Counting in Tanii... Apatani numeral system 1

Counting in Tanii is not easy… It may be useful here to sum up the basic features of the Apatani numeral system, although I’m not too sure to understand it fully. Differences are often subtle, and there may exist several ways to express the same number. Moreover, though originally there are only 7 Apatani villages, some dialectal variations occur which can easily lead to confusion. Therefore, as usual, corrections and comments from Tanii readers are welcome...
In this post I am only considering numbers when they are used without any reference to an object. In a next post I shall deal with numbers when they are associated with particular objects, animals, humans, etc.

1°) The numeral system is a simple decimal system

The main units are 10 and multiples of 10, 100 and multiples of 100, 1000 and multiples of 1000.

photographer: Christa Neuenhofer

2°) numbers from 1 to 10 are unique forms

1	ako or kone
2	anye or anyi
3	hinge
4	piilye
5	yango
6	khiiye
7	kanu
8	pinye
9	kowa
10	alyan

3°) Numbers from 11 to 19 are compound words, of the form : ‘ten + unit’.

Units 2, 4, 5 appearing in compound forms are shortened; unique and compound forms for 1 are different; units 3, 6, 7, 8, 9 remain unchanged. The correspondence is given below for the main dialect :

	Appearing in unique form	Appearing in compound form
1	ako	-kun or -he
2	anye/anyi	-nyi
3	hin	-hin
4	piilye	-pii/-pe/-pyi
5	yango	-ngo
6	khiiye	-khii
7	kanu	-kanu
8	pinye/pinyi	-pinye/-pinyi
9	kowa	-kowa

A particle, LE (or HELA), which can be roughly translated as ‘and’, is inserted between ‘ten’ and the unit. The difference between LE and HELA corresponds to 2 ways of counting, which are equivalent :

1. ‘ten + HELA + unit (as appearing in unique form)’
2. ‘ten + LE + unit (as appearing in compound form)’

Thus 11 is ‘alyan hela ako’ or ‘alyan-le-kung’. Both literally mean "ten and one" and can be used indiscriminately.

	10 + HELA + unit	10 + LE + unit
11	alyan hela ako	alyan le-kun
12	alyan hela anye	alyan le-nye/nyi
13	alyan hela hinge	alyan le-hin
14	alyan hela piilye	alyan le-phe/pi
15	alyan hela yango	alyan le-ngo
16	alyan hela khiiye	alyan le-khii/khe
17	alyan hela kanu	alyan le-kanu
18	alyan hela pinye/pinyi	alyan le-pinye/nyi
19	alyan hela kowa	alyan le-kowa

4°) Multiples of ten are compound forms. Compoundings are made either of the form :

1. ‘number of tens + KHAN’ : for 20, 30, 70, 80, 90.
2. ‘ten + number of tens’ : for 40, 50, 60

Thus :

20	lyikhan
30	hikhan
40	alyan-piilye
50	alyan-yango
60	alyan-khiiye
70	kanu-khange
80	pinyi-khange
90	kowa-khange

* Note that the prefixes used for 20 and 30 are respectively LYI- and HI-, different from the shortened forms -NYI- and –HING used as suffixes.

* Note also the difference between :

14 (alyan-hela-piilye) and 40 (alyan-piilye)

15 (alyan-hela-yango) and 50 (alyan-yango)

16 (alyan-hela-khiiye) and 60 (alyan-khiiye)

It seems confusing at first sight, but after all no more than English 'fourteen' and 'fourty, 'fifteen' and 'fifty', 'sixteen' and 'sixty'....

5°) multiples of hundred take the form ‘hundred + numeral’, i.e. LANG- + numeral except for 200 and 300 where the compound form of the numeral is prefixed by LA- only. Note also that LANG becomes LAM before the consonant p)

100	lan(h)e
200	lanye/lanyi
300	lahin
400	lampii/lampyi
500	lango
600	lankhii
700	lankanu
800	lampinye/lampinyi
900	lankowa

6°) Multiples of thousand take the form 'thousand (LALYAN) + numeral' :

lalyan ako = 1000
lalyan anye = 2000
lalyan ahin = 3000
etc.

However in recent years a new compound form including the Hindi word for 'thousand' (JAR) tends to replace it. It takes the form 'thousand (JAR) + numeral (contracted)'

1000	jar(h)e
2000	jarnye/jarnyi
3000	jarhin
4000	jarpii/jarpyi
5000	jarngo
6000	jarkhii
7000	jarkanu
8000	jarpinye/jarpinyi
9000	jarkowa

7°) Expressing any number above 10 is made by combining thousands, hundreds, tens and units and separating each category by the particle ‘LA’ (or HELA/LE between tens and units)

Example :

Jarnyi la lahin la alyan hela ako : 2311

P. Bouchery

Apatani language