Swahili numbers

Stan
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Swahili numbers

Postby Stan » 2005-11-27, 21:28

0 = sifuri
1 = moja
2 = mbili
3 = tatu
4 = nne
5 = tano
6 = sita
7 = saba
8 = nane
9 = tisa
10 = kumi

* 11 = kumi na moja
* 12 = kumi na mbili
* 13 = kumi na tatu
* 14 = kumi na nne
* 15 = kumi na tano
* 16 = kumi na sita
* 17 = kumi na saba
* 18 = kumi na nane
* 19 = kumi na tisa

20 = ishirini

* 25 = ishirini na tano

30 = thelathini
40 = arobaini
50 = hamsini
60 = sitini
70 = sabini
80 = themanini
90 = tisini
100 = mia

* 200 = mia mbili
* 300 = mia tatu
* 400 = mia nne
* 500 = mia tano
* 600 = mia sita
* 700 = mia saba
* 800 = mia nane
* 900 = mia tisa

1000 = elfu

* 2000 = elfu mbili
* 100 000 = laki

1 000 000 = milioni
1 000 000 000 = bilioni

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Magnus
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Postby Magnus » 2005-11-28, 0:02

I don't (yet) speak much Swahili, but it has one of my favourite counting systems of all the languages I've studied.

Partly I just like the sound of the words, but also I like the regularity of the system. I once wrote a little perl script to take an input number (between 1 and 100 - I didn't want to be too ambitious) and print it out as words in Swahili. I wouldn't fancy trying to write a similar script for a lot of other languages (ok, so it wouldn't be that much more difficult in, say, English, but you'd have to treat 11 - 19 as special cases).

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Mosro1
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Swahili numbers

Postby Mosro1 » 2005-12-01, 4:09

Nzuri sana!

The word I've always heard used for zero is "Nunge", but then most Kiswahili speakers don't use zero very often...

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Sarabi
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Postby Sarabi » 2006-06-07, 0:00

Thanks, Stan. It looks like some of these words have been influenced by Arabic. Well, I don't know the least bit of Arabic, but I figure that's where it comes from since Swahili has some Arabic influence. And it's just my guess that the reason the numbers are so consistent is that the system came directly from Arabic, which influenced the number vocabulary...
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mgayoub
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Postby mgayoub » 2006-10-14, 20:45

Not really. The only numbers that show Arabic influence are 0, sifuri (صفر, ṣifr, in Arabic) 1000, elfu (ألف, 'alf) and the tens (20, 30...).
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Terin
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Postby Terin » 2006-11-09, 0:44

Sita (sitta), saba (saba3a), and tisa (tis3a) are also from Arabic.

It's interesting how the tens aren't formed using the original Swahili numbers, but only Arabic-derived ones.

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Postby FatsaCatsa » 2007-10-17, 2:35

I thought 2 was "wili", and only "mbili" in the "N" class of nouns?

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Magnus
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Postby Magnus » 2007-10-26, 14:48

FatsaCatsa wrote:I thought 2 was "wili", and only "mbili" in the "N" class of nouns?

I believe "mbili" is used when the number is used without a noun, for example when counting.


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