Quantifiers are determiners indicating quantity such as three, all and many.
As in many languages, numerals are caught between classes. In their most common attributive form they resemble common adjectives and therefore follow the nouns they modify:
nia vai
car six
six cars
bukim yem
king three
three kings
Kah numerals were designed to be easily distinguishable from one another:
Kah | Translation |
meng | nil, zero |
kwa | one |
sun | two |
yem | three |
pan | four |
jom | five |
vai | six |
teo | seven |
dia | eight |
sasta | nine |
nini | ten |
Tens are created by simply combining the words for a numeral with the word nini for "ten".
sun + nini | sunini | twenty |
yem + nini | yenini | thirty |
pan + nini | panini | forty |
jom + nini | jonini | fifty |
vai + nini | vainini | sixty |
teo + nini | teonini | seventy |
dia + nini | dianini | eighty |
sasta + nini | sastanini | ninety |
When tens and basic numbers are combined, they are simply placed after one another:
nini pan | fourteen |
sunini teo | twenty seven |
sastanini yem | ninety three |
It is allowed to add the word ai "and" in between as well:
nini ai pan | fourteen |
sunini ai teo | twenty seven |
sastanini ai yem | ninety three |
The powers of ten up til one billion are listed below:
Kah | Translation |
mel | hundred |
pol | thousand |
dua | ten thousand |
wisti | hundred thousand |
bena | million |
nungu | ten million |
gos | hundred million |
kas | billion |
Please note that this approach is different from the classic English decimal system, as it is dealing with powers of thousand instead!
Powers of ten are treated the same way as ten and form compounds with basic numerals. Compare:
In a way, the division of powers of ten is a decimal system just like the basic numbers:
101 (ten) - nini 102 (hundred) - mel 103 (thousand) - pol 104 (ten thousand) - dua 105 (hundred thousand) - wisti 106 (million) - bena 107 (ten million) - nungu 108 (hundred million) - gos 109 (billion) - kas 1010 ( ten billion) - ninya 1011 ( hundred billion) - nikwanya 1012 ( trillion) - nisunya 1013 ( ten trillion) - niyenya 1014 ( hundred trillion) - nipanya 1015 ( quadrillion) - nijonya 1016 ( ten quadrillion) - nivainya 1017 ( hundred quadrillion) - niteonya 1018 ( quintillion) - nidianya 1019 ( ten quintillion) - nisastanya 1020 ( hundred quintillion) - suninya 1021 ( sextillion) - sunikwanya 1022 ( ten sextillion) - sunisunya 1023 ( hundred sextillion) - suniyenya 1024 ( septillion) - sunipanya 1025 ( ten septillion) - sunijonya 10100 - melenya |
These numbers combined look like the following:
11 - nini kwa 12 - nini sun 13 - nini yem 14 - nini pan 15 - nini jom 16 - nini vai 17 - nini teo 18 - nini dia 19 - nini sasta 20 - sunini 21 - sunini kwa 22 - sunini sun 23 - sunini yem 28 - sunini dia 36 - yenini vai 89 - dianini sasta 147 - mel panini teo 565 - jomel vainini jom ("fivehundred sixty five") 705 - teomel jom 5,824 - jompol diamel sunini pan 2,500,444 - sumbena jomwisti pamel panini pan |
Ordinal numbers are expressed by adding the possessive marker na before the number in question:
nia na vai
car of six
the sixth car
bukim na yem
king na three
the third king
kwanya na teo
lesson of seven
the seventh lesson, lesson seven
Numerals can be marked with the nominal prefixes u- and a- in order to derive unbound forms of numerals:
uyu sun Person two the two persons aya sun thing two the two things uyu vai tengi kaichu person six can escape Six people managed to escape | usun two:animate the two persons asun two:inanimate the two things, the pair uvai tengi kaichu six:animate can escape Six (people) managed to escape |
Decimal fractions are characterized by a bastan "comma" like in most non-anglophone languages:
0.25 - 0,25 (meng bastan sunini jom)
0.347 - 0,347 (meng bastan yemel panini teo)
3.14 - 3,14 (yem bastan nini pan)
When the numbers get to complicated, they can be simply put after one another as well in speech instead of breaking them down in hundreds, tenths and such:
3.14159 - yem bastan kwa pan kwa jom sasta
Vulgar fractions are built by adding the root -mbe "part, share" to a numeral:
sun + mbe | sumbe | one half |
yem + mbe | yembe | one third |
pan + mbe | pambe | one quarter, fourth |
jom + mbe | jombe | one fifth |
vai + mbe | vaimbe | one sixth |
teo + mbe | teombe | one seventh |
dia + mbe | diambe | one eighth |
sasta + mbe | sastambe | one ninth |
nini + mbe | ninimbe | one tenth |
mel + mbe | melembe | one hundred, percent |
pol + mbe | polombe | one thousand, promille |
These fractions can be modified by cardinal numerals in order to express more complicated quantities:
yembe sun | two thirds |
pambe yem | three quarters |
sunini-sastambe teo | 7/29 |
Quantifiers in Kah behave like numerals in respect to their place in noun phrases:
uyu wi
Person much
many people
moso wi
milk much
much milk
wana yo
woman all
all women, every woman
wana sun yo
woman two all
both women
A list of common quantifiers in Kah is:
wi – much, many
wi tunti – more, more than
wi tio – most, most of all
vivi - too, too much
si – little, few
si tunti – less, less than
si tio – least, least of all
yo – all, every