Hokkien Numerals

The Hokkien language (incl. Taiwanese) has two regularly used sets of numerals, a more ancient colloquial/vernacular or native Hokkien system and a literary system.

The more ancient vernacular numerals are the native numbers of Hokkien that trace back to Hokkien's origins itself, which is a Coastal Min language that spread southwest across the coast of Fujian from around the Min River. It was brought by the earliest Min-speaking Han Chinese settlers from the time of the Jin dynasty (266–420) settling the area around the Jin River around 284 AD. Meanwhile, the literary system came from Tang-era Classical Chinese/Middle Chinese that was loaned in for formal reading use during medieval times (e.g. Tang, Min, Southern Tang, Song dynasty times), similar to the Sino-Xenic pronunciations in Japanese, Okinawan, Korean, Jeju, Vietnamese, etc, but within the Sinitic family to the Min group.

Literary and colloquial systems are not totally mutually independent; they are sometimes mixed used. The specific pronunciation of each number depends on the specific dialect of Hokkien (e.g. Amoy-Tong'an, Quanzhou, Zhangzhou, Longyan, etc.), which each dialect may either share or use slightly different phonemes and tones on how each dialect may properly count numbers in the Hokkien language for both vernacular and literary systems.

Basic numerals

Cardinal numbers

For cardinal numbers usage, the colloquial system is usually used. For example, one should use ''chi̍t ê lâng'' for the meaning of "a person" instead of using ''*it ê lâng''. However, a notable exceptions for numerals 1 and 2 appears while the number is greater than 10.

For "''few'' hundred and ''ten'', ''twenty'' or ''thirty''" or "''few'' thousand and ''few'' hundred", in Hokkien the prefixes ''pah-'' or ''chheng-'' are used instead of the lengthy way, which requires the speaker to state "how many ''chheng'', how many ''pah'', and how many ''cha̍p''".

Fractional numerals

For expressing fractions, one should use the sentence pattern like "cardinal number + ''hun-chi'' + cardinal number"; for example, ''gō͘ hun-chi it'' (五分之一) for "one fifth" (1/5). Note that the colloquial set of numerals is used in fractional numerals with still the exception of numerals 1 and 2, which should use the literary set as ''it'' and ''jī''.

For expressing decimals, one should only use the literary numeral set with ''tiám'' (點) for the decimal mark. For example, one may say π equals ''sam tiám it-sù-it-ngó͘-kiú-jī-lio̍k-ngó͘-sam'' (3.141592653).

In addition, some special fraction can be expressed in other simpler forms. For percentage, one can still use the sentence pattern of ''hun-chi'' as ''pah hun-chi cha̍p'' (百分之十) for "ten percent" in most situations; however, for native speakers, the suffix ''-siâⁿ'' (成) for "n×10 percents" is used more commonly, so the "twenty percents" should be ''nn̄g-siâⁿ'' (兩成). Note that the numeral set used with the suffix ''-siâⁿ'' is totally the colloquial one with no exception.

In Taiwan, the term ''pha-sian-to͘'' is also used for fractional numerals, but one should use the sentence term as "cardinal number + ''ê pha-sian-to͘''"; for example, ''chhit-cha̍p ê pha-sian-to͘'' (70%). The term was introduced in Japanese rule era from Japanese language; it's a Japanese loanword originating from English with the meaning of "percent" (''paasento''; パーセント). The use of ''pha-sian-to͘'' is sometimes simplified as a suffix ''-pha''; for example, ''cha̍p-peh-pha'' (18%).

Ordinal numbers

For ordinal numbers, when the numerals are preceded by the prefix ''tē'' (第), the colloquial set is used with the exception of numeral 1 and 2; when the numerals are preceded by the prefix ''thâu'' (頭), there is no exception to use the colloquial set when the number is smaller than 10, but once the number is greater than 10, the exception of numeral 1 and 2 appears again. Note that the system with prefix ''thâu'' is usually added by counter words, and it means "the first few"; for example, ''thâu-gō͘ pái'' means "the first five times". ''Thâu-chhit'' (number seven) sometimes means ''thâu-chhit kang'' (first seven days). It means the first seven days after a person died, which is a Hokkien cultural noun that should usually be avoided.

Smaller than 10

Greater than 10

See also

* Hokkien counter word
* Suzhou numerals

Notes

References

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Numerals
Hokkien
Southern Min