Kaktovik numerals

Kaktovik Inupiaq numerals

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.

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.

The corresponding spoken forms are:

0	1	2	3	4
	atausiq	malġuk	piŋasut	sisamat
5	6	7	8	9
tallimat	itchaksrat	tallimat malġuk	tallimat piŋasut	quliŋuġutaiḷaq
10	11	12	13	14
qulit	qulit atausiq	qulit malġuk	qulit piŋasut	akimiaġutaiḷaq
15	16	17	18	19
akimiaq	akimiaq atausiq	akimiaq malġuk	akimiaq piŋasut	iñuiññaŋŋutaiḷaq
20
iñuiññaq

(19 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
Ataaseq	Marluk	Pingasut	Sisamat	Tallimat	Arfinillit	Arfineq-marluk	Arfineq-pingasut
9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16
Qulaaluat, Qulingiluat, Arfineq-sisamat	Qulit	Isikkanillit, Aqqanillit	Isikkaneq-marluk, Aqqaneq-marluk

(Dependent on the region in Greenland. Numbers differ, as do accents)