Numbers and Mathematics
These are the words that all numbers in Kokanu are built from:
wan - 1 (one)
ha - 2 (two)
san - 3 (three)
nanku - 4 (four)
lima - 5 (five)
lijo - 6 (six)
setan - 7 (seven)
etu - 8 (eight)
saka - 9 (nine)
tiju - 10 (ten)
sijen - 100 (hundred)
When building phrases to express numbers, number words that follow tiju don't act as modifiers, as would normally be the case in Kokanu, they simply add a unit number on.
Number words preceding tiju give the number of instances of it, as with any noun.
Placing unit numbers before and after tiju allows the expression of any number under 100.
san tiju ha "three tens and two, 32"
For numbers over 100, sijen acts exactly like tiju.
lima sijen lijo "five hundreds and six, 506"
setan sijen ha tiju saka "seven hundreds and two tens and nine, 729"
Forming Numbers 1000 and larger
Powers of a thousand (thousand, million, billion, trillion, etc.) are expressed with con, followed by an exponent. For example,
It’s important to think of con as “thousand to the power of...” rather than just “thousand”. If con is used multiple times, each thousands group must be seperated by tan, "then", in the same places where the comma goes in the numerals.
nanku tiju san con wan "43,000" nanku tiju san con wan tan wan "43,001" san con ha, tan nanku sijen nanku tiju lijo con wan, tan setan tiju etu "3,446,078"
nula is used for "zero", though, like in English, it doesn't appear in compound whole number words.
Cardinals and Ordinal Numbers
Cardinal numbers are placed before a noun. These are used for counting how many or how much of something there is.
mi le junja in san pawo "I have three dogs"
mi le tun tiju etu osa minuli "I have been working for eighteen hours
Ordinal numbers are placed after the noun These are used to specify the position of an item in a series, like "fourth" or "seventeenth".
pawo ha le tope ani "The second dog is the best"
san ten putuci je osa tiju etu le conca "It is 18:03" (literally "three minutes after the eighteenth hour have passed")
Therefore, when telling time, san osa is used to mean "three hours", and "osa san" to mean "three o'clock", literally "third hour".
Fractions, Decimals, and Percents
Numbers with fractional components tend to be more complex to express in Kokanu than whole numbers.
In fractions, the numerator is expressed as a number of osa, "parts", which are described by the denominator with je.
san osa je lima "three parts of five, three five-parts, 3/5"
ha tiju nanku osa je ha sijen san tiju wan "24/231"
For decimals the whole number is simply followed by pintu, "point", and the decimal numbers follow consecutively, with no regard for hundreds or thousands places.
ha pintu san ha nanku nanku - 12.3244
san pintu wan nanku wan lima saka ha... - 3.141592...
For percentages the phrase osa je sijen is added to the end of the number. This can be combined with decimal notation to specify decimal percentages.
ha tiju lima osa je sijen - 25%
nanku tiju pintu etu setan wan osa je sijen - 40.871%
Negative Numbers
Negative numbers are expressed with opotu je, "opposite of..."
opotu je nanku osa je tiju "-4/10"
opotu je lijo pintu saka saka "-6.99"
Mathematical Operations
While no words are specially assigned for mathematical operations such as "addition" or "multiplication", other words can be used to describe the operations and will be understood in a mathematical context.
Addition
2 + 3
te tene in san ke ha "giving 3 to 2"
te pon ta ha le unitu kan san "combining 2 with 3"
2 + 3 = 5
ha un san le lima "2 and 3 is 5"
Subtraction
7 - 4
te lun lipan in nanku sun setan "to make-absent 4 from 7"
te alu in nanku sun setan "to take 4 from 7"
7 - 4 = 3
setan un opotu je nanku le san "7 and -4 is 3"
Multiplication
2 * 5
te tun in ha non je lima - "creating 2 groups of 5"
te lun niju in ha wija lima "to make-many 2 with 5"
2 * 5 = 10
ha non je lima le tiju "2 groups of 5 is 10"
lima mita je ha le tiju "5 amounts of 2 is 10"
Division
9 / 4
te lun panli in saka wija nanku "to cut 9 using 4"
9 / 4 = 2.25
nanku panli je saka le ha pintu ha lima "4 divisions of 9 is 2.25"
saka osa je nanku le ha pintu ha lima - expressing 9/4 in standard fraction form directly
Exponentiation
6³
te lun niju in lijo wija sa an san ten - "to make-many 6 using itself 3 times"
6³ = 216
san mita saman je lijo le ha sijen tiju lijo "3 identical bunches of 6 is 216"