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Deborah · Posted: Mon Jan 08, 2007 8:30 am Post subject: Counting in Euskara/Basque

Kaixo, Irrintzi! I have a question for you.

According to Wikipedia:

Numbers
1 bat
2 bi
3 hiru
4 lau
5 bost
6 sei
7 zazpi
8 zortzi
9 bederatzi
10 hamar
11 hamaika
12 hamabi
13 hamahiru
14 hamalau
15 hamabost
16 hamasei
17 hamazazpi
18 hemezortzi
19 hemeretzi
20 hogei
21 hogeita bat
22 hogeita bi
23 hogeita hiru
30 hogeita hamar (20+10)
31 hogeita hamaika (20+11)
40 berrogei (2×20)
50 berrogeita hamar (2×20+10)
60 hirurogei (3×20)
70 hirurogeita hamar (3×20+10)
80 larogei
90 larogeita hamar
100 ehun
200 berrehun
300 hirurehun
1000 mila
2000 bi mila
1,000,000 milioi bat

When I saw this, I immediately thought about children's games that involve counting. For example, when I was a kid and we played hide-and-seek, the person who was supposed to find everyone else had to count to 100 by 5's, to give everyone a chance to hide. In English, you can count very quickly by 5's, because the longest number you have to say (seventy-five) has only 4 syllables. But 75 in Euskara is hirurogeita hamabost, which has 8 syllables. So my question is, when you have to count quickly in Euskara, is there a short form of the numbers, or do you avoid counting in the high numbers, or what?

The formation of numbers above 20 is interesting. Do you know of any other languages that have a similar numbering system? The only thing I've seen that's similar is in French, where 70 is 60 + 10.

Irrintzi · Expert Joined: 27 Dec 2006 Posts: 168

Native american languages (Algic dialects ) have the same system (vigesimal or quinary).
It's from there that comes the hypotheses of very ancient link with the Amerindian and Basque peoples (genetically comparisons were made)... However for lack of proofs it seems whether it's improbable...
The french counter system was create according to the Gallic numeral system, the neighbourhood of the primitive Basque people and the Celtic people, certainly gave cultural exchanges.

rare words have been proven like being of proto-Basque origin, they integrated then to the French vocabulary and then English: bagarre, bizarre, the Izard (animal), and original...
In Spanish, Basque could have given a stronger influence again the pronunciation, and several words as Izquierda (eskerra in Basque)

correction:

80 larogei
90 larogeita hamar

me, i write "laurogei" (4x20) and "laurogeita hamar" (4x20+10), it's same in french "quatre-vingts", "quatre-vingt-dix"

Deborah · Posted: Mon Jan 08, 2007 11:54 pm Post subject:

Ah, yes -- I'd forgotten about quatre-vingts through quatre-vingt-dix-neuf.

So, do you avoid games (or other situations) where you have to count quickly in the high numbers?

Irrintzi · Expert Joined: 27 Dec 2006 Posts: 168