Numbers and Quantity

The number and quantity system is deliberately regular and compact. Construction through 99 is currently specified; hundreds and larger place values remain deferred.

Cardinal numerals

The forms tvaa, þrii, and nii use doubled vowels under the open-syllable long-vowel rule.

Eleven through nineteen

tin is the productive ten-plus / -teen numeral element.

It follows the preceding numeral directly.

Optional hyphens may expose the morpheme boundary: enn-tin, tvaa-tin, and so on.

tenn remains the standalone numeral ten.

Tens

-tigg forms a multiple of ten from the preceding numeral.

The doubled gg keeps the i short under the ordinary vowel-length rules.

Optional hyphenation is allowed at the morpheme boundary: tvaa-tigg, þrii-tigg, and so on.

For non-round numbers, the tens form comes first and the ones numeral follows as a separate word.

tvaatigg enn — 21
tvaatigg tvaa — 22
þriitigg seks — 36
niitigg nii — 99

Numerals with nouns

The numeral does not suppress normal noun number marking.

• enn takes a singular noun.
• zero takes a plural noun.
• every cardinal numeral greater than one takes a plural noun.

Examples:

zero kattar — zero cats
enn katt — one cat
tvaa kattar — two cats
atta hundar — eight dogs
þriitigg seks jarar — thirty-six years

One is simply the odd member of the system: it describes one thing, while zero and all other cardinal quantities describe how many things there are.

Age

Age may be expressed directly with the copula, a numeral, and plural jarar.

Ik ett þriitigg seks jarar.
I am thirty-six years old.

No adjective equivalent to English old is required. gammal retains its ordinary descriptive meaning:

Ik ett gammal. — I am old.
Ik ett zer gammal. — I am very old.

Quantifiers

The current invariant quantity words are:

faa and mang do not have separate count and mass forms. The noun and context determine the intended reading.

Examples:

zumm hundar — some dogs
zumm mat — some food
faa hundar — few dogs
faa watr — little water
mang hundar — many dogs
mang watr — much water
all hundar — all dogs
all mat — all food
mer watr — more water
ferr hundar — fewer dogs

zero and null

zero is the numeral 0.

null expresses none / no quantity.

They are intentionally separate words even though they overlap conceptually.

Degree

Degree words modify adjectives and other suitable expressions without changing form.

Examples:

tuu kald — too cold
tuu stor — too big
zer kald — very cold
zer stor — very big
zer god — very good

tuu indicates that a degree exceeds what is appropriate or desired. zer intensifies a quality without implying excess.

tuu also combines with quantity words:

tuu mang hundar — too many dogs
tuu mang watr — too much water
tuu faa hundar — too few dogs
tuu faa watr — too little water

Deferred decisions

The following are intentionally not yet specified:

• hundreds and larger place values
• ordinals
• fractions and decimals
• the ordinary word for enough