The Avâr Language

The Numerals

The Article

Avâr has no article. In certain contexts the demonstrative pronoun hau, or hav, hai, hab — “this” (m., f., n.) — may stand in for the definite article.

A. Cardinal Numerals

B. Fractions

C. Ordinal Numerals

Notes

The form for twenty appears to be a simple reduplication of -ḳo, or -go. The second syllable in ḳogo “twenty” softens to -lo when combined with another numeral.

The tens are formed by inserting -ila- between anž “ten” and the unit. Tlibirgo means “three-ten” (i.e. thirty); ǧiḳogo = “two-twenty” (forty).

In forming numerals between thirty and forty the linking -go drops and the suffix -alda is inserted between the tens-position and the units; between forty and fifty the same is done by -yalda. The numeral for fifty is rendered as “forty-ten.”

Tlab ḳogo “sixty” — literally “three-twenty.” The formation of “seventy” via the combination “thrice-twenty-ten” is more cumbersome, becoming especially unwieldy in expressions of the type tlab ḳoyalda anžila antltligo — “seventy-seven.” Finally, onḳogo “eighty” (“four-twenty”).

With the exception of azargo, or hazargo “thousand,” which is no doubt taken from Persian, none of the numerals shows any kinship with the units of any other language so far as I can judge.

The multiplicative adverbs once, twice, three times, etc. — žol, gižol, tlibžol, etc. — are formed by replacing the final syllable of the base numeral with -žol. Thus anžgo “ten” becomes anžol “ten times.” Ḳogo “twenty” → ḳožol “twenty times.” For numerals between the tens, exact multiples may be expressed by multiplicative phrases, such as “thrice four,” gibzol onco, instead of “twelve times.”

Editor's Note

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