Numbers in Penang Hokkien

Having just learned the general classifier leh2 in our previous lesson, let's now learn numbers. As we are going to use numbers very often (and in fact you have seen some of them in passing), it is useful to have a good look at them right now.

When we talk of numbers in Penang Hokkien, we can categorize them under cardinal or ordinal numbers, as well as colloquial and literary readings. If you want to approach numbers that way, read the chapter on numbers in my grammar section and I explain all that. But over here, let's keep things simple by looking at the numbers you are most likely to encounter on a daily basis. (As far as possible, I try not to load you with all the grammatical terms unless it's absolutely necessary.)

As usual, always learn the spelling with the tone numbers right from the start.

0: khong3
1: cit1
2: nor33
3: snar1
4: see3
5: gor33
6: lark1
7: chit3
8: peik3
9: kau4
10: cap1
11: cap3-it3
12: cap3-jee33
13: cap3-snar1
14: cap3-see3
15: cap3-gor33
16: cap3-lark1
17: cap3-chit3
18: cap3-peik3
19: cap3-kau4
20: jee33-cap1
21: jee33-cap3-it3
22: jee33-cap3-jee33
23: jee33-cap3-snar1
24: jee33-cap3-see3
25: jee33-cap3-gor33
26: jee33-cap3-lark1
27: jee33-cap3-chit3
28: jee33-cap3-peik3
29: jee33-cap3-kau4
30: snar3-cap1
31: snar3-cap3-it3
32: snar3-cap3-jee33
33: snar3-cap3-snar1
34: snar3-cap3-see3
35: snar3-cap3-gor33
36: snar3-cap3-lark1
37: snar3-cap3-chit3
38: snar3-cap3-peik3
39: snar3-cap3-kau4
40: see1-cap1
41: see1-cap3-it3
42: see1-cap3-jee33
43: see1-cap3-snar1
44: see1-cap3-see3
45: see1-cap3-gor33
46: see1-cap3-lark1
47: see1-cap3-chit3
48: see1-cap3-peik3
49: see1-cap3-kau4
50: gor33-cap1
51: gor33-cap3-it3
52: gor33-cap3-jee33
53: gor33-cap3-snar1
54: gor33-cap3-see3
55: gor33-cap3-gor33
56: gor33-cap3-lark1
57: gor33-cap3-chit3
58: gor33-cap3-peik3
59: gor33-cap3-kau4
60: lark3-cap1
61: lark3-cap3-it3
62: lark3-cap3-jee33
63: lark3-cap3-snar1
64: lark3-cap3-see3
65: lark3-cap3-gor33
66: lark3-cap3-lark1
67: lark3-cap3-chit3
68: lark3-cap3-peik3
69: lark3-cap3-kau4
70: chit1-cap1
71: chit1-cap3-it3
72: chit1-cap3-jee33
73: chit1-cap3-snar1
74: chit1-cap3-see3
75: chit1-cap3-gor33
76: chit1-cap3-lark1
77: chit1-cap3-chit3
78: chit1-cap3-peik3
79: chit1-cap3-kau4
80: peik1-cap1
81: peik1-cap3-it3
82: peik1-cap3-jee33
83: peik1-cap3-snar1
84: peik1-cap3-see3
85: peik1-cap3-gor33
86: peik1-cap3-lark1
87: peik1-cap3-chit3
88: peik1-cap3-peik3
89: peik1-cap3-kau4
90: kau1-cap1
91: kau1-cap3-it3
92: kau1-cap3-jee33
93: kau1-cap3-snar1
94: kau1-cap3-see3
95: kau1-cap3-gor33
96: kau1-cap3-lark1
97: kau1-cap3-chit3
98: kau1-cap3-peik3
99: kau1-cap3-kau4
100: cit3-pak3
101: cit3-pak1-khong1-it3
102: cit3-pak1-khong1-jee33
103: cit3-pak1-khong1-snar1
104: cit3-pak1-khong1-see3
105: cit3-pak1-khong1-gor33
106: cit3-pak1-khong1-lark1
107: cit3-pak1-khong1-chit3
108: cit3-pak1-khong1-peik3
109: cit3-pak1-khong1-kau4
110: cit3-pak1-cap1
111: cit3-pak1-cap3-it3
112: cit3-pak1-cap3-jee33
113: cit3-pak1-cap3-snar1
114: cit3-pak1-cap3-see3
115: cit3-pak1-cap3-gor33
120: cit3-pak1-jee33-cap1
167: cit3-pak1-lark3-cap3-chit4
200: nor33-pak3
205: nor33-pak1-khong1-gor33
209: nor33-pak1-khong1-kau4
211: nor33-pak1-cap3-it3
212: nor33-pak1-cap3-jee33
220: nor33-pak1-jee33-cap1
222: nor33-pak1-jee33-cap3-jee33
300: snar3-pak3
307: snar3-pak1-khong1-chit3
345: snar3-pak1-see1-cap3-gor33
1,000: cit3-cheng1
1,001: cit3-cheng1, khong1-khong1-it3 (often simply as cit3-cheng1, khong1-it3 )
1,002: cit3-cheng1, khong1-khong1-jee33
1,010: cit3-cheng1, cap1 (often simply as cheng3-cap1 )
1,011: cit3-cheng1, cap3-it3
1,020: cit3-cheng1, jee33-cap1
1,055: cit3-cheng1, gor33-cap3-gor33
1,100: cit3-cheng1, cit3-pak3 (often expressed as cheng3-it3 )
1,110: cit3-cheng1, cit3-pak1-cap1
1,111: cit3-cheng1, cit3-pak1-cap3-it3
1,200: cit3-cheng1, nor33-pak3 (often expressed as cheng3-jee33 )
5,473: gor33-cheng1, see1-pak1-chit1-cap3-snar1
10,000: cap3-cheng1 (also expressed as cit3-ban3 )
11,000: cap3-it1-cheng1
11,001: cap3-it1-cheng1, khong1-khong1-it3
11,100: cap3-it1-cheng1, cit3-pak3 (often expressed as cap3-it1-cheng3-it3 )
11,200: cap3-it1-cheng1, nor33-pak3 (often expressed as cap3-it1-cheng3-jee33 )
12,222: cap3-jee33-cheng1, nor33-pak1-jee33-cap3-jee33
50,000: gor33-cap3-cheng1 (also expressed as gor33-ban3 )
55,055: gor33-cap3-gor33-cheng1, gor33-cap3-gor33
55,500: gor33-cap3-gor33-cheng1, gor33-pak3 (often expressed as gor33-cap3-gor33-cheng3-gor33 )
100,000: cit3-pak1-cheng1 (also expressed as cap3-ban3 )
101,000: cit3-pak1-cit3-cheng1 (often expressed as pak1-it1-cheng1 )
110,000: cit3-pak1-cap3-cheng1 (often expressed as pak1-cap3-cheng1 and cap3-it1-ban3 )
500,500: gor33-pak1-cheng1, gor33-pak3
925,400: kau1-pak1-jee33-cap3-gor33-cheng1, see1-pak3

Note how the tone numbers change when you fit them in a string. They behave like other words, in that they sandhi of all the morphemes except the final one. "Cit1" and "nor33" do not appear in two-digit numbers. To express the final digit as "one" or "two", we use "it3" and "jee33". "cit1" reappears as the front digit of hundred, thousand, etc.

Note how the numbers are joined together by hyphen. However, when the numbers are in the thousands, the numbers within the thousands are separated from the hundreds by a comma, the same way you would have written numbers in English and Malay.

When speaking, we often drop the cap1, so instead of saying gor33-cap3-snar1 (53), we simply say gor33-snar1. We also slur the thirties, so that thirty-one often becomes sam3-it3 rather than the full snar3-cap3-it3.

One million is pak1-ban3, however it has falling out of use (except perhaps to scold people). When I speak with property agents (Penang property prices are often in the million), the term they use for million is "million" itself. When they want to say that this house costs one million, I hear them use "cit3 million". So I would recommend following the flow than to stay within pure Hokkien.

To get used to numbers, it is useful to read through them a few times, then cover the list with a piece of paper, and see if you can still read them correctly.

One thing to learn for this lesson is sufficient. We will look at how we use the numbers we lesoon in this lesson, to incorporate them with the classifiers in our next lesson.

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