Inuit numerals

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Kaktovik Inupiaq numerals[1]

Inuit, like other Eskimo languages (and Celtic and Mayan languages as well), uses a vigesimal counting system. Inuit counting has sub-bases at 5, 10, and 15.

Arabic numerals weren't adequate to represent the base-20 system, so students from Kaktovik, Alaska came up with an Inuit numeral system that has since gained wide use among Alaskan Iñupiaq, and is slowly gaining ground in other countries where Inuit is also spoken.[1]

The numeral system has helped to revive counting in Inuit, which had been falling into disuse among Inuit speakers due to the prevalence of the base-10 system in schools.

The picture below shows the numerals 1–19 and then 0. Twenty is written with a one and a zero, forty with a two and a zero, and four hundred with a one and two zeros.

InupiaqNumbers.gif

The corresponding spoken forms are:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
atausiq malġuk piŋasut sisamat tallimat itchaksrat tallimat malġuk tallimat piŋasut quliŋuġutaiḷaq qulit qulit atausiq qulit malġuk qulit piŋasut akimiaġutaiḷaq akimiaq akimiaq atausiq akimiaq malġuk akimiaq piŋasut iñuiññaŋŋutaiḷaq

(The last is formed by subtraction from iñuiññaq 20, just as 9 is formed by subtraction from 10. See Inupiat language.)

In Greenlandic Inuit language:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Ataaseq Marluk Pingasut Sisamat Tallimat Arfinillit Arfineq-marluk Arfineq-pingasut Qulaaluat, Qulingiluat, Arfineq-sisamat Qulit Isikkanillit, Aqqanillit Isikkaneq-marluk, Aqqaneq-marluk

(Dependent on the region in Greenland. Numbers differ, as do accents)[citation needed]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/SOP/SOPv2i1.html#oldway


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