the seximal nomenclature I've described is very much based on how the English language handles numbers, and it wouldn't work for other languages. let's fix that!
if you have any ideas for how to adapt the seximal system into other languages, or on how to make the translations provided here better, let me know and I'll probably put them on this page!
Mandarin handles numbers in a nice regular way, as do most other Chinese languages. for numbers between ten and a hundred, you just say the amount of tens (unless it's only one ten), the word for ten (拾), and then how much more than ten it is (unless it's exactly a multiple of ten). this system is easily extendable into something sixier:
0: 零 (líng)
1: 一 (yī)
2: 二 (èr)
3: 三 (sān)
4: 四 (sì)
5: 五 (wǔ)
10: 六 (liù)
11: 六一 (liùyī)
12: 六二 (liùèr)
13: 六三 (liùsān)
14: 六四 (liùsì)
15: 六五 (liùwǔ)
20: 二六 (èrliù)
30: 三六 (sānliù)
40: 四六 (sìliù)
50: 五六 (wǔliù)
for 100, we run into a problem. Chinese numerals use a really cool myriad system for powers of ten, and the Mandarin words for them aren't derived from anything; they're just unique words. in order to have seximal in Mandarin work the same way decimal works in Mandarin, we'd need to make completely new words for nif and the powers of unexian. how? beats me.
so instead of trying to do that, I’m just going to loan the English terms like I did for everything else. the problem with this is that loanwords into Chinese languages are like, really hard to do, due to the way the Han logography works. that said, here’s my go at it.
nif is loaned into Mandarin as 尼 (ní), which is the way /ni/ is usually loaned in Mandarin, as in the Mandarin name for Venice, 威尼斯 (Wēinísī).
100: 尼 (ní)
200: 二尼 (èrní)
300: 三尼 (sānní)
1000: 六尼 (liùní)
1100: 六一尼 (liùyīní)
for the -exians, we’ll use 秈 (xiān), and the heavenly stems for the prefix roots.
unexian: 秈 (xiān)
biexian: 乙秈 (yǐxiān)
triexian: 丙秈 (bǐngxiān)
quadexian: 丁秈 (dīngxiān)
pentexian: 戊秈 (wùxiān)
unnilexian: 甲無秈 (jiǎmóxiān)
theoretically, this system could be directly adapted to work for all languages that use Chinese numerals.
Spanish has unique names for every number up to dozen three, which is halfway between two multiples of ten. we’ll just use the ones up to 20.
0: cero
1: uno
2: dos
3: tres
4: cuatro
5: cinco
10: seis
11: siete
12: ocho
13: nueve
14: diez
15: once
20: doce
we can handle numbers from dozen one to dozen five the same way Spanish uses numbers from dozen four to thirsy two, using -i-.
21: dociuno
22: docidos
23: docitres
24: docicuatro
25: docicinco
most Spanish names for multiples of ten end with -enta. a good seximal equivalent would be something like -ensa, which replaces the t with an s the same way -sy is derived from -ty. the ones digit is separated from the sixes digit with “y”.
30: treinsa
31: treinsa y uno
32: treinsa y dos
33: treinsa y tres
34: treinsa y cuatro
35: treinsa y cinco
40: cuarensa
50: cincuensa
after that, we can simply loan the words for larger powers of nif.
100: nifo
101: nifo uno
110: nifo seis
120: nifo doce
130: nifo treinsa
131: nifo treinsa y uno
200: dos nifos
300: tres nifos
1000: seis nifos
1 0000: unexio
1 0000 0000: biexio
the French language has separate words for every number up to dozen four. annoyingly, this means that the only number without a basic French name between twelve and thirsy is dozen five. I think the best solution to this is to just not use any of the words after twelve.
0: zéro
1: un
2: deux
3: trois
4: quatre
5: cinq
10: six
11: sept
12: huit
13: neuf
14: dix
15: onze
20: douze
most multiples of ten have French names that end with -ante, which, as we've done for other Romance languages, can be replaced with -anse to form names for multiples of six.
21: douze et un
22: douze deux
23: douze trois
24: douze quatre
25: douze cinq
30: trense
40: quaranse
the number eighty (two nif eight), despite being a multiple of ten, doesn't have a name that ends with -ante. instead, it's called quatre vingts, which means "four twenties". because of this, I don't think it would be fitting for French to use something like "cinquanse" for fifsy. even though it's five sixes, it's also three tens, and isn't that more important?
50: trente
the large powers of six can be loaned directly with no problems.
100: nif
101: nif un
110: nif six
200: deux nif
1000: six nif
1 0000: unexian
1 0000 0000: biexian
numbers up to six can have their Russian names preserved in seximal.
0: ноль (nol’)
1: один (odin)
2: два (dva)
3: три (tri)
4: четыре (četyre)
5: пять (pjat’)
10: шесть (šest’)
in decimal, numbers between ten and twenty end with -надцать (-nadcat’), literally “over ten”. in seximal, we can use the suffix -надшесть (-nadšest’) for numbers between six and twelve.
11: одиннадшесть (odinnadšest’)
12: двенадшесть (dvenadšest’)
13: тринадшесть (trinadšest’)
14: черырнадшесть (četyrnadšest’)
15: пятнадшесть (pjatnadšest’)
multiples of ten in Russian mostly end with some variant of -дцать (-dcat’). words for multiples of six can be formed by making a -дшесть (-dšest’) suffix for “times six”.
20: двадшесть (dvadšest’)
30: тридшесть (tridšest’)
40: сошесть (sošest’)
50: пяшесть (pjašest’)
the large powers of six can be loaned directly with no problems.
100: ниф (nif)
200: два ниф (dva nif)
1000: шесть ниф (šest’ nif)
1 0000: унексиан (uneksian)
1 0000 0000: биексиан (bieksian)
Portuguese has separate words for every number up to dozen three, and we can keep all of them up to a dozen.
0: zero
1: um
2: dois
3: três
4: quatro
5: cinco
10: seis
11: sete
12: oito
13: nove
14: dez
15: onze
20: doze
we can handle numbers after that the same way Portuguese handles most numbers that aren't divisible by ten, using the word "e" for addition (and using the Portuguese word for dozen for numbers up to thirsy).
21: dúzia e um
22: dúzia e dois
23: dúzia e três
24: dúzia e quatro
25: dúzia e cinco
also like in Spanish, multiples of ten usually end with -enta in Portuguese. the -ensa solution works here too.
30: trinsa
40: quarensa
50: cinquensa
the Portuguese word for ten tens is "cem", and multiples of cem are formed with variants of the -centos suffix. the seximal equivalent of this is to turn "nif" (loaned as "nife") into a -nifes suffix.
100: nife
110: nife e seis
200: dunifes
300: trenifes
400: quatronifes
500: quinnifes
1000: seis nife
1100: seis nife e nife
1200: seis nife e dunifes
finally, the -exian series can be loaned directly.
1 0000: unexião
1 0000 0000: biexião
Indonesian has separate names for every number up to eleven, which all can be preserved.
0: nol
1: satu
2: dua
3: tiga
4: empat
5: lima
10: enam
11: tujuh
12: delapan
13: sembilan
14: sepuluh
15: sebelas
Indonesian then uses "belas" to mean "plus ten" until it reaches two tens, somewhat like the English -teen suffix. from there, the word "puluh", derived from "sepuluh", starts being used to mean "times ten". for seximal, we can remove the first syllable of "enam" to make the analogous word "nam", which is actually already a recognizable way to say "six" in Indonesian if Wiktionary is to be believed.
20: dua nam
21: dua nam satu
22: dua nam dua
23: dua nam tiga
24: dua nam empat
25: dua nam lima
30: tiga nam
40: empat nam
50: lima nam
for larger powers of six, we can just loan nif and the -exian series. Indonesian phonology doesn't allow the sequence /ks/, so -exian becomes -ekasian.
100: nif
101: nif satu
110: nif enam
120: nif dua nam
200: dua nif
1 0000: unekasian
1 0000 0000: biekasian
German uses separate words for numbers up to twelve, which can all stay the same in seximal.
0: null
1: eins
2: zwei
3: drei
4: vier
5: fünf
10: sechs
11: sieben
12: acht
13: neun
14: zehn
15: elf
20: zwölf
in German, the ones place is spoken before the tens place, with the word "und" (and) separating them. (with no spaces, obviously, because this is German we're talking about here)
21: einundzwölf
22: zweiundzwölf
23: dreiundzwölf
24: vierundzwölf
25: fünfundzwölf
multiples of ten are formed with a -zig suffix, which can be adapted into an analogous -sechs suffix for multiples of six.
30: dreißechs
40: viersechs
50: fünfsechs
the word "nif" can be loaned into German, and can be combined with other words the same way German uses "hundert".
100: nif
101: nifeins
110: nifsechs
200: zweinif
1000: sechsnif
5555: fünfundfünfsechsniffünfundfünfsechs
the -exian series needs a little bit of adapting to work the same way as how German deals with -illions, because in German, it's "one Million" (capital M) and "two Millions".
1 0000: eine Unexian
2 0000: zwei Unexianen
1 0000 0000: eine Biexian
Japanese uses different words for small numbers depending on what you're counting. the words for the numbers up to six are different if you're just talking about the numbers themselves,
0: れい (rei)
1: いち (ichi)
2: に (ni)
3: さん (san)
4: よん (yon)
5: ご (go)
10: ろく (roku)
if you're counting objects,
1: ひとつ (hitotsu)
2: ふたつ (futatsu)
3: みっつ (mittsu)
4: よっつ (yottsu)
5: いつつ (itsutsu)
10: むっつ (muttsu)
if you're counting people,
1: ひとり (hitori)
2: ふたり (futari)
3: さんにん (sannin)
4: よにん (yonin)
5: ごにん (gonin)
10: ろくにん (rokunin)
if you're counting days,
1: いちにち (ichinichi)
2: ふつか (futsuka)
3: みっか (mikka)
4: よっか (yokka)
5: いつか (itsuka)
10: むいか (muika)
if you're counting nights,
1: いっぱく (ippaku)
2: にはく (nihaku)
3: さんぱく (sanpaku)
4: よんはく (yonhaku)
5: ごはく (gohaku)
10: ろっぱく (roppaku)
if you're counting floors,
1: いっかい (ikkai)
2: にかい (nikai)
3: さんかい (sankai)
4: よんかい (yonkai)
5: ごかい (gokai)
10: ろっかい (rokkai)
or if you're counting how old someone is.
1: いっさい (issai)
2: にさい (nisai)
3: さんさい (sansai)
4: よんさい (yonsai)
5: ごさい (gosai)
10: ろくさい (rokusai)
in this situation, we're talking about the numbers themselves, so we'll be using the first set of words.
numbers after six can be formed the same way Japanese forms numbers after ten, by saying the amount of sixes, the word ろく, and then the amount of ones.
11: ろくいち (roku ichi)
12: ろくに (roku ni)
13: ろくさん (roku san)
14: ろくよん (roku yon)
15: ろくご (roku go)
20: にろく (niroku)
21: にろくいち (niroku ichi)
30: さんろく (sanroku)
40: よんろく (yonroku)
50: ごろく (goroku)
Japanese is VERY okay with using loanwords.
100: ニフ (nifu)
101: ニフいち (nifu ichi)
110: ニフろく (nifu roku)
111: ニフろくいち (nifu roku ichi)
200: にニフ (ni nifu)
1 0000: ウーネクシアン (ūnekushian)
1 0000 0000: バイエクシアン (baiekushian)
the Hausa words for numbers up to six can be preserved.
0: sifili
1: daya
2: biyu
3: uku
4: hudu
5: biyar
10: shida
numbers after six can be formed the same as numbers after eleven, using the word "sha", which means "and".
11: shida sha
12: shida sha biyu
13: shida sha uku
14: shida sha huɗu
15: shida sha biyar
multiples of ten in Hausa are loanwords from Arabic. to make multiples of six, we can alter these words to all end with -shida, the Hausa word for six.
20: ashida
21: ashida da daya
22: ashida da biyu
23: ashida da uku
24: ashida da hudu
25: ashida da biyar
30: talashida (this apparently means cheek, so it might not work)
31: talashida daya
32: talashida da biyu
33: talashida uku
34: talashida da hudu
35: talashida da biyar
40: arbashida
41: arbashida daya
42: arbashida da biyu
43: arbashida uku
44: arbashida da hudu
45: arbashida da biyar
50: hamshida
51: hamshida daya
52: hamshida da biyu
53: hamshida uku
54: hamshida da huhu
55: hamshida da biyar
for large powers of ten, Hausa puts the word for the power before the word for the digit, so this is also how Hausa uses nif and the -exian series. Hausa phonology doesn't allow the sequence /ks/, so -exian becomes -eciyan.
100: nif
101: nif da daya
102: nif da biyu
103: nif da uku
110: nif da shida
111: nif da shida sha
200: nif biyu
202: nif biyu da biyu
220: nif biyu da ashida
222: nif biyu da ashida da biyu
1000: nif shida
1 0000: uneciyan
1 0000 0000: biyeciyan
sent to me by Marco Palmaccio (thanks Marco!):
Italian has unique names for every number up to thirsy one,so we’ll just use the ones up to 20.
0: zero
1: uno
2: due
3: tre
4: quattro
5: cinque
10: sei
11: sette
12: otto
13: nove
14: dieci
15: undici
20: dodici
Italian, unlike spanish and french, puts in one single word tens and units so we just put together dodici and the units.
21: dodiciuno
22: dodicidue
23: dodicitre
24: dodiciquattro
25: dodicicinque
All italian names for the multiples of ten end in -anta (except for dieci,venti and trenta(DEC:10,20 and 30)) so instead we have -ansa.Also when the unit is "uno" (one) (or otto (eight) but that's not the case)the word for the tens lacks the vowel,so DEC31 is not trentauno,but trentuno. This reflects also here.
30:trensa
31:trensuno,32:trensadue,33:trensatre,34:trensaquattro,trensacinque
40:quaransa
41:quaransuno,42:quaransadue...
50:cinquansa
51:cinquansuno,52.cinquansadue...
Nif is nifo (or nifi,when plural)
When nifo is combined, an -i- is added.
100:nifo
101:nifiuno
102:nifidue
103:nifitre
104:nifiquattro
105:nificinque
110:nifisei
111:nifisette
112:nifiotto
113:nifinove
114:nifidieci
115:nifiundici
120:nifidodici
121:nifidodiciuno
122:nifidodicidue
123:nifidodicitre
130:nifitrensa
131:nifitrensuno
132:nifitrensadue
140:nifiquaransa
150:nificinquansa.
Also,the multiples of nif are: duenifi,trenifi,quattronifi and cinquenifi.Obviously, the -i- is alredi in the plural nifi so is not needed.
Italian number names can get even longer,so for italians,would not be hard.An unexian is unexio(plural=unexi) and it can be combined with other numbers adding an -i-,like with nifo.The multiples are formed like nifo ones.
5243 is for example: cinqueunexiduenifiquaransatre. Yes,so long.
Now,some powers of six.
uno
sei
nifo
seinifi
unexio
seiunexi
nifounexi
biexio
triexio
quadriexio
pentanexio(with an extra -n-)
umexio(the sixth -exio)
umunexio
umbiexio
untriexio
unquadriexio
umpentanexio
bimexio(bimunexio,bimbinexio,bintriexio...)
trimexio(a trinilexian)
quadrimexio
pentamexio
ummilexio
FINISH!
a reader named Aleksander Sabak sent me this translation of the seximal system into Polish.
Polish is a slavic language, so my ideas are strongly based on Russian and Slovak translations you posted, tho they mostly match my previous ideas.
I'd keep numbers from 1 to 15, slightly altering 15:
1 - jeden
2 - dwa
3 - trzy
4 - cztery
5 - pięć
10 - sześć
11 - siedem
12 - osiem
13 - dziewięć
14 - dziesięć
15 - naście
Then, although Polish already has a name for 20, tuzin, it's hard to pronounce "tuzin jeden", so I'd start the multiples of six. Multiples of 14 are dwa-dzieścia, trzy-dzieści, so the reasonable thing would be dwa-sześcia, trzy-sześci, so:
20 - dwasześcia
21 - dwasześcia jeden
22 - dwasześcia dwa
23 - dwasześcia trzy
24 - dwasześcia cztery
25 - dwasześcia pięć
30 - trzysześci
40 - cztersześci
50 - pięćszesiąt (wil be pronounced as pieńszesiąt, just as pięćdziesiąt is pronounced piędziesiąt)
On nyf i got stuck, because there isn't a really good way to incorporate it to Polish :/ The best solition I came up with is just plainly saying nif, dwa nify, trzy nify (I know that in English you don't say two nyfs, but in polish we also do that with million - two million is dwa miliony):
100 - nif
101 - nif jeden
130 - nif trzysześci
200 - dwa nify
300 - trzy nify
400 - cztery nify
500 - pięć nifów
1000 - sześć nifów
2000 - dwasześcia nifów
2300 - dwasześcia trzy nify
3000 - trzysześci nifów
4000 - cztersześci nifów
5000 - pięćszesiąt nifów
Unexians are easy, we do them like millions:
1 0000 - uneksjan
2 0000 - dwa uneksjany
123 0000 - nif dwasześcia trzy uneksjany
1 0000 0000 - bieksjan
1e20 - trieksjan
And so on...
Dutch has unique names for every number up to twelve.
0: nul
1: één
2: twee
3: drie
4: vier
5: vijf
10: zes
11: zeven
12: acht
13: negen
14: tien
15: elf
20: twaalf
much like in German, the ones place is spoken before the tens place, the word for "and" separates the digits, and the whole name is written without spaces.
21: eenentwaalf
22: tweeëntwaalf
23: drieëntwaalf
24: vierentwaalf
25: vijfentwaalf
multiples of ten are formed with the suffix -tig in Dutch. in seximal, we can use an analogous -sig suffix for multiples of six.
30: dersig
40: veersig
50: vijfsig
the word "nif" can be loaned directly into Dutch, and can be combined with other words the same way Dutch uses "honderd".
100: nif
101: nifeneen
110: nifzes
200: tweenif
1000: zesnif
5555: vijfenvijfsignifvijfenvijfsig
the -exian series can be loaned almost directly.
1 0000: een unexiaan
2 0000: twee unexiaan
1 0000 0000: een biexiaan
this is a translation of the seximal system into Croatian sent to me by Marko. thanks Marko!
here’s a Hungarian translation sent to me by someone who wishes to remain anonymous:
The numbers from zero to six:
0: nulla
1: egy
2: kettő
3: három
4: négy
5: öt
10: hat
Hungarian base-ten numbers are compounded above ten (i.e. eleven and twelve are ten-one and ten-two). Based on the French translations, I will use compound numbers from seven.
In base ten, numbers from 11-19 and 20-29 are compounded as 10-en-X and 20-on-X. I will apply this rule in base six from seven to eleven:
11: hatonegy
12: hatonkettő
13: hatonhárom
14: hatonnégy
15: hatonöt
Let's use the Hungarian word for dozen, "tucat", for the number twelve:
20: tucat
21: tucategy
22: tucatkettő
23: tucathárom
24: tucatnégy
25: tucatöt
Inspired by the second syllable of "tucat", let's use the ending -cat/-cet (based on vowel harmony) for multiples of six:
30: hacat
31: hacategy
...
40: necet
41: necetegy
...
50: öcet
51: öcetegy
I suggest translating nif to Hungarian as "niv" based on the Finnish translation.
My suggestion is based on the phonetic evolution of the word for hundred, *śata --> száz (hu), sata (fi), which results in the analogical evolution of *nif --> niv (hu), nivi (fi).
100: niv
101: nivegy
102: nivkettő
...
110: nivhat
111: nivhatonegy
112: nivhatonkettő
...
155: nivöcetöt
"Kettő" usually becomes "két" when before "száz" (hundred) except when intentionally distinguishing it from "hét" (seven) which won't exist in seximal. Thus, "kettő" will become "két" before "niv" as well.
200: kétniv
Following the hyphenation rules for numbers above two thousand, the numbers should also be hyphenated after "niv" for numbers larger than two nif:
200: kétniv
201: kétniv-egy
202: kétniv-kettő
203: kétniv-három
204: kétniv-négy
205: kétniv-öt
210: kétniv-hat
211: kétniv-hatonegy
300: háromniv
400: négyniv
500: ötniv
1000: hatniv
1100: hatonegyniv
5555: öcetötniv-öcetöt
Numbers from 10000:
10^4: exia
10^8: biexia
10^12: triexia
10^16: kvadexia
10^20: kvintexia
10^24: unnullexia
10^28: ununexia
10^32: unbiexia
10^36: untriexia
10^40: unkvadexia
10^44: unkvintexia
10^48: binullexia
In exian, the n is removed as the Hungarian word for million, "millió" does not contain an n either. It is not accented though, as a word ending in á sounds odd.
Nil becomes null; quad becomes kvad and pent becomes kvint (as quadrillion is "kvadrillió" and quintillion is "kvintillió" in Hungarian.
Two thousand and twenty in Hungarian seximal: 13204 - egyexia-hacatkétniv-négy
this is a spreadsheet created by Falch, defining translations of the seximal system into Danish, Norwegian (Bokmål and Nynorsk), Faroese, Icelandic, and Swedish. some cool stuff here!
this translation into Finnish was sent to me by Arto Olli:
I'm a native Finnish speaker and I propose these translations for the seximal system.
We can preserve the Finnish names for numbers 0-10
0 - nolla
1 - yksi
2 - kaksi
3 - kolme
4 - neljä
5 - viisi
10 - kuusi
Finnish does not have own words for eleven and twelve like basically every other language. Instead in Finnish the numbers DEC11-19 work much like the numbers DEC13-19 in English. Essentially we have 'oneteen' and 'twoteen'. Finnish does have a word for dozen (tusina) but because I don't want to come up with a completely new word for 15 (DEC11) i am going to use the Finnish words for DEC11-15 for 11-15.
11 - yksitoista
12 - kaksitoista
13 - kolmetoista
14 - neljätoista
15 - viisitoista
20 - tusina / kaksikuutta
In Finnish, for tens in decimal we basically say 'two tens, three tens, four tens' etc. (kaksikymmentä, kolmekymmentä, neljäkymmentä). That's why I decided to use 'kaksikuutta' for twelve, meaning literally 'two sixes'. I also included 'tusina' (dozen) as an option.
21 - tusinayksi / kaksikuuttayksi
22 - tusinakaksi / kaksikuuttakaksi
23 - tusinakolme / kaksikuuttakolme
24 - tusinaneljä / kaksikuuttaneljä
25 - tusinaviisi / kaksikuuttaviisi
30 - kolmekuutta
40 - neljäkuutta
50 - viisikuutta
100 - nivi
This one I had to think for long. The sound of 'f' doesn't fit into the mouth of a Finnish speaker (crazy, I know), neither does a word ending in a consonant in its basic form. I ended up softening the 'f' to a 'v' and added an 'i' in the end as is common practice in making borrowed words work in Finnish.
101 - niviyksi
110 - nivikuusi
200 - kaksiniviä
300 - kolmeniviä
400 - neljäniviä
500 - viisiniviä
1000 - kuusiniviä
1 0000 - unexaani
1 0000 0000 - biexaani
Rest of the powers of unexian follow
3 - triexaani
4 - kvadexaani
5 - pentexaani
10 - unnilexaani
11 - ununexaani
12 - unbiexaani
13 - untriexaani
14 - unkvadexaani
15 - unpentexaani
20 - binilexaani
Example of word separation: 3 3255 3252 1143 - kolmetriexaania kolmekuuttakaksiniviäviisikuuttaviisbiexaania kolmekuuttakaksiniviäviisikuuttakaksiunexaania yksitoistaniviäneljäkuuttakolme
In Finnish, there's a rule that when writing out numbers there should be a space where there is one in the number (such as DEC 7 799 431 959). I decided to follow the same rule here.
someone called Havosh sent me this thing on Discord, a translation of the seximal system into Slovak. it’s pretty neat!
a reader named Idan Zamir sent me this translation of the seximal system into Hebrew.
(X - voiceless velar fricative)
(š - voiceless postalveolar fricative)
(everything is in feminine because that's what we use in counting)
Numbers from one to twelve each have a unique name (with one exception), so here they are:
1 - axat - אחת
2 - štaim - שתיים
3 - šaloš - שלוש
4 - arba - ארבע
5 - xameš - חמש
10 - šeš - שש
11 - ševa - שבע
12 - šmone - שמונה
13 - teša - תשע
14 - eser - עשר
15 - kaf - כף - (there's no unique word for eleven. but the letter kaf has the value of elven)
20 - treisar - תריסר
Now, Hebrew has a different conjunction depending on the first letter of a word, so you will sometimes see "ve" and sometimes "u", don't be frightened.
21 - treisar ve'axat - תריסר ואחת
22 - treisar uštaim - תריסר ושתיים
23 - treisar vešaloš - תריסר ושלוש
24 - treisar ve'arba - תריסר וארבע
25 - treisar vexameš - תריסר וחמש
So! new words for larger multiples of six! I just changed the suffix "im" with the suffix "in", mainly because it's a familiar suffix in Hebrew for pluralisation.
30 - šlošin - שלושין
40 - arbain - ארבעין
50 - Xamišin - חמישין
So 43 would be for exmple "arbain vešaloš - ארבעין ושלוש"
What comes after xamišin vexameš? I decided to call 100 "Noga - נוגה", why? because by the Jewish tradition, the light God created in the first day shined for 100 (36 in decimal) hours, and Ziv is a Hebrew word for light, it's not very common in every speech so there won't be any confusion.
From here everything works like in the English system, so 5321 would be "xamišin vešalos noga treisar ve'axat - חמישין ושלוש נוגה תריסר ואחת". Hebrew uses the words million, milliard and so on so there won't be a problem using unexian (אונקסיאן), biexian (בייקסיאן) and so on, it's pretty straight forward writing them in the Hebrew alphabet.
of the languages that natively use seximal, Ndom's numbering system is the most well documented. spoken by around a thousand people on Yos Sudarso island, Ndom is the reason this system uses "nif" for six times six.
numbers up to six have separate names.
1: sas
2: thef
3: ithin
4: thonith
5: meregh
10: mer
for numbers larger than six, the ones are separated from the sixes with "abo", which means "and".
11: mer abo sas
12: mer abo thef
13: mer abo ithin
14: mer abo thonith
15: mer abo meregh
twelve is just called "mer an thef", for two sixes.
20: mer an thef
21: mer an thef abo sas
22: mer an thef abo thef
23: mer an thef abo ithin
24: mer an thef abo thonith
25: mer an thef abo meregh
thirsy is called the very good name "tondor".
30: tondor
31: tondor abo sas
32: tondor abo thef
33: tondor abo ithin
34: tondor abo thonith
35: tondor abo meregh
40: tondor abo mer
41: tondor abo mer abo sas
42: tondor abo mer abo thef
43: tondor abo mer abo ithin
44: tondor abo mer abo thonith
45: tondor abo mer abo meregh
50: tondor abo mer an thef
51: tondor abo mer an thef abo sas
52: tondor abo mer an thef abo thef
53: tondor abo mer an thef abo ithin
54: tondor abo mer an thef abo thonith
55: tondor abo mer an thef abo meregh
and, as has already been stated, the Ndom word for nif is "nif". interestingly, instead of "nif an thef", the word for two nif is just "nif thef".
100: nif
130: nif abo tondor
200: nif thef
unfortunately, I couldn't find any source that listed out Ndom numerals far enough to show how larger multiples of nif are handled.
other natural languages that use seximal, like the Yam languages of Papua New Guinea, have well documented base root words, but how the roots connect together into numbers is unclear.
this Latin translation was sent via email by Ryan Pecoraro.
Numbers in Latin have their own names up to ten, except 0. 0 as a number was introduced after the fall of Rome, probably added by the Vatican’s own Latinist along with words like polybenum, machine gun. 0 would have been notated either as nihil (nothing) or nullus (none). For this one, let’s use nullus.
0: nullus
1: unus
2: duo
3: tres
4: quattuor
5: quinque
10: sex
11: septem
12: octo
13: novem
14: decem
Now this is where it gets a little funky, because the names for 15 and 20 (DEC11 and DEC12) are both based off of DEC10, being undecim and duodecim. Since this seximal system is not very decimal-centric, I believe it would be wiser to make them more six based: bis sex (twice six) for 20 and unde bis sex (one down from twice six) for 15. However, an adverb for “by twelves” exists, bisen. I find it much less clunky and much more convenient for numbers from dozen one to dozen five if we use undebisen and bisen for 15 and 20, respectively.
15: undebisen
20: bisen
For numbers between dozen one and dozen five, we can use the same system for the Latin teens (undecim, duodecim).
21: unbisin
22: duobisin
23: trebisin
24: quattuorbisin
25: quinbisin
(Note the change from bisen to bisin for these numbers.)
Latin names for multiples of ten usually end in a -ginta suffix, which we can modify to be a -ginsa suffix for seximal.
30: triginsa
31: triginsa unus
32: triginsa duo
33: triginsa tres
34: triginsa quattuor
35: triginsa quinque
40: quadraginsa
50: quinquaginsa
As for loaning nif, it gets tricky, because we get to make up Latin words, and there aren’t many Latin words that end with F to use as an example. In that case, rather than using something like nifum, nifi (n) or nif, nifis (n), I’d rather use something like nifex, nificis, n.
100: nifex
101: nifex unus
110: nifex sex
120: nifex bisen
121: nifex unbisen
130: nifex triginsa
131: nifex traginsa unus
Multiples of nif are tricky in Latin, because Latin multiples of DEC100 are inconsistent at best. In addition, we need fifsy-five versions of nifex to get to whatever our equivalent for unexian will be. Rather than getting into that hairy mess, we’ll just use the following, noting that the plural of nifex is nifeca:
200: duo nifeca
300: tria nifeca
1 000: sex nifeca
(Note how tres turns to tria when paired with nifeca.)
For the -exian series, since it’s taken from a graecolatinish stem to begin with, it’s easy to transfer over, and the roots are the same too! (Thanks, Misali!) We’ll take of the final -n so we don’t get it confused with Ancient Greek, though.
1 0000: unexia
2 0000: duae unexiae
3 0000: tres unexiae
1 0000 0000: biexia
(Note the change from duo to duae with unexiae.)
See, facile est! (It’s easy!)
Ryan then followed up with another email, saying:
Interestingly enough, Roman numerals become easier (with numbers under unexian anyway) in seximal.Roman numerals originally are based off of DEC(1, 5, 10, 50, etc.), which isn't very seximal. To compensate, we'll change the system to have it be based off of threes and sixes. We'll keep 1 as I, and we'll keep the base of the system as X, so we'll also keep half of the base as V. So, 3 is V and 10 is X. There is one massive change in this numeral system, however: when using numbers one below the base or half of the base, you used to place I before either a DECV or a DECX or whatnot, but now since the base is smaller you no longer have to do that. Both II and IV can represent 2 in seximal numerals. II makes the numerals more simple to learn and read, but IV shrinks them in the long run. The Romans would most likely accept either variant (they themselves sometimes wrote non-standard numerals like IIII for four rather than DECIV), so I'll list both for convenience. The base squared will remain C (nif) and half that will remain L. The base cubed will be M, as usual, and unexia will be my own design, N. As with the original numerals, there won't be one for 0 (nullus).
nullus:
unus: I
duo: II / IV
tres: V
quattuor: VI
quinque: VII / IX
sex: X
septem: XI octo: XII / XIV
novem: XV
decem: XVI
undebisen: XVII / XIX
bisen: XX / XL
triginsa: L
quadraginsa: LX
quinquaginsa: LXX / XC
nifex: C
tria nifeca: D
sex nifeca: M
unexian: N
Esperanto is allegedly an international auxiliary language, so it handles numbers in a relatively simple way. good luck saying "kvar" though. numbers up to six can stay the same.
0: nul
1: unu
2: du
3: tri
4: kvar
5: kvin
10: ses
multiples of ten are formed with -dek (ten) in Esperanto, so multiples of six can be formed with -ses.
11: ses unu
12: ses du
13: ses tri
14: ses kvar
15: ses kvin
20: duses
30: trises
40: kvarses
50: kvinses
multiples of a hundred are also formed with a suffix, so it's only natural to do the same for multiples of nif.
100: nif
101: nif unu
110: nif ses
111: nif ses unu
200: dunif
300: trinif
400: kvarnif
500: kvinnif
1000: sesnif
1100: ses unu nif
the -illion series is an -iliono series in Esperanto, and the illions are treated as separate words.
1 0000: unu uneksiano
2 0000: du uneksiano
1 0000 0000: unu bieksiano
it would be a literal crime if I included Esperanto here without including my favorite conlang. Toki Pona's numbering system is next to non existent, so it can be adapted into seximal without changing anything at all.
0: ala
1: wan
2: tu
3+: mute
"all": ale
this system isn't very useful, so Tokiponists extended it into an almost numbering system, using "luka" (hand) to mean five, specifying that "mute" always means twenty, and that "ale" (sometimes ali, to avoid confusion with ala) always means a hundred. the seximal equivalent would be something like this.
0: ala
1: wan
2: tu
3: tu wan
4: tu tu
5: tu tu wan
10: luka
11: luka wan
12: luka tu
13: luka tu wan
14: luka tu tu
15: luka tu tu wan
20: luka luka
30: luka luka luka
40: luka luka luka luka
50: luka luka luka luka luka
100: mute
200: mute mute
300: mute mute mute
400: mute mute mute mute
500: mute mute mute mute mute
1000: ale
2000: ale ale
3000: ale ale ale
4000: ale ale ale ale
5000: ale ale ale ale ale
it would very much be against the spirit of Toki Pona to have a way to say "unexian" other than "ale ale ale ale ale ale". that workaround you came up with just now? nope, can't do that. it's not that it doesn't work, it's just that the whole point of Toki Pona is the restrictions in its vocabulary.
a reader named Zacharie Deguilhem sent me this translation of the seximal system into Elefen.
Since you have done a review of Lingua Franca Nova and you said that it was the least bad interlang you reviewed, I've had the idea to make a seximal translation for LFN. Here is my idea :
Numbers up to six can be preserved.
0: zero
1: un
2: du
3: tre
4: cuatro
5: sinco
10: ses
Multiples of ten are formed with -des, so multiples of six can be formed with -ses (the orthography is the same as decimal).
11: ses-un
12: ses-du
20: duses
30: treses
40: cuatroses
50: sincoses
55: sincoses-sinco
nif can be directly loaned.
100: nif
200: du nif
300: tre nif
500: sinco nif
1000: ses nif
5555: sincoses-sinco nif sincoses-sinco
For the -exian numbers I've found 2 possibilities:
-Keeping the graecolatinish number roots plus the -ecsian suffix
1 0000: un unecsian
1 0000 0000: un biecsian
etc...
-or using another system which makes -ecsian works as a LFN suffix for numbers
1 0000: un unecsian
1 0000 0000: un duecsian
1 0000 0000 0000: un triecsian (to avoid having 2 'e' in a row, we need to replace "tre" with "tri", which also means a third but that's not a problem here)
1 0000 0000 0000 0000: un cuatrecsian
1 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000: un sincecsian
Then we have sesecsian, ses-unecsian, ses-duecsian, ses-triecsian, ses-cuatrecsian...
personally, I think the first option for the -exian numbers is a bit more faithful to the original English system, but the second option works better with existing LFN vocabulary, so I'm including both here. well done, Zacharie!
Vötgil is a simplified version of English. numbers are pronounced by saying their digits backwards.
0: Zyr
1: Wun
2: Twn
3: Xry
4: Fwr
5: Fiv
10: ZyrWun
11: WunWun
12: TwnWun
13: XryWun
14: FwrWun
15: FivWun
20: ZyrTwn
30: ZyrXry
40: ZyrFwr
50: ZyrFiv
100: ZyrZyrWun
1000: ZyrZyrZyrWun
1 0000: ZyrZyrZyrZyrWun
I hate Vötgil so much.
Iaiz C sent me this google doc outlining his translations of the seximal system into Zese, Kay(f)bop(t), Láadan, Ygyde, Ithkuil, aUI, Lojban, and Solresol. very well done, Iaiz!