Numerals in Laefěvëši
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This private article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 26 Feb 2019, 22:16.
[comments] qlfnumbersnumerals
1. 1. Dóno! Váján?
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5. Iád Jahléstiðau
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14. The Ardosent
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15. The Thirteen Elements
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17. Various constructions
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Laefêvëši (outdated) has several types of numerals, such as the expected cardinal and ordinal numerals, but also collective, differential, multiplicative, adverbial, and other types. The numerals are not inflected by class but they are still declined by case (and number). A distinct feature of the Laefevian numerals is that they can be suffixed to a noun (when in their full form, they precede the noun). As evident from the above table, the compound numerals between 21 and 99 have the opposite order from what is written in actual digits, i.e. 21 is ‘one and twenty’, 32 is ‘two and thirty’, etc. The table illustrates only 21 to 29, but it applies to 31–39, 41–49, etc. as well.
The two elements in such compounds are linked together by -i-, which can be translated as ‘and’, with the variant -u- when the first element ends in -i. For example, ‘21’ is saivrala but ‘26’ is laiuvrala.
Hundreds occur initially and separate from the following numbers, i.e. ‘186’ is øse laiulējala.
The numerals higher than hundreds are formed by adding a suffix to the initial numbers. Since it is a decimal system, the numbers level up every three digits. The suffixes are:
- thousand (103): -inne
- million (106): -itte
- billion (109): -ikke
- trillion (1012): -iffe
- quadrillion (1015): -imette
- quintillion (1018): -itette
- sextillion (1021): -ikette
- septillion (1024): -inette
The initial -i- is lost when the preceding number ends in -i, i.e. ‘two million’ is vrâitte but ‘six million’ is laitte.
When adding the above suffixes to a combination of a hundred plus another number, all the numbers are written together and a single word and the suffix is then added.
- ‘145’ øse lueimâla → ‘145 000’ øselueimâlainne
- ‘8 354 924‘ lējaitte ljasemâiluelainne farase mâivrala
- ‘530 402 084 912’ lēselialaikke masevrâitte mâilējalainne farase seva
The basic form of the numeral ‘one’ is sa. There is a variant that is used substantivally: sán
- Saj sán plannais. ‘Only one left.’
However, it is also acceptable to use the basic variant instead, without any change in meaning:
Saj sa plannais. ‘Only one left.’
The substantival form is always undeclined and it occurs in nominative singular only. When it needs to be declined, the basic variant is used.
There is an adjectival variant as well: sánli ‘the only, one (and only)’
sánli nar ‘the only book’
Even though the numeral denotes a single entity, it does have both dual and plural forms. When used in dual or plural, it functions similarly to an indefinite plural article, or it can be translated as ‘some’. In such cases it is interchangeable with the actual indefinite articles.
san narie ‘(some) two books’
saf nara ‘(some) books’
Notice that the dual form is the same as the substantival variant sán.
When forming thousands, millions, and higher numbers, such as ‘one thousand’, the numeral ‘one’ has a suppletive root: así-. It is the only numeral with a suppletive root.
asinne ‘one thousand’
asitte ‘one million’
asimitte ‘one quadrillion’
As already described above, the numerals for ‘thousand’, ‘million’, ‘billion’, etc. are formed by adding the appropriate suffix to other numerals. But that only applies to the actual numbers. Each of them also has a special substantival form, which is mainly used in the plural and can usually be translated as ‘thousands of’, etc. There is also a special for ‘hundreds’ as well.
These nouns are formed by adding the appropriate suffixes to the root arkí-.
arkøse ‘hundred’ – arkøsef ‘hundreds’
arkinne ‘thousand’ – arkinnef ‘thousands’
arkitte ‘million’ – arkittef ‘millions’
The case required after the numeral is genitive plural.
arkinnef erove ‘millions of years’
When cardinal numerals are used as premodifiers, they require the following noun to be in a certain case and number (singular, dual, plural). This also further affects any adjectives that may modify the noun (case and number are the same as those of the noun), and the verbal predicate. The agreement also applies to compound numerals.
- sa ‘one’: nominative singular – singular
- sa nar ‘one book’
- sa nea ‘one star’
- øse sa satva ‘a hundred and one circles’
- Jan ƕallas sa jubi. ‘One person stands here.’
- vrâ ‘two’: nominative dual – dual
- vrâ narie ‘two books’
- vrâ nean ‘two stars’
- øse vrâ sakvie ‘a hundred and two circles’
- Jan ƕalles vrâ jubin. ‘Two persons stand here.’
- lia ‘three’: nominative plural – plural
- lia nara ‘three books’
- lia neaf ‘three stars’
- øse lia sakva ‘a hundred and three circles’
- Jan ƕallos lia jubif. ‘Three persons stand here.’
- mâ ‘four’: nominative plural – plural
- see above
- lue ‘five’: genitive plural – singular
- lue naras ‘five books’
- lue neava ‘five stars’
- øse lue sakvas ‘a hundred and five circles’
- Jan ƕallas lue jubiva. ‘Five persons stand here.’ (Lit.: ‘stands’)
The last rule applies for all numerals between 5 and 99 (and for the numeral 0), as well as for hundreds, i.e. øse naras ‘one hundred books’, and by analogy also to thousands, millions, etc.
When accusative is required, it is used for numerals 1-4 (both the numeral and the noun are in accusative), but genitive plural remains for other numerals.
Lallai salje nareu. ‘I saw one book.’
Lallai vrânje narieu. ‘I saw two books.’
Lallai liave nares. ‘I saw three books.’
Lallai lue(lje) naras. ‘I saw five books.’
If any other case is required, both the numeral and the noun are declined regularly.
salu rikul ‘in one house’ (both in inessive singular)
rikul sattu ‘in one house’ (inessive and locative, singular)
rikesilu ‘in one house’ (inessive singular, clitic form)
luelu rikujl ‘in five houses’ (inessive singular and inessive plural)
rikuslu luettu ‘in five houses’ (inessive plural and locative singular)
riketillu ‘in five houses’ (inessive plural, clitic form)
See the following section for the declension of cardinal numerals.
Ordinal numbers are derived from the cardinal numbers by adding the -ili suffix. Ordinal numerals, unlike cardinal numerals, are always written together, regardless of how long the numeral is. Only the final component has the form an ordinal, of course.
‘145’ øse lueimâla → ‘145th’ øselueimâlli
‘145 000’ øselueimâlainne → ‘145 000th’ øselueimâlainnili
‘8 354 924th‘ lêjaitteljasemâiluelainnefarasemâivraili
However, for longer numerals, it is also possible to add hyphens between the constituent parts:
‘8 354 924th‘ lêjaitte-ljasemâiluelainne-farase-mâivraili
Since ordinal numerals act like adjectives, they are also declined like regular adjectives, namely as relational adjectives, and they agree in number, case, and partially class with the noun they modify.
asilli ‘first’ – asselta ‘of the first’ (genitive)
adilli ‘second’ (singular) – adille (dual) – adilla (plural)
Ordinal numerals agree in case with the noun they modify, and optionally also in class. If agreement in class is not used, then Class II case suffixes are used.
syšili ‘eleventh’ → syšelul / syšelu ‘in the eleventh’ (inessive)
asilli ‘first’ → asselul / asselu ‘in the first’
litli ‘third’ → litlul / littelu ‘in the third’
liaivralli ‘twenty-third’ → liaivraljul / liaivraljelu ‘in the twenty-third’
Collective numerals are formed regularly by adding the suffix -to to the cardinal numerals. Their declension pattern follows that of the cardinal numeral lue ‘five’. The noun they modify takes genitive plural. The verbal predicate is 3rd person singular.
vrâ → vrâto ‘two’
lia → liato ‘three’
lai ‘six’ → laito – laitotta ‘of six’ (genitive)
vrala ‘twenty’ → vralato – vralatotta ‘to twenty’ (dative)
Lânuru lás liato lwêras. ‘There are three pairs of trousers on the table.’
While a collective form for the numeral sa ‘one’ does exist, sato, it is virtually never used, and instead the regular cardinal numeral is used (mostly in the plural form since it agrees in number with the noun):
sato lwêras – saf lwêra ‘one pair of trousers’
Collective numerals are used:
- With nouns that exist only in the plural form (pluralia tantum):
vrâto lwêras ‘two pairs of trousers’
Kenna vrâtotta lwêras. ‘I don’t have two pairs of trousers.’
However, cardinal numerals can also be used instead without any change in the meaning:
lia lwêras ‘three trousers’ instead of liato lwêras - With nouns that exist in pairs to emphasise that fact – this applies to vrâto ‘two’ only:
Enna vrâto taikas u vrâto vatas. ‘I have two eyes and two ears.’ - With nouns that are conceived as existing in a pair, such as neirisk ‘glove’, and the collective numeral implies ‘so many pairs of’:
mâto neiriskas ‘four pairs of gloves’ - To replace cardinal numerals used with certain nouns such as koit ‘(piece of) news’, šar ‘part’, alt ‘thing’, etc.:
savaj vrâto ‘to tell two things’
liato ahhisás ‘three things are possible’
mâtole ‘into three pieces’
Liatolja sannake. ‘I’m not telling three things.’ - To represent the number of people involved in an activity – commonly requires illative:
ailaj vrâtole ‘to sing as a pair, to sing in two’
Collective numerals can even be transformed into verbs by adding the prefix uu- and the verbal suffix -vij to the numeral (-to is removed, however):
liato ‘triple’ → uuliavij ‘to triple’ – uuliattai ‘I tripled’
Similar to collective numerals, differential numerals are regularly derived from the cardinal numerals by adding the suffix -nui. Their declension pattern follows that of the cardinal numeral sa ‘one’ (adjectival endings for the basic cases in singular, Class II noun endings for all other cases in singular, dual and plural).
vrâ ‘two’ → vrânui
lia ‘three’ → lianui
šala ‘ten’ → šalanui
fara ‘nine’ → faranui – faranuilja ‘of nine’ (genitive singular)
As with the collective version of the numeral sa ‘one’, a differential numeral exists, sanui, but it is almost never used, and the cardinal numeral is preferred.
The differential numerals are used to denote a qualitative differentiation in the counted items and it can be translated as ‘so many different types/sorts of’:
Enno lianuiva irises: inove, kules u dantes. ‘We have three types of animals: eagles, mice, and wolves.’
vjalt øsenuive þaskes ‘a list of a hundred types of plants’
Multiplicative numerals are derived from the cardinal numerals, but in a slightly different way: the final vowel is removed and the suffix -jau is then added. However, even though the formation is generally regular, the some of the numerals 1–9 are formed irregularly, and may have suppletive roots even. The numerals act like adjectives and follows the declensional patter of sa ‘one’.
Multiplicative numerals otherwise denote the multiple occurrence or existence of a counted item, which can generally be translated as ‘fold’.
The numerals between 1 and 9:
yjau ‘single’, aǯau ‘double, twofold’, lijau ‘triple, threefold’, mâjau ‘fourfold’, lujau ‘fivefold’, lâjau ‘sixfold’, lejau ‘sevenfold’, lêjau ‘eightfold’, and farjau ‘ninefold’
There is even a form for ‘zerofold’: mičau
Higher numerals are formed regularly:
šaljau ‘tenfold’, syšjau ‘eleven-fold’, salijau ‘thirteen-fold’, selnjau ‘eighteen-fold’, vraljau ‘twenty-fold’, lainsjau ‘six-hundred-fold’, leiulainaljau ‘sixty-seven-fold’, BUT: asittejau ‘million-fold’
As noted by the last example above, when adding the suffix -jau to numerals that end in one of the higher-numeral suffixes (-inne, -itte, -ikke, etc.), the final vowel is not dropped because that would form an illegal consonant cluster.
Some examples:
lijau ales ‘a double price’
Enna aǯaulje rinteu. ‘I have a double life.’
lujau skop ‘a fivefold solution’
Fractions, as expected, denote parts of whole numbers. They are regularly formed by adding the suffix -(i)sia to their corresponding ordinal (for numerals 3–9) or cardinal numerals (for numerals 10 and above), with the exception of far ‘half’. Fractions regularly decline like Class II nouns and the noun they modify requires genitive.
The fractions between 3 and 9:
licia ‘one third’, macia ‘one fourth’, luisia ‘one fifth’, laisia ‘one sixth’, lecia ‘one seventh’, lêisia ‘one eighth’, farisia ‘one ninth’
The fractions 10 and above (the final vowel is omitted):
šalisia ‘one tenth’, syšisia ‘one eleventh’, sevisia ‘one twelfth’, seliisia ‘one thirteenth’, seluisia ‘one fifteenth’, vralisia ‘one twentieth’, øsisia ‘one hundredth’, asinnisia ‘one thousandth’
Compound numerals are written together:
øse lueimâla ‘145’ → øselueimâlisia ‘one one-hundred-and-forty-fifth’
Fractions may also be formed by the suffix -šii and these forms are used as time measurements or indicate musical terms. Since the consonant is -š-, the numerals with -c- now have -č-.
mačii ‘crotchet, quarter’
lêišii ‘quaver’
asinnišii jaksau ‘a thousandth of an hour’
If the fraction is preceded by another numeral, then the verbal predicate has to agree with the first number, i.e. if the fraction is preceded by vrâ ‘two’ then the verb will be in dual, if preceded by lia ‘three’ or mâ ‘four’ then the verb will be in plural, and if by lue ‘five’, etc. the verb will be in 3rd person singular; the same as with regular cardinal numerals.
vrâ macian alles … ‘two fourths are …’
lue lêišiiva allas … ‘five quavers are …’ (Lit.: ‘five quavers is’)
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