Japan is somewhat reminiscent of a single person who believes that the world is not yet ready to accept him. For a long time, the country was hiding from the rest of the world and only at the beginning of the twentieth century began to establish friendly relations with other states. From this moment, interest in everything Japanese is significantly increasing. Cuisine, traditions, holidays, mentality, clothes - all this interests the public. Many Europeans are trying to understand the basics of the Japanese language. The first thing that causes problems is the numerals, namely the Japanese numbers.
Features of Japanese Numbers
Japanese digits are a special combination of numbers that consists of Chinese and Japanese counting systems. Due to the fact that the Chinese system is duplicated, Japanese hieroglyphs have a double reading: OH (on) and KUN (kun).
Usually in Japan they use Arabic numbers, but you can also find hieroglyphs. Especially often they come across in the ryokan restaurants menu (traditional Japanese hotels). In addition, they resort to hieroglyphs if you need to write the text “vertically”. For horizontal writing use Arabic numbers.
The inhabitants of the Land of the Rising Sun have two counting systems: their own (counting is only up to 10) and borrowed (Chinese). The rules of use are quite simple: a Chinese account is always used with suffixes, Japanese numbers can exist independently.
1 to 10
To become more familiar with Japanese numbers, you need to know how they are written and read. The table below shows Japanese numbers from 1 to 10 with different pronunciation options:
Numeral | Hieroglyph | OH (Chinese pronunciation) | KUHN (Japanese pronunciation) |
1. | 一 | Ichi | Hitotsu |
2. | 二 | Neither | Futatsu |
3. | 三 | San | Mitsu |
4. | 四 | Shi | Yotsu |
5. | 五 | Go | Itsutsu |
6. | 六 | Rooku | Mutsu |
7. | 七 | Chichi | Nanatsu |
eight. | 八 | Hachi | Yatsu |
nine. | 九 | Kuu | Kokonotsu |
ten. | 十 | Ju | Too |
As can be seen from the material presented, the numbers in Japan have a double name. Moreover, the pronunciation may vary in different regions. For example, the number 8 can be pronounced as “hachi”, and “hati” or “hasi”.
There are also two different names for the Chinese version of the numbers 4, 7 and 9:
- 4 - "Yong."
- 7 - "Nana."
- 9 - “Kyu”.
Interesting to know
In Japan, numbers 4 and 9 are considered unlucky. Four is pronounced shi, which is consonant with the Japanese word death. Therefore, very often the pronunciation of “shi” is changed to “yong”. Nine, in turn, is consonant with the word "suffering", which is pronounced simply as "ku." Therefore, you can often hear the modification of the pronunciation of 9.
In modern Japanese, all numbers except 4 and 7 have a Chinese pronunciation (that is, they are read “onnu”). But in the names of the months, even they are pronounced through "HE."
10 to 20
Japanese numbers that go after ten are formed mainly by a combination of numbers. For example, if you need to say 18, then you should take 10 (ju) and speak in combination with 8 (hachi). The result will be 18 - juhachi. All other digits of this order are formed in exactly the same way. The result is the following combinations:
11. 十一 - Juichi.
12. 十二 - Juni.
13. 十三 - Jusan.
14. 十四 - Juyong.
15. 十五 - Jugo.
16. 十六 - Juroku.
17. 十七 - Junana.
18. 十八 - Juhachi.
19. 十九 - Jukuu.
20. 二十 - Niju.
Tens are formed by adding the necessary factor to the word “ten”, for example, “sanju” (30) or “niju” (20).
More than a hundred
Japanese numbers are formed by the method of assigning one number to another. Even hundreds are formed in this way. 100 (百 百) in Japanese is pronounced “Hyaku”. To form the numerals 300, 400, etc., it is necessary to pronounce the name of the corresponding figure from the first table before the "hyak". Here are some examples:
- 300 (三百) - Sanhyaku.
- 400 (四百) - Yonhyaku.
- 500 (五百) - Gohaku.
Almost no one has difficulties with this question. The most interesting thing begins when you need to pronounce a three-digit number, which is not in the examples. For example, 125. In theory, it is clear that all the numerals that make up a number must be added together, but in practice many are lost. 125 in Japanese sounds like "Hyakuninjugo." If you write down the number using kanji (hieroglyphs), then you get 百二 十五. That is, 125 is the sum of the digits: 100 + 20 + 5.
The numbers 1000 and 10000 are indicated as:
- 千 - Sen (thousand).
- 万 - Mans (ten thousand).
Numbers are formed in the same way as previous groups of numbers. For example, 1367 Japanese figures translated into Russian will sound like “Sen (1000) sanyaku (300) rokujunana (67)”. In this way, you can calmly form numbers until you have to say a million.
Perhaps this is an exception to the rule. If six-digit numbers are formed by combining the numbers of the previous orders (“Juni” or “Niju”), then a million is formed using the numbers 100 and 10,000. Accordingly, 1,000,000 will sound like “Hyakuman”.
Pay off for the first - third!
Japanese numerals are very easy to remember. And if you learn the numbers from 1 to 12, then you can not bother with remembering the months of the year. In Japan, they have no names. Just to the number that indicates the month number, add the word "gatsu". For example, January will sound like “Ichigatsu,” which literally means “first month.” Carefully pay attention to the fourth and seventh month. If it comes to months, then the "exceptional" - April and July - are pronounced "in Chinese", that is, the "onon" pronunciation. The result is:
- 四月 - Shigatsu (April).
- 七月 - Shichigatsu (July).
Interest in Japan is inevitable. Traditions, language, mentality, culture - all this attracts the eyes of the public. After all, there, in a country where the sun wakes up earlier, everything is different. Even the numbers - and those are not the same as everyone else. This is what makes Japan interesting. Difficult, but interesting.