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<HTML> <HEAD><TITLE>Numbers in Over 5000 Languages</TITLE></HEAD> <BODY BGCOLOR="#DDDDFF" TEXT="#000000"> <table width="100%"><tr> <td> <IMG Align=Top SRC="vermap.gif"> <td> <A HREF="default.html"><img align="right" src="home.gif" border=0 alt="Home"></A> <tr> <td colspan=2> <H2><A HREF="nombres.html"><IMG Align="right" SRC="francais.gif" alt="En français" title="En français"></a> Numbers from 1 to 10 in Over 5000 Languages (One file)</H2> </table> <I>Compiled by the irrepressible Mark Rosenfelder. <a href="contact.html">Additions and corrections</a> welcome.</i> <br> <hr> <table width="100%"> <tr><td width="10%"> <td><p>The links on this page are to a single 1.1-megabyte file with all the numbers, displayed using Unicode. If your browser can't handle either of these things, click below. <p><a href="numbers.shtml">This page with links to smaller non-Unicode files</a> <tr><td width="10%"> </table> Click here to see <a href="numbers.htm">the entire collection</a>, or click on the map to move to the languages for that area. <br> <MAP NAME="LanguageTable"> <AREA COORDS="216,84,220,88" HREF="numbers.htm#basque"> <AREA COORDS="275,80,285,86" HREF="numbers.htm#caucasian"> <AREA COORDS="370,0,420,30" HREF="numbers.htm#palaeo"> <AREA COORDS="405,46,425,62" HREF="numbers.htm#ainu"> <AREA COORDS="396,60,411,82" HREF="numbers.htm#korean"> <AREA COORDS="415,60,435,95" HREF="numbers.htm#japanese"> <AREA COORDS="320,18,400,43" HREF="numbers.htm#altaic"> <!-- n siberia --> <AREA COORDS="265,20,340,46" HREF="numbers.htm#uralic"> <!-- n siberia --> <AREA COORDS="260,83,280,97" HREF="numbers.htm#altaic"> <!-- turkey --> <AREA COORDS="245,75,252,81" HREF="numbers.htm#uralic"> <!-- hungary --> <AREA COORDS="247,30,260,55" HREF="numbers.htm#uralic"> <!-- finnland --> <AREA COORDS="280,55,383,88" HREF="numbers.htm#altaic"> <!-- steppes --> <AREA COORDS="392,106,396,112" HREF="numbers.htm#miao"> <AREA COORDS="387,110,400,150" HREF="numbers.htm#tai"> <AREA COORDS="380,110,415,143" HREF="numbers.htm#austro"> <AREA COORDS="354,113,358,118" HREF="numbers.htm#burushashki"> <AREA COORDS="348,124,366,150" HREF="numbers.htm#dravidian"> <AREA COORDS="340,86,370,103" HREF="numbers.htm#sino"> <!-- tibet --> <AREA COORDS="360,110,387,132" HREF="numbers.htm#sino"> <!-- burma --> <AREA COORDS="370,50,430,110" HREF="numbers.htm#sino"> <AREA COORDS="238,120,260,150" HREF="numbers.htm#nilo"> <AREA COORDS="260,145,285,165" HREF="numbers.htm#nilo"> <AREA COORDS="240,198,260,220" HREF="numbers.htm#khoisan"> <AREA COORDS="170,140,270,165" HREF="numbers.htm#niger"> <AREA COORDS="230,165,295,230" HREF="numbers.htm#niger"> <AREA COORDS="185,100,325,170" HREF="numbers.htm#afro"> <AREA COORDS="457,160,490,190" HREF="numbers.htm#papua"> <AREA COORDS="400,190,470,260" HREF="numbers.htm#australia"> <AREA COORDS="290,190,310,220" HREF="numbers.htm#malayo"> <!-- madagascar --> <AREA COORDS="380,110,520,280" HREF="numbers.htm#malayo"> <AREA COORDS="200,10,370,150" HREF="numbers.htm#ie"> <AREA COORDS="70,18,100,50" HREF="numbers.htm#nadene"> <AREA COORDS="100,33,115,47" HREF="numbers.htm#nadene"> <AREA COORDS="20,10,180,50" HREF="numbers.htm#eskimo"> <AREA COORDS="110,68,130,80" HREF="numbers.htm#macro"> <!-- iroquoian --> <AREA COORDS="75,65,90,87" HREF="numbers.htm#macro"> <!-- siouan --> <AREA COORDS="73,47,150,85" HREF="numbers.htm#algonquian"> <!-- lower canada --> <AREA COORDS="95,85,110,96" HREF="numbers.htm#macro"> <!-- georgia --> <AREA COORDS="47,120,51,123" HREF="numbers.htm#oto"> <AREA COORDS="70,85,120,100" HREF="numbers.htm#algonquian"> <AREA COORDS="60,40,80,65" HREF="numbers.htm#nwamerind"> <AREA COORDS="46,83,66,96" HREF="numbers.htm#nadene"> <!-- nahuatl --> <AREA COORDS="50,70,68,84" HREF="numbers.htm#aztec"> <AREA COORDS="40,60,70,85" HREF="numbers.htm#penutian"> <AREA COORDS="40,93,48,120" HREF="numbers.htm#aztec"> <AREA COORDS="30,85,50,112" HREF="numbers.htm#hokan"> <AREA COORDS="56,101,65,108" HREF="numbers.htm#hokan"> <AREA COORDS="105,208,115,218" HREF="numbers.htm#chibchan"><!-- chile --> <AREA COORDS="115,220,130,252" HREF="numbers.htm#penutian"> <!-- chile --> <AREA COORDS="45,100,72,140" HREF="numbers.htm#penutian"> <AREA COORDS="65,135,83,170" HREF="numbers.htm#chibchan"> <AREA COORDS="98,140,105,180" HREF="numbers.htm#andean"> <AREA COORDS="78,168,92,200" HREF="numbers.htm#andean"> <AREA COORDS="130,230,150,250" HREF="numbers.htm#andean"> <AREA COORDS="80,145,130,190" HREF="numbers.htm#carib"> <AREA COORDS="120,178,160,270" HREF="numbers.htm#carib"> <AREA COORDS="100,160,160,210" HREF="numbers.htm#andean"> <AREA COORDS="0,235,100,245" HREF="numbers.htm#eskimo"> <!-- key --> <AREA COORDS="0,245,100,255" HREF="numbers.htm#nadene"> <AREA COORDS="0,255,100,265" HREF="numbers.htm#algonquian"> <AREA COORDS="0,265,100,275" HREF="numbers.htm#macro"> <AREA COORDS="0,275,100,285" HREF="numbers.htm#penutian"> <AREA COORDS="0,285,100,295" HREF="numbers.htm#aztec"> <AREA COORDS="0,295,100,305" HREF="numbers.htm#hokan"> <AREA COORDS="0,305,100,315" HREF="numbers.htm#oto"> <AREA COORDS="0,315,120,325" HREF="numbers.htm#chibchan"> <AREA COORDS="0,325,120,335" HREF="numbers.htm#andean"> <AREA COORDS="0,335,120,345" HREF="numbers.htm#carib"> <AREA COORDS="160,285,270,295" HREF="numbers.htm#caucasian"> <AREA COORDS="160,295,270,305" HREF="numbers.htm#afro"> <AREA COORDS="160,305,270,315" HREF="numbers.htm#nilo"> <AREA COORDS="160,315,270,325" HREF="numbers.htm#niger"> <AREA COORDS="160,325,270,335" HREF="numbers.htm#khoisan"> <AREA COORDS="160,335,270,345" HREF="numbers.htm#dravidian"> <AREA COORDS="280,285,380,295" HREF="numbers.htm#uralic"> <AREA COORDS="280,295,380,305" HREF="numbers.htm#altaic"> <AREA COORDS="280,305,380,315" HREF="numbers.htm#palaeo"> <AREA COORDS="280,315,380,325" HREF="numbers.htm#sino"> <AREA COORDS="280,325,380,335" HREF="numbers.htm#tai"> <AREA COORDS="280,335,380,345" HREF="numbers.htm#austro"> <AREA COORDS="400,285,470,295" HREF="numbers.htm#japanese"> <AREA COORDS="400,295,470,305" HREF="numbers.htm#korean"> <AREA COORDS="400,305,470,315" HREF="numbers.htm#basque"> <AREA COORDS="400,315,470,325" HREF="numbers.htm#burushashki"> </MAP> <center><IMG SRC="nonielng.gif" USEMAP="#LanguageTable"></center> <hr><h3>By family</h3> <ul> <LI> <a href="numbers.htm#ie">Indo-European</a>, <a href="numbers.htm#dravidian">Dravidian</a>, and <a href="numbers.htm#nahali">minor European</a> languages <LI> <a href="numbers.htm#afro">Afro-Asiatic</a> and <a href="numbers.htm#caucasian">Caucasian</a>languages <LI> <a href="numbers.htm#nilo">Nilo-Saharan</a>, <a href="numbers.htm#kordofanian">Kordofanian</a>, and <a href="numbers.htm#khoisan">Khoisan</a> languages <li> <a href="numbers.htm#niger">Niger-Congo</a> languages, including Bantu <li> <a href="numbers.htm#uralic">Uralic</a>, and <a href="numbers.htm#nahali">Altaic</a>, and <a href="numbers.htm#miao">Miao-Yao</a>, and <a href="numbers.htm#tai">Tai</a>, and <a href="numbers.htm#austro">Austro-Asiatic</a>, and <a href="numbers.htm#palaeo">other Asian</a> languages <li> <a href="numbers.htm#sino">Sino-Tibetan</a> languages <li> <a href="numbers.htm#austro">Austronesian</a> languages <li> North American Indian languages - <a href="numbers.htm#eskimo">Eskimo</a>, <a href="numbers.htm#nadene">Na-dené</a>, <a href="numbers.htm#algonquian">Algic</a>, <a href="numbers.htm#keres">Keres</a>, <a href="numbers.htm#macro">Siouan</a>, <a href="numbers.htm#caddoan">Caddoan</a>, <a href="numbers.htm#iroquoian">Iroquoian</a>, <a href="numbers.htm#tanoan">Kiowa-Tanoan</a> <a href="numbers.htm#hokan">"Hokan"</a>, <a href="numbers.htm#naiso">isolates</a> <li> Mesoamerican Indian languages - <a href="numbers.htm#penutian">"Penutian"</a>, <a href="numbers.htm#aztecan">Uto-Aztecan</a>, <a href="numbers.htm#oto">Oto-Manguean</a>, <a href="numbers.htm#chibchan">Macro-Chibchan</a>, <a href="numbers.htm#paezan">Paezan</a> <a href="numbers.htm#yano">Yanomaman</a> <li> South American Indian languages - <a href="numbers.htm#andean">"Andean"</a>, <a href="numbers.htm#eskimo">"Equatorial"</a>, <a href="numbers.htm#eskimo">Tupi-Cariban</a>, <a href="numbers.htm#otomaco">Macro-Otomakoan</a>, <a href="numbers.htm#guamo">Guamo-Chapacuran</a>, <a href="numbers.htm#arawak">Macro-Arawakan</a>, <a href="numbers.htm#witoto">Bora-Witotoan</a>, <a href="numbers.htm#waikuru">Macro-Waikurúan</a>, <a href="numbers.htm#panoan">Macro-Panoan</a>, <a href="numbers.htm#ge">Macro-Ge</a>, <a href="numbers.htm#saiso">isolates</a> <li> <a href="numbers.htm#papua">Indo-Pacific languages</a> <li> <a href="numbers.htm#australia">Australian languages</a> <li> <a href="numbers.htm#pidgin">Pidgins and creoles</a> <li> <a href="numbers.htm#conlang">Constructed languages</a> </ul> <hr><h3>Special collections</h3> <ul> <LI><a href="oldnum.htm"><b>Proto-languages</b> only</a>: perfect for the long-range comparison fan <LI><a href="million.htm"><b>Million-speaker</b> languages</a>: the world's major languages <LI><a href="scripts.html">The numbers in various <b>writing systems</b></a>, plus field notes on distinguishing various types of writing systems<p> <LI><a href="http://members.tripod.com/~rjschellen/IENums.htm"><b>Rick Schellen</b>'s page of the numbers in over 400 Indo-European <b>dialects</b>.</a> <li><a href="http://www.elite.net/~runner/jennifers/">Jennifer Runner's page</a> on common expressions in many languages. <p><p> <li><a href="families.htm"><b>Language Information</b> </a>: notes on linguistic families, and a taste of ethnomathematics. <p> <li><a href="lang8.html"><b>How languages are classified</b></a>, from the <a href="langfaq.html">sci.lang faq</a>. </ul> <hr><h3>Sources</h3> The <a href="sources.htm"><B>Sources Page</b></a> gives the sources for each language (and also lists languages I don't have, and connects the languages to other wide-scale classifications: Ruhlen, Voegelin & Voegelin, Campbell, and the Ethnologue). <p>I dearly appreciate everyone who's sent me numbers; but I want to particularly salute those whose kindness and hard work have been extraordinary: <a href="http://hometown.aol.com/nahali/myhomepage/profile.html"><b>Jarel Deaton</b></a> of Ohio, who is single-handedly responsible for more than a quarter of the numbers seen here; <a href="http://euslchan.tripod.com/index.html"><b>Eugene S.L. Chan</b></a> of Hong Kong, who sent me his entire Austronesian database; and <b>Carl Masthay</b> of St. Louis and <b>Pavel Petrov</b> of Kaliningrad, who sent me their enormous, worldwide collection of numbers. <p>Special thanks to the Claudia Griffith and the staff of the SIL Library in Duncanville, Texas, whose wonderful hospitality made a week of research in the summer of 2004 both pleasant and productive. <hr><h3>Some caveats</h3> <UL> <LI>Both native spelling and romanizations may obscure actual pronunciation, making comparisons difficult. <LI>Shared numbers do not necessarily indicate genetic relationship; they may be borrowed. <LI>There are often complications (e.g. different series of numbers), and I haven't had room for them here. <LI>The standard orthography or standard dialect may have changed since my source on a language was published. <li>Hundreds of millions of English speakers agree that the numbers are one, two, three, etc. But only a minority of languages are standardized in this way. For unwritten languages, different linguists' word lists may be strikingly different. Their ears may not be attuned to the language; or there may be dialectal variation, or even sound change. Here's a couple examples, one from Asia, one from Africa: </UL> <blockquote> <table> <tr><td><b>Bru</b> <td>mu<sup><font size=-1>e</font></sup>j <td>bār <td>paj <td>pōn <td>s<sup><font size=-1>e</font></sup>:ng <td>t<sup><font size=-1>e</font></sup>pat <td>t<sup><font size=-1>e</font></sup>pū <td>t<sup><font size=-1>e</font></sup>kual <td>tikeas <td>m<sup><font size=-1>e</font></sup>ncit <tr><td><b>Bru</b> <td>muoi <td>bar <td>p´i <td>poun <td>sau'ng <td>tapoât <td>tapul <td>takual <td>takêh <td>muoi chít <tr><td><b>Gurma</b> <td>yèn.dó <td>lyé <td>tà <td>nâ <td>mù <td>lwö.bà <td>lèle: <td>nî <td>pá:nì <td>pyêgà <tr><td><b>Gurma</b> <td>n lè <td>nlé <td>nta <td>nna <td>nmu <td>nluoba <td>n lele <td>nni <td>n-ya <td>ka piga </table> </blockquote> <hr><h3>Language variations</h3> <p>People can get very excited about what's a <b>language</b> vs. what's a <b>dialect</b>. There is nothing inherent in the language variety to tell us what it is. Linguists sometimes use "language" to refer to a mutually intelligible group of dialects (but note that intelligibility can be partial). <p>Ordinary people generally call something a "language" if it has a prestigious standard form; but that's a fact about people's attitudes, not about language. <p>I generally rely on Voegelin & Voegelin, or on the original source for the numbers, in deciding whether to list something as a dialect (italicized). Some of my sources list multiple dialects; I usually try to pick the most widely spoken ones, and list others only if they're interestingly divergent. <p>Corollary: please don't complain to me about what's a dialect or a language-- you're arguing about nothing. (But feel free to send me additional dialects, or point out where I've messed up the names.) <p>Especially in the Amerind sections, I sometimes list <b>older sources</b> which may be of historical interest. <hr><h3>Symbols</h3> The mondo file linked from this page uses Unicode-- where the characters are available on my 2003 Mac and Windows computers. Annoyingly, the IPA characters are not available, so I still need some substitutions. . <P>* indicates a reconstructed form <BR>+ indicates a dead language (but some are undergoing revivals) <p><IMG Align=left SRC="ipa.gif"> The picture shows the representations used for a number of IPA characters. Nonetheless, I haven't been able to retain all phonetic distinctions, and some have been lost-- for instance, the distinction between a circumflex (â) and a hachek. <p>For African tonal languages, a macron <sup>-</sup> indicates a high level tone, not length, and is represented as <font color="#808080">_</font>. <font color="#808080">|</font> is another tone, usually low level. <br>For non-African languages, a macron indicates length and is indicated :. <p><u>?</u> indicates the glottal stop (but if my sources spell it as an apostrophe or q, I follow them) <BR><b>bold</b> indicates a character which was dotted in the original source-- usually an emphatic or retroflex consonant <BR><i>italic</i> indicates open e and o and lax i and u, or a character that was italicized in the original source <p>Superscript numbers indicate a numbered toneme (e.g. <sup><font size=-1>1</font></sup> = first tone) <br>Appended numbers give tonal contours directly (e.g. <font size=-1>35</font> = high rising) <p>I use <b>standard orthographies</b>, where there is one, rather than phonetic transcriptions. This makes comparison a bit more difficult; but I prefer it, for two reasons. First, it reduces errors; even if I can correctly interpret a source's phonetic description, there can be orthographic irregularities that make a straight transcription ludicrous. Secondly, an orthography is generally closer to a <i>phonemic</i> representation, which is arguably what people have in their heads. <hr><h3>Numbers about Numbers</h3> <p>Languages with <b>more than a million native speakers</b> are named in boldface. <p>Number of speakers is one of the least interesting attributes of a language; but there are so many languages here that some highlighting of the most common ones seems necessary. I used the high end of David Crystal's estimates. <p>How many languages <b>aren't</b> here? Well, there's almost 5000 living languages listed in Ruhlen's volume; I have numbers for about 83% of them, so there's at least a thousand more. (If the math doesn't seem to work out, note that I have plenty of dialects and conlangs not included in Ruhlen's list.) There are about 200 languages with more than a million speakers, all of which are in the list. <p>Am I going to do <b>higher numbers</b>? Or zero? Probably not, unless I do it for a subset of languages only. Many of the sources don't even have numbers above ten. <hr><h3>How was this done?</h3> People sometimes ask me how I accumulated all these numbers, or how to do this sort of research. <p>The answer is simple: <b>libraries</b>. I have access to a few good university libraries, and when I can I visit others. You look in grammars, dictionaries, and books or journal articles surveying entire families. <p>And, if possible, find others who've been bitten by the same bug! <hr> <p><center><A HREF="default.html"><img src="home.gif" border=0 alt="Home"></A></center> </BODY> </HTML>