Japanese numbers and counting
Here are all the numbers in
Japanese.
Note that the higher-up units have conflicting definitions
among modern dictionaries, but the table below is the more accepted version. In real life, units kei and above are rarely used, if ever, and neither is it for units bun and below.
Exponent
of 10 Kanji Pronounciation
-------------------------------------
68 無量大数 muryoutaisuu
64 不可思議 fukashigi
60 那由他 nayuta
56 阿曽僧祇 asougi
52 恒河沙 kougasha
48 極 koku
44 載 sai
40 正 sei
36 澗 kan
32 溝 kou
28 穣 jou
24 ＊ jo
20 該 gai
16 京 kei
12 兆 chou
8 億 oku
4 万 man
3 千 sen
2 百 hyaku
1 十 juu
0 一 ichi
-1 分 bun
-2 厘 rin
-3 毛 mou
-4 糸 shi
-5 忽 kotsu
-6 微 bi
-7 繊 sen
-8 沙 sha
-9 塵 jin
-10 埃 ai
-11 渺 byou
-12 漠 baku
-13 模糊 moko
-14 逡巡 shunjun
-15 須臾 shuyu
-16 瞬息 shunsoku
-17 弾指 danshi
-18 刹那 setsuna
-19 六徳 rittoku
-20 空虚 kuukyo
-21 清浄 seijou
WA-ON KAN-ON MANDARIN
1 一 hito ichi yi
2 二 futa ni ar, liang *
3 三 mi san san
4 四 yon shi * si
5 五 itsutsu go wu
6 六 mu roku liu
7 七 nana shichi * qi
8 八 ya hachi ba
9 九 kokonotsu kyuu jiu
10 十 tou jyuu shi
Also:
20 廿 (archaic kanji) ni jyuu
30 卅 (archaic kanji) san jyuu
0 零 rei, zero
For comparison,
Mandarin is added to the last column for 1-10.
Note that "r" and "f" are not pronounced as they are in
English, but close to it.
Chinese has two character representations for the number 2, with unique prounciations for each.
Each
kanji can have multiple pronounciations. A
pronounciation of a kanji is
either wa-on (Japanese native) or kan-on (imported from China). For numbers, kan-on pronounciation is more common than wa-on pronounciation with the exceptions of 4 and 7. Several reasons can be thought of why kan-on is preferred. For one,
wa-on counting stops at ten and then skips to 20 (hata) and ends there. wa-on counting is limited maybe because it never evolved or got lost in time. 4 is most often pronounced as "yon" instead of "shi," because "shi" is impolite: it is how the word for
death is pronounced in
Japanese. Many other countries with strong
Chinese cultural influence also have this peculiar
homophone situation. Numbers from 10 through 99 are made from naturally combining words without special exception rules like
European languages have. (e.g. not "thirty", "twelve", but
san-juu, juu-ni)
There are many special cases where kan-on is not the appropriate pronounciation choice. Here are a few examples where wa-on are used:
hitori - 1 person
futari - 2 people
Kokonoka - 9th day of a month
Touka - 10th day of a month
Hatsuka - 20th day of a month
Hatachi - Age 20, when one is considered to have entered adulthood.
Also the drinking/smoking age. All other ages end with the "sai"
counter.
Some examples of numbers beyond ten:
12 - jyuu ni
30 - san jyuu
Note that just like the units
thousand,
million,
billion, etc. multiply by
1,000 each time, Japanese counting units multiply by 10,000 after "man". Even
so, Japanese put their commas every three digits, not four.
Don't ask me why.
Chou is about the largest unit used in real life, like it may be used when
talking about the
Japanese national defecit.
The character for "jo" is not included in the Shift-JIS or EUC characterset, most likely because nobody ever uses it.
A different character for 1 0000 is used in
Taiwan (character originates from a serpent pictograph rather than that of a swastika), where a more traditional one is used. (Also I'm sure there are more differences in Chinese character usage amongst
mainland China,
Taiwan,
Korea, or
Vietnam.) Kougasha and beyond were made by Chinese monks. Here are the etymologies of those words:
kougasha - The sands of Ganghis river.
asougi - From the Hindu word "Asamkhya", meaning uncountably large
number.
nayuta - Ancient Hindu word "Nayuta", a very large number.
fukashigi - (Word origin not recorded)
muryou taisuu - An unmeasurably large number.
In
Buddhist literature, Kougasha is a word used to describe something that is
uncountably many. In
Taoism, for example in the book
Tao Te Ching,
1 0000 often is supposed to mean a count of everything.
The
Great Wall of China may be called "wan li chang zhang" in Mandarin, which
means 1 0000 li long wall. Even though it probably isn't precisely
1 0000 li (li is close to
miles or
kilometers), it has an implied meaning of
very long.
Writing numbers in kanji:
Kanji can be written in vertical or horizontal style. There are two methods for
representing numbers in kanji. It may contain units (十 百 千 万) or it may be
written with just the kanjis for 1-9 (一 二 三 四 五 六 七 八 九) plus a circle
for a place holder, in the same way 0 is a place holder in
Hindu-Arabic Numerals. (The circle is not considered as a
kanji but merely a
symbol.)
Kanji is never used in
math.
Decimal expansion:
Commas are not pronounced, and periods are pronounced as "ten", which
means "dot."
The convention for numbers between 1 and zero is to not omit the one's digit zero, followed by a
decimal dot, and then a decimal expansion. Commonly, each written decimal is read out loud without mentioning the unit, although there are unit names for many decimal places.
For example, "one tenth" would be written as "0.1" and pronounced as "rei ten ichi" or "zero ten ichi" and "one
hundredth" can be read as "rei ten rei ichi."
Fractions:
Written as it would be in Europe. When pronounced, the denominator is pronounced first.
(
denominator "bunno"
numerator)
Percentages and negatives:
Negative numbers are pronounced starting with "mainasu" (minus), and there is no kanji substitute for
this. Percentage was used before
Western math influence, but the only one
still commonly used is the "wari" unit, which is equivalent to 10 percent. Percentage is pronounced "paasento" with no
kanji equivalent.
Sources:
http://village.infoweb.ne.jp/~fxba0016/misc/suumei/shiryou.html
http://www.usiwakamaru.or.jp/~doraemon/jyuku/suuji.htm