Haha, all right, that makes sense now. :)
Ukamayan numbers
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The hardest aspect of the grammar
This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 1 Jan 2017, 22:20.
[comments] ioonumbers
[top]Base
The Ukamayan numeral system uses base 8. This means that when you reach seven, you go right over to ten, and when you reach 17, you continue on 20. This also applies to higher numbers, for instance, at 77, 100 is the next number. This means that when a Ukamayan speaker has reached 100, he only has reached 64 in base 10. All numbers that are base 8 in this article will have the same number in base 10 following in parenthesis
[top]Forms of numbers
Numbers have two forms: a clitic form and a standalone form. The clitic form is used when describing how many there are of a certain noun, for example "I have two sheep." The clitic of each number is placed directly on the noun it describes. The standalone form is used as a pronoun. In this article, only the clitic forms will be covered, so if you want to learn more about the standalone form, see chapter 2 "pronouns" in this article.
[top]Basic numbers
There are basic roots for numbers from 1 (1) to 14 (12):
1 (1) = no
2 (2) = ku
3 (3) = use
4 (4) = use/re*
5 (5) = use/re*
6 (6) = re
7 (7) = re
10 (8) = re
11 (9) = re
12 (10) = re
13 (11) = re
14 (12) = re
*use is used when counting, or mentioning nouns, while re is used when forming higher numbers.
[top]15 (13) to 24 (20)
To form numbers from 15 (13) to 24 (20), you have take the word for 14 (12) and double it, so you get 30 (24). Then you substract numbers between 4 (4) and 13 (11) to form the new number:
17 (15) = 14 (12) + 14 (12) - 11 (9) = re + re - re = re
22 (18) = 14 (12) + 14 (12) - 6 (6) = re + re - re = re
[top]25 (21) to 44 (36)
To form numbers from 25 (21) to 44 (36), you continue the prosess by using 24 (20) instead of 14 (12). At the end you substract numbers between 4 (4) and 23 (19).
35 (29) = (14 (12) + 14 (12) - 4 (4)) + (14 (12) + 14 (12) - 4 (4)) - 7 (7) = (re + re - re) + (re + re - re) - re = re
27 (23) = (14 (12) + 14 (12) - 4 (4)) + (14 (12) + 14 (12) - 4 (4)) - (14 (12) + 14 (12) - 11 (9)) = (re + re - re) + (re + re - re) - (re + re - re) = re
[top]45 (37) to 104 (68)
The same process is used for numbers from 45 (37) to 104 (68), by doubling 44 (36), and substract the right number between 4 (4) and 43 (35)
55 (45) = ((14 (12) + 14 (12) - 4 (4)) + (14 (12) + 14 (12) - 4 (4)) - 4) + ((14 (12) + 14 (12) - 4 (4)) + (14 (12) + 14 (12) - 4 (4)) - 4) - ((14 (12) + 14 (12) - 4 (4)) + (14 (12) + 14 (12) - 4 (4)) - (14 (12) + 14 (12) - 11 (9))) = ((re + re - re) + (re + re - re) - re)) + ((re + re - re) + (re + re - re) - re) - ((re + re - re) + (re + re - re) - (re + re - re)) = re
[top]Even higher numbers
You might begin to see a pattern here, which will be very useful when forming even higher numbers. However when it comes to the really gigantic numbers (like for instance 46471204 (10121860)) it might be just as wise to just use the word re, meaning "many".
Comments
@Leilis Your summary is absolutely correct, the number system isn't more complicated than that. The adding and substracting is there just to make the system seem more complicated than it actually is, and the base-8 just makes it even weirder. Practically, there is no adding, substracting, and the system has no base. In fact, this entire article was intended as a joke to complicate this otherwise simple number system.
That's what I thought. What I still don't understand, though, is what all the adding/subtracting is doing, or how they can have a base eight system if they don't count as high as eight. It seems to me that the number system is actually quite simple and could be summarised as follows:
Ukamayan has numbers only for 'one' (no) and 'two' (ku). For numbers three to five, the word use 'some' is used; for all greater numbers, the word re 'many' is used.
Ukamayan has numbers only for 'one' (no) and 'two' (ku). For numbers three to five, the word use 'some' is used; for all greater numbers, the word re 'many' is used.
