User:Loekıa/Numbers
Officially, Toaq Delta has nothing to say about how numbers work. So, here's my unofficial proposal for a number system!
Background
In previous versions of Toaq, numbers took the form of verbs of cardinality (e.g. heı was "to be ten in number"). But this system was far from perfect: it made it awkward to talk about numbers in the abstract, and gave us no natural way to extend the system to more "exotic" numbers like the negative integers, non-integers, or even zero for that matter.
Now, there have been plenty of number system proposals in the past (particularly in the days of Toaq Beta), but now that we have prefixes to play with and special grammar for pronouns, I think Delta has given us the chance to do even better.
The basics
In their most basic form, numbers are pronouns.
| Toaq | English |
|---|---|
| (kóam) | zero |
| (shí) | one |
| (gú) | two |
| (sáq) | three |
| (jó) | four |
| (fé) | five |
| (cí) | six |
| (díaı) | seven |
| (róaı) | eight |
| (néı) | nine |
(Neu fé gú róı sáq.)
Five is the sum of two and three.
By combining a number with a prefix, you can turn it into another part of speech. For example, to get a verb of cardinality, we use the prefix (ne-).
(Eju… Nẹcı áma.)
Let's see… There are six of us. (We are six in number.)
For brevity, when a verb of cardinality appears in the falling tone, we're actually allowed to omit the prefix altogether: (Cı áma.) As linguists, we say that (ne-) has a null allomorph.
Another important prefix is (ko-). It forms ordinals, much like the English suffix '-th'.
(Kọsaq máq ké buajıo tı hû tıeq.)
It's the third house on the street (third out of the houses on the street).
(Bọdana níjuı kộshı túq doaq po ní gua.)
This city was the first in this country to fall.
Finally, the prefix (nho-) turns a number into a determiner:
(Hẹkıaı nháo nhọ́gu gochıq.)
She has two cats.
This prefix also comes with a null allomorph which can be used as long as the determiner has a complement. So, normally we'd see this written as simply (gú gochıq).
Counting higher
To form larger numbers (up to 9999), digits are accompanied by a scale: (heı) for tens, (fue) for hundreds, and (bıq) for thousands. For example, 1234 would be spoken as (shíbıqgufuesaqheıjo). Note that we never write out (kóam) as a digit, and (shıheı) may be abbreviated to (heı). This means that we can write the year that Toaq Beta was released as (kọ́gubıqheıdıaı).
To form even larger numbers, put the appropriate SI prefix ( (mega), (gıga), (tera)…) after each group of three digits.
In more colloquial usage, (shıfue), (shıbıq), and even (shımega) might be abbreviated to (fue), (bıq), (mega).
Negatives and decimals
Negatives are formed with the prefix (ze-). The number component (co) is a spoken decimal point. The resulting numbers are not cardinal numbers, and so they're only useful as pronouns.
(Zıuhuaq zẹ́saq zẹ́jocogu.)
The number −3 is greater than the number −4.2.
The number component (chıo) marks the start of repeating decimals.
(shícogusaqchıojofe)
1.23(45) = 1.23454545…
Units
Units like (meta) (meter) and (hora) (hour) are also number words. They multiply when put next to each other, and must be paired with a number to form a quantity.
(Buaıne kú sáqheı meta.)
The length is 30 meters.
(Cabaq kú gúcoshı kılobata hora.)
The energy is 2.1 kWh.
They can also be inverted with (peo-). For example, (pẹometa) is the unit m⁻¹. A quantity like 60 km/h is expressed as "sixty kilometer hour⁻¹":
(Suaıne kú cíheı kılometa pẹohora.)
The speed is 60 km/h.
Fractions
The prefix (paq-) turns a number x into the fractional unit x⁻¹. For example, (fé pạqcı) is the number 5/6.
Fractional units are a little different from units proper, because they form numbers, not quantities. That is, in (róaı pạqsaq meta), (pạqsaq) must come before (meta) because it belongs to the number part of the quantity.
Composite expressions
Some things are most naturally expressed as the sum of multiple quantities. Quantities sum when put next to each other:
(Fáfuaq mı Taıtanıko bï duo hóq sáq hora heıjo mınu da.)
The movie Titanic is 3 hours and 14 minutes long.
The same goes for fractional numbers:
(Luı pıe jí shí shı pạqgu lıta nao.)
I've had 1 ½ liters of water.
Pseudo-numbers
Some words like (puı) and (tıopuı) are pseudo-numbers: they can't stand alone as a number pronoun, but can still be used with certain prefixes, such as (ne-) and (nho-).
(Hẹkıaı nháo nhọ́puı gochıq.)
She has many cats.
(Guache kọtıopuı mí Lıqkoq?)
The how-many-th president is Lincoln?