22 Numbers
NEȾE¸ ‘1’
ĆESE¸ ‘2’
ȽIW̱ ‘3’
ṈOS ‘4’
ȽKÁĆES ‘5’
DXEṈ ‘6’
ȾO¸ȻES ‘7’
TÁ¸ŦES ‘8’
TEȻEW̱ ‘9’
OPEN ‘10’
OPEN I¸ ȻS NEȾE¸ ‘11’
OPEN I¸ ȻS ĆESE¸ ‘12’
OPEN I¸ ȻS ȽIW̱ ‘13
OPEN I¸ ȻS ṈAS ‘14’
OPEN I¸ ȻS ȽKÁĆES ‘15’
OPEN I¸ ȻS DXEṈ ‘16’
OPEN I¸ ȻS ȾO¸ȻES ‘17’
OPEN I¸ ȻS TÁ¸ŦES ‘18’
OPEN I¸ ȻS TEȻEW̱ ‘19’
ȾEW̱QES ‘20’
ȾEW̱QES I¸ ȻS NEȾE¸ ‘21’
ȽEW̱ȽŚÁ¸ ‘30’
ṈESȽŚÁ¸ ‘40’
ȽKEĆSȽŚÁ¸ ‘50’
DXEṈȽŚÁ¸ ‘60’
ȾE¸ȻSȽŚÁ¸ ‘70’
ĆTEMO¸ES ‘80’
TEȻW̱EȽŚÁ¸ ‘90’
SNÁJEU¸EĆ ‘100’
OPEN SNÁJEU¸EĆ ‘1000’
‣ 1 The SENĆOŦEN system is decimal—based on ten—like English. The numbers eleven to nineteen are literally ‘ten and a one,’ ‘ten and a two,’ and so on. The numbers twenty and above follow the same pattern. So, for example, ‘101’ is SNÁJEU¸EĆ I¸ ȻS NEȾE¸.
‣ 2 The word for 20, ȾEW̱QES, is unique, but the words for numbers 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, and 90 are regular. They each have the suffix ‑ȽŚÁ¸ ‘multiple of 10.’ It means the same thing as the English suffix ‑ty on ‘sixty.’ The word for 80 is different. John Elliott suggests that this might come from the word for ‘otter’ ĆTEMES. Otter pelts were, at one time, worth $80.
‣ 3 For 200, 300, and so on, use the word for 2, 3, and so on, before the word for 100 as in ĆESE¸ SNÁJEU¸EĆ ‘200’ and ȽIW̱ SNÁJEU¸EĆ ‘300.’ This works all the way up to 1000 and beyond.
‣ 4 A special word for 200, ŦÁṈ¸EĆ, was used by some of the oldest SENĆOŦEN speakers, but is not remembered by elders today.
‣ 5 English has a special set of ordinal numbers for talking about order in a series: ‘first,’ ‘second,’ ‘third,’ ‘fourth,’ and so on. SENĆOŦEN just uses the basic words shown above. For example, NIȽ TŦE ĆESE¸ SOȽ ‘It’s the second door.’
‣ 6 A special set of suffixes on the numbers is used when counting various kinds of things. These are covered in detail in §37.3 on the lexical suffixes.
‣ 7 Two sets of special counting forms are particularly useful. One is forms for counting people (with the stressed vowel in red):
NO¸ȾE¸ ‘one person’
ĆÁ¸SE¸ ‘two people’
ȽW̱ÁLE ‘three people’
ṈESÁLE ‘four people’
ȽKEĆESÁLE ‘five people’
DXEṈÁLE ‘six people’
ȾE¸ȻESÁLE ‘seven people’
TE¸ŦESÁLE ‘eight people’
TEȻEW̱ÁLE ‘nine people’
EPENÁLE ‘ten people’
‣ 8 Compare these with the basic numbers. Note that in the words for counting people shown in point 7, the words for ‘one person’ and ‘two people’ are different from the rest. For these two, the vowel changes and a glottal stop appears after the stressed vowel.
‣ 9 After ‘one person’ and ‘two people,’ all of the numbers have the ‑ÁLE ‘person’ suffix. This suffix always takes stress away from the word it is attached to. Therefore, the vowel of the root reduces to E. See point 7 in the Notes on Pronunciation section of Part 1 for more information about this vowel reduction.
‣ 10 The other very useful set of counting forms is for counting times:
NEȾÁW̱ ‘once’
ŦEṈŦÁṈ ‘twice’
ȽW̱ÁȽ ‘three times’
ṈESÁȽ ‘four times’
ȽKEĆESÁȽ ‘five times’
DXEṈÁȽ ‘six times’
ȾE¸ȻESÁȽ ‘seven times’
TE¸ŦESÁȽ ‘eight times’
TEȻEW̱ÁȽ ‘nine times’
EPENÁȽ ‘ten times’
‣ 11 NEȾÁW̱ ‘once’ is derived from the word NEȾE¸ ‘one.’ This is a special form of the word. Just as in English, the words for ‘once’ and ‘twice’ have special forms. For numbers higher than two, the ‘times’ form is regular.
 | QENNEW̱ SEN ȻSE ĆÁ¸SE¸ KÁ¸ṈI¸ | ‘I saw two girls.’ |
 | EWE. ȽW̱ÁLE LE¸. | ‘No. It was three.’ |
| U¸ HÍ SEN U¸ QENNEW̱ ȻSE ĆÁ¸SE¸. | ‘I saw only two.’ |
| ÁN¸ U¸ ÍY¸ TŦE NE ḴELEṈ¸. | ‘I have very good eyes.’ |
22A. Count in SENĆOŦEN the number of words in this sentence. Then count in SENĆOŦEN the number of words in this sentence. Now count in SENĆOŦEN the words in all three of these sentences.
22B. Practice counting in SENĆOŦEN backwards from ten until you can do it smoothly.