COUNTING

Rotuman has a 10-based counting system, which means that following the Rotuman number for ‘10’, the numbers mean literally ‘ten and one’ (for 11), ‘ten and two’ (for 12), and so on.

When counting, you should use the long forms of the numerals. They are as follows:

tā	‘1’	saghul ma tā	‘11’
rua	‘2’	saghul ma rua	‘12’
folu	‘3’	ruaghulu	‘20’
häke	‘4’	folaghulu	‘30’
lima	‘5’	tarau	‘100’
ono	‘6’	tarau ma tā	‘101’
hifu	‘7’	tarau ma rua	‘102’
vạlu	‘8’	tarau rua	‘200’
siva	‘9’	tarau folu	‘300’
saghulu	‘10’	äfe	‘1,000’

When the numerals are used together with a noun, the regular rules about the use of long and short forms apply (See the link on long and short at:

www.neiu.edu/~Rotuman/grammar%20COMPLETE.html)

The numeral follows the noun; the noun itself is always in the short form, while the numeral is long if definite and short if indefinite. So hȧn fol means ‘3 women’, while hȧn folu means ‘the 3 women’. You might use this last form when you are, for example, talking about some specific women that you met.

An interesting thing about Rotuman counting words is that the language has special words for counting certain edible things. This shows the importance of food to the culture. Some of these words are nouns:

poa ‘20 alili shellfish’

katoʽa ‘100 fish (of any kind)’

kiu ‘1,000 taro or yams’

Others of these special words occur together with regular nouns:

niu asoa ‘2 coconuts’

iaʽ sạiga ‘(the) 10 fish’

puak savaʽa ‘(the) 10 pigs’ (also used for cows, chickens, and eggs)

Exercises

A. Tell what each word means. You can click on the word to get an answer.

1. häke

2. ono

3. tarau