Numbers in Ainu



Learn numbers in Ainu

Knowing numbers in Ainu is probably one of the most useful things you can learn to say, write and understand in Ainu. Learning to count in Ainu may appeal to you just as a simple curiosity or be something you really need. Perhaps you have planned a trip to a country where Ainu is the most widely spoken language, and you want to be able to shop and even bargain with a good knowledge of numbers in Ainu.

It's also useful for guiding you through street numbers. You'll be able to better understand the directions to places and everything expressed in numbers, such as the times when public transportation leaves. Can you think of more reasons to learn numbers in Ainu?

The Ainu language (アイヌ イタク, transliterated in aynu itak), is a language isolate, which means it cannot be linked to any other living language. Historically spoken by the Ainu people on the Japan island of Hokkaidō, in the south of Sakhalin Island, in the Kuril Islands and on the southern tip of the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia, the Ainu language is currently on the verge of extinction. Oral language, it is written in a modified version of the Japanese katakana syllabary and in Latin letters.Due to lack of data, we can only count accurately up to 1,000 in Ainu. Please contact me if you can help me counting up from that limit.

List of numbers in Ainu

Here is a list of numbers in Ainu. We have made for you a list with all the numbers in Ainu from 1 to 20. We have also included the tens up to the number 100, so that you know how to count up to 100 in Ainu. We also close the list by showing you what the number 1000 looks like in Ainu.

• 1) shine
• 2) tu
• 3) re
• 4) ine
• 5) ashikne
• 6) iwa
• 7) arawa
• 8) tupe-san
• 9) shinepe-san
• 10) wa
• 11) shine ikashima wa
• 12) tu ikashima wa
• 13) re ikashima wa
• 14) ine ikashima wa
• 15) ashikne ikashima wa
• 16) iwan ikashima wa
• 17) arawan ikashima wa
• 18) tupe-san ikashima wa
• 19) shinepe-san ikashima wa
• 20) hot ne
• 30) wan e, tu hot ne
• 40) tu hot ne
• 50) wan e, re hot ne
• 60) re hot ne
• 70) wan e, ine hot ne
• 80) ine hot ne
• 90) wan e, ashikne hot ne
• 100) ashikne hot ne
• 1,000) ashikne shine wan hot ne

Numbers in Ainu: Ainu numbering rules

Each culture has specific peculiarities that are expressed in its language and its way of counting. The Ainu is no exception. If you want to learn numbers in Ainu you will have to learn a series of rules that we will explain below. If you apply these rules you will soon find that you will be able to count in Ainu with ease.

The way numbers are formed in Ainu is easy to understand if you follow the rules explained here. Surprise everyone by counting in Ainu. Also, learning how to number in Ainu yourself from these simple rules is very beneficial for your brain, as it forces it to work and stay in shape. Working with numbers and a foreign language like Ainu at the same time is one of the best ways to train our little gray cells, so let's see what rules you need to apply to number in Ainu

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Digits from one to nine are rendered by specific words: shine [1], tu [2], re [3], ine [4], ashikne [5], iwa [6] (and iwan when compound), arawa [7] (and arawan when compound), tupe-san [8], and shinepe-san [9].

The Ainu language is fully vicesimal, hence its tens are defined on base 20. The first tens are wa (and wan when compound) [10] and hot ne [20]. From thirty to ninety, upper tens are formed using multiplication (for scores, or multiples of twenty), addition (with the word ikashima, meaning in addition to or added to) and substraction (with the particle e meaning substracted or taken away from). Hence we have wan e, tu hot ne [30] (2*20 - 10), tu hot ne [40] (2*20), wan e, re hot ne [50] (3*20 - 10), re hot ne [60] (3*20), wan e, ine hot ne [70] (4*20 - 10), ine hot ne [80] (4*20), and wan e, ashikne hot ne [90] (5*20 - 10).

Compound numbers are formed by stating the unit, then the word ikashima (in addition to, added to), a comma above thirty, and the ten (e.g.: arawan ikashima wa [17], shinepe-san ikashima, ine hot ne [89]).

Hundreds also follow the vicesimal system: ashikne hot ne [100] (5*20), shine wan hot ne [200] (1*10*20), ashikne hot ikashima, shine wan hot ne [300] (5*(20) + 1*10*20), tu shine wan hot ne [400] (2*1*10*20), ashikne hot ikashima, tu shine wan hot ne [500] (5*(20) + 2*1*10*20), re shine wan hot ne [600] (3*1*10*20), ashikne hot ikashima, re shine wan hot ne [700] (5*(20) + 3*1*10*20), ine shine wan hot ne [800] (4*1*10*20), and ashikne hot ikashima, ine shine wan hot ne [900] (5*(20) + 4*1*10*20).

Compound numbers above one hundred follow too the vicesimal system: shine ikashima, ashikne hot ne [101] (1 + 5*20), wan e, iwan hot ne [110] (6*20 - 10), shine ikashima, wan e, iwan hot ne [111], shine ikashima, iwan hot ne [121] (1 + 6*20), wan e, arawan hot ne [130] (7*20 - 10), shine ikashima, wan e, arawan hot ne [131] (1 + 7*20 - 10)…

One thousand is ashikne shine wan hot ne [1,000] (5*1*10*20).