside of 4 and 7: it’s used for counting people, but strangely, only for one person, “一人 (hitori)”, and two people, “二人 (futari)”. Otherwise, onyomi is used for 3 or more people for both kanji (apart from 4 and 7, though, as mentioned). Interestingly, depending on the context, “一人” can also mean “alone”. Same goes for “二人”: it can be used to describe any situation involving two people together such as “us”.

Anyway, back to the subject of 4 and 7. You might have noticed how rather than using the onyomi for 40, 70, 400, and 700, the kunyomi is used instead. Rather interesting considering that when saying “4” or “7”, the onyomi usually gets used. Generally speaking, the onyomi have very specific uses, such as when saying “4” and “7” on their own. Another would be for counting the twelve months.

Month	Kanji (漢字)	Hiragana	Rōmaji
January	一月	いちがつ	ichigatsu
February	二月	にがつ	nigatsu
March	三月	さんがつ	sangatsu
April	四月	しがつ	shigatsu
May	五月	ごがつ	gogatsu
June	六月	ろくがつ	rokugatsu
July	七月	しちがつ	shichigatsu
August	八月	はちがつ	hachigatsu
September	九月	くがつ	kugatsu
October	十月	じゅうがつ	jyūgatsu
November	十一月	じゅういちがつ	jyūichigatsu
December	十二月	じゅうにがつ	jyūnigatsu

But what about if you want to refer to months as a unit? You’d be suffixing “ヶ月 (kkagetsu)” to the kanji. So for example, for one month would be “一ヶ月 (ikkagetsu)”. And yes, the kunyomi is used for four months (四ヶ月 (yokkagetsu)) and seven months (七ヶ月 (nanakagetsu)).

Anyhow, I could go on for some more things but I’ll cut it to here for now. I do plan on analyzing Korean in the future to complete the set of Eastern Asian languages, as well as possibly some Chinese dialects as well. Cheers!