Kharulian Semantics and Pragmatics

Semantic Fields

Numbers

Kharulian uses base five numerals up to forty-nine, then builds larger numbers in base sixty, under Muipidan influence.

The digits one to four are jiam, tsas, luee, ugen. Five is rut, and multiples of five are constructed by counting fives: rutui tsas “ten”, luee rut “fifteen”, ugen rut “twenty”. A fives digit and a ones digit are combined with os “and”, which is reduced to o except before ugen “four”: rut o jiam “six”, rutui tsas o luee “thirteen”, luee rut os ugen “nineteen”.

Twenty-five is pocy (originally just “many”), and this is combined with the two-digit numbers above to make numbers up to forty-nine: pocy luee “twenty-eight”, pocy luee rut o tsas “forty-two”, pocy ugen rut os ugen “forty-nine”.

The numbers fifty to fifty-nine are built subtractively off dzaku “sixty”: dzaku jiam sajióo “fifty-nine” (literally “sixty loses one”), dzaku rut os ugen sajióo “fifty-one”, dzaku rutui tsas sajióo “fifty”.

Numbers above sixty are built by counting sixties and then attaching the ones digit, if any, using o or os: dzaku o jiam “sixty-one”, dzákujy tsas os ugen “a hundred and twenty-four”, luee dzaku o rutui tsas o jiam “a hundred and ninety-one” (3 * 60 + 2 * 5 + 1), rut o jiam dzaku o pocy rut o jiam “three hundred and ninety-one” (\((5 + 1) \times 60 + 25 + 5 + 1\)).

Kharulian also has words for higher powers of sixty:

• 3,600 (\(60^2\)) is tulku

• 216,000 (\(60^3\)) is s’laku

Like all other Kharulian words, Kharulian numerals were written using Muipidan characters at first. But when the alphabet was developed, Kharulian scribes dropped the characters, including the numeral characters, and spelled out numerals in words. For record-keeping and mathematics, though, it was useful to have abbreviations for numbers, so the Kharulians started writing numbers using the first letter of each word:

• j for jam jiam “one”

• t for tas tsas “two”

• h for he luee “three”

• u for ucen ugen “four”

• r for rut rut “five”

• p for poy pocy “twenty-five”

• a for taku dzaku “sixty” (because t is taken)

• k for tuhku tulku “3,600” (because t, u, and h are taken)

• g for shaku s’laku “216,000” (because all the letters are taken; g is the first letter of gah nial “hill”, and s’laku comes from the Muipidan word for “hill”)

• o for o o “and”

• s for syo sajióo “minus”

For example, the number three would be written h (for he, luee); six would be roj (for rut o jam, rut o jiam; fifty would be krts (for taku ruti tas sjo dzaku rutui tsas sajióo). People who used this system frequently would often use these abbreviations when speaking as well, reading them out as if they were words.

These are all the numbers from one to fifty-nine:

	0	10	20	30	40	50
0		rutui tsas rt	ugen rut ur	pocy rut pr	pocy luee rut phr	dzaku rutui tsas sajióo arts
1	jiam j	rutui tsas o jiam rtoj	ugen rut o jiam uroj	pocy rut o jiam proj	pocy luee rut o jiam phroj	dzaku rut os ugen sajióo arous
2	tsas t	rutui tsas o tsas rtot	ugen rut o tsas urot	pocy rut o tsas prot	pocy luee rut o tsas phrot	dzaku rut o luee sajióo arohs
3	luee h	rutui tsas o luee rtoh	ugen rut o luee uroh	pocy rut o luee proh	pocy luee rut o luee phroh	dzaku rut o tsas sajióo arots
4	ugen u	rutui tsas os ugen rtou	ugen rut os ugen urou	pocy rut os ugen prou	pocy luee rut os ugen phrou	dzaku rut o jiam sajióo arojs
5	rut r	luee rut hr	pocy p	pocy rutui tsas prt	pocy ugen rut pur	dzaku rut sajióo ars
6	rut o jiam roj	luee rut o jiam hroj	pocy jiam pj	pocy rutui tsas o jiam prtoj	pocy ugen rut o jiam puroj	dzaku ugen sajióo aus
7	rut o tsas rot	luee rut o tsas hrot	pocy tsas pt	pocy rutui tsas o tsas prtot	pocy ugen rut o tsas purot	dzaku luee sajióo ahs
8	rut o luee roh	luee rut o luee hroh	pocy luee ph	pocy rutui tsas o luee prtoh	pocy ugen rut o luee puroh	dzaku tsas sajióo ats
9	rut os ugen rou	luee rut os ugen hrou	pocy ugen pu	pocy rutui tsas os ugen prtou	pocy ugen rut os ugen purou	dzaku jiam sajióo ajs