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.
Avoiding long words
When number words follow each other, forming what looks like a serial verb, the result is the same as though you had said one long word.
Nẹgubıqfefueshı nhána.
There are 2,501 of them.
Nẹgubıq fefue shı nhána.
There are 2,501 of them.
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…
Fractions
The prefix peo- turns a number x into 1/x. For example, pẹ́ocı is the number 1/6.
When another number word is placed in front of the result, it acts like a multiplication: fé pẹocı is the number 5/6.
Units
Units like meta (meter) and hora (hour) are also number words. They multiply when put next to each other, and can be multiplied by a preceding number.
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, pẹ́ometa is the quantity 1 m⁻¹. A quantity like 60 km/h is expressed as "sixty times kilometer times 1/hour":
Suaıne kú cíheı kılometa pẹohora.
The speed is 60 km/h.
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?