Comments on: A Tale of Two Numbers http://japanlifeandreligion.com/2011/12/18/a-tale-of-two-numbers/ My life as a father, Buddhist, Japanophile and Koreaphile. Tue, 14 Aug 2012 21:44:50 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Doug 陀愚 http://japanlifeandreligion.com/2011/12/18/a-tale-of-two-numbers/#comment-9348 Fri, 09 Mar 2012 16:59:45 +0000 https://nihonshukyo.wordpress.com/?p=12730#comment-9348 Hi Gg and welcome! Thank you very much for the explanation. I really do appreciate it. The doc nhat vo nhi sounds really familiar, so I think I learned in college when studying Vietnamese.

]]> By: Gg http://japanlifeandreligion.com/2011/12/18/a-tale-of-two-numbers/#comment-9345 Fri, 09 Mar 2012 08:16:56 +0000 https://nihonshukyo.wordpress.com/?p=12730#comment-9345 sino-Vietnamese
1. Nhat
2. Nhi
3. Tam
4. Tu
5 ngu
6. Luc
7. That
8. Bat
9. Cuu
10. Thap
Basically they are pronounced similar to the Cantonese pronunciation and are not very commonly used unless in compound words or in expressions or proverbs eg. Doc nhat vo nhi (literally ultimate one no number two)
Native Vietnamese is used mostly but in some cases for example “first” is thu nhat and “second” is thu nhi so in those cases the sink one is used

]]> By: Doug 陀愚 http://japanlifeandreligion.com/2011/12/18/a-tale-of-two-numbers/#comment-8612 Wed, 21 Dec 2011 00:06:51 +0000 https://nihonshukyo.wordpress.com/?p=12730#comment-8612 It’s called middle age …

It also goes by the name of “parenting”, as I have learned. :)

Thanks for the well-wishes. I hope to have some interesting stuff in the coming weeks, but I don’t have any concrete ideas yet.

]]> By: Rurousha http://japanlifeandreligion.com/2011/12/18/a-tale-of-two-numbers/#comment-8611 Tue, 20 Dec 2011 22:42:45 +0000 https://nihonshukyo.wordpress.com/?p=12730#comment-8611 Doug, when it comes to Japanese counters it’s not the logic that’s the problem, it’s the memory! (>_<) It's called middle age …

Enjoy your week of chanting, and welcome back to Japan next week. I look forward to your posts from Japan.

]]> By: Doug 陀愚 http://japanlifeandreligion.com/2011/12/18/a-tale-of-two-numbers/#comment-8605 Tue, 20 Dec 2011 17:42:53 +0000 https://nihonshukyo.wordpress.com/?p=12730#comment-8605 Oh wow, I see what you mean. Yeah the Sino-Korean sounds almost the same! Sino-Japanese sounds pretty similar too. That sure explains a lot.

]]> By: Jonathan http://japanlifeandreligion.com/2011/12/18/a-tale-of-two-numbers/#comment-8604 Tue, 20 Dec 2011 16:48:00 +0000 https://nihonshukyo.wordpress.com/?p=12730#comment-8604 Doug: This chart spells out the Sinitic numbers quite well – note the two different forms listed for the numbers 1-10 in the Taiwanese column:

http://www.omniglot.com/language/numbers/chinese.htm

]]> By: Doug 陀愚 http://japanlifeandreligion.com/2011/12/18/a-tale-of-two-numbers/#comment-8600 Tue, 20 Dec 2011 04:19:58 +0000 https://nihonshukyo.wordpress.com/?p=12730#comment-8600 Hi Arun, I really, really the information on Sino-Vietnamese numbers. I knew I had learned it before, and as soon as i saw the words, a light went off on my head. ;)

I know the words you’re referring to: thứ nhất and thứ tư for example. It’s been 10 years, so my Vietnamese skill are shot, but I appreciate you reminding me again. :) I tried finding information online, but it was all basic Vietnamese, focused on the basic counting (một, hai, nam, etc). I remember the Sino-Vietnamese terms were also used in various Vietnamese proverbs, but again I can’t remember these very well. I’ll have to dig up my old textbooks if I still have them (I think I lent them to someone years ago, and of course they never returned it).

]]> By: Doug 陀愚 http://japanlifeandreligion.com/2011/12/18/a-tale-of-two-numbers/#comment-8599 Tue, 20 Dec 2011 04:15:59 +0000 https://nihonshukyo.wordpress.com/?p=12730#comment-8599 Hi Jonathan,

You got me thinking, so I looked up Taiwanese Hokkien on Wikipedia, and indeed the words do seem to strongly sound like “On-Yomi” (Chinese readings) of Japanese kanji. How do you count to 10 in Taiwanese though? I couldn’t find it online, and now I’m super curious. :)

]]> By: arunlikhati http://japanlifeandreligion.com/2011/12/18/a-tale-of-two-numbers/#comment-8591 Mon, 19 Dec 2011 18:11:35 +0000 https://nihonshukyo.wordpress.com/?p=12730#comment-8591 There are also Sin-Vietnamese numbers, but not nearly as common as in Korean and Japanese. That said, my Vietnamese isn’t nearly as good as my English, so the only time I can think of when these numerals are used consistently is in school grades, where the terms nhất, nhì, tam, tư, ngũ, etc. are used for first grade, second grade, third grade, etc. Otherwise, the Vietnamese numbers tend to be used. An exception (or two) might be the terms thứ nhất for “first” (instead of thứ một) and thứ tư for “fourth” (instead of thứ bốn).

]]> By: Jonathan http://japanlifeandreligion.com/2011/12/18/a-tale-of-two-numbers/#comment-8589 Mon, 19 Dec 2011 17:11:32 +0000 https://nihonshukyo.wordpress.com/?p=12730#comment-8589 Very cool. Even “within” Chinese (or rather, the Sinitic languages), there are two different systems at play. For instance in Taiwanese (or Southern Min) there are two sets of numbers – one for everyday counting and one for, say, reciting digits in phone numbers. Of course there are ordinal numbers too… It’s interesting to me that so many of the “Chinese” pronunciations in Japanese and Korean actually sound more similar (to my ears) to Taiwanese than to Mandarin.

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