Weddish/Numerals

Main article: Weddish

Weddish numerals are truly difficult to learn for outsiders. The Wedds themselves are very good at arithmetic and are very focused on pedagogy and the superiority of their system. Basically counting begins the same (since it cannot be otherwise):

1. one is named אן 'en, and is written with an 'alef: א
2. two is named טוי twy, and is written with a veyþ: ב
3. three is named תרי þriy, and is written with a jiměl: ג
4. four is named פויר fwyr, and is written with a ðalěþ: ד
5. five is named פף fif, and is written with a hey: ה
6. six is named סח sec, and is written with a wow: ו
7. seven is named סוין swyn, and is written with a zayin: ז
8. eight is named אית 'ayþ, and is written with a ceþ: ח
9. nine is named נין neyn, and is written with a teþ: ט

This is where things start getting weird for English-speakers. "Ten" and "eleven" have dedicated, solitary symbols:

10. ten is named טין tiyn, and is written with a yud: י

11. eleven is named אלף 'elf, and is written with a kof: כ

Now comes a hard fact of Weddish: it is not position, like English, but symbolic, like Chinese. That is, Arabic numerals distinguishes between 1 and 10 by the presence of more zero's, which change the position of a 1, which changes its worth. Far East Asian languages have dedicated symbols for such things: 一 is one, 十 is ten and 百 is a hundred. Weddish has a similar system, except for each dozen. These may freely be combined with numbers under 12.

1. one dozen is named אנך ǔnk, and is written with a laměð: ל. It is worth our 12.
2. two dozen is named טונך twǔnk, and is written with a (non-final) mem: מ. It is worth our 24.
3. three dozen is named תרנך þrǔnk, and is written with a (non-final) nun: נ. It is worth our 36.
4. four dozen is named פנך fǔnk, and is written with a samek: ס. It is worth our 48.

This means you have to think in dozens. It is no good calling 55 five-tens and five-ones. You have to call it four-dozen and 7-more, which is written סז and pronounced fǔnk swyn. Notice that the dozens are written before the ones, like our numbers. However, without a zero (see below) the dozens can appear alone. This is comparable to Roman numerals special symbol for 50.

By the time we get to our 60 --- five dozen --- it is time to consider a fitting metaphor: time! Indeed, the Weddish word for our 60 comes from the word 'time' or 'hour'. 60 minutes is an hour. The next scale of numbers are the sixties, which we will call 'hours':

1. one hour is named סנד sǔnð, and is written with a ŋayin and double-gereł: ע׳׳
2. two hours is twy sǔnð, and is written with a (non-final) peh and double-gereł: פ׳׳
3. three hours is þriy sǔnð, and is written with a (non-final) xadeh and double-gereł: צ׳׳
4. four hours : ק׳׳
5. ר׳׳
6. ש׳׳
7. ת׳׳
8. ׳׳ך
9. ם׳׳
10. ן׳׳
11. ף׳׳
12. ץ׳׳

Modern Numbers

Zero is mathematical idea and not commonly used. The word is כִפְרַא kifra, which seems to have originated in the Middle Ages from Latin and Arabic maths texts.