Tongan Language - Counting

Counting

0-9
0 noa
1 taha 2 ua 3 tolu
4 fā 5 nima 6 ono
7 fitu 8 valu 9 hiva

For 'simple' two-digit multiples of ten both the 'full-style' and 'telephone-style' numbers are in equally common use, while for other two-digit numbers the 'telephone-style' numbers are almost exclusively in use:

10-90 'tens'
# 'full-style' 'telephone-style'
10 hongofulu taha-noa
20 ungofulu/uofulu ua-noa
30 tolungofulu tolu-noa
...
11-99
# 'full-style' 'telephone-style'
11 hongofulu ma taha taha-taha
24 ungofulu ma fā ua-fā
...
exceptions
# Tongan
22 uo-ua
55 nime-nima
99 hive-hiva
100- de'au
100-999 'simple'
# Tongan
100 teau
101 teau taha
110 teau hongofulu
120 teau-ua-noa
200 uongeau
300 tolungeau
...
100-999 'complex'
# Tongan
111 taha-taha-taha
222 uo-uo-ua
482 fā-valu-ua
...
1000-
# Tongan
1000 taha-afe
2000 ua-afe
...
10000 mano
100000 kilu
1000000 miliona
...

ʻOku fiha ia? (how much (does it cost)?) Paʻanga ʻe ua-nima-noa (T$ 2.50)

In addition there are special, traditional counting systems for fish, coconuts, yams, etc.

Read more about this topic:  Tongan Language

Famous quotes containing the word counting:

    “Is it not manifest that our academic institutions should have a wider scope; that they should not be timid and keep the ruts of the last generation, but that wise men thinking for themselves and heartily seeking the good of mankind, and counting the cost of innovation, should dare to arouse the young to a just and heroic life; that the moral nature should be addressed in the school-room, and children should be treated as the high-born candidates of truth and virtue?”
    —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    “But counting up to two
    Is harder to do....”
    —Philip Larkin (1922–1986)

    “What culture lacks is the taste for anonymous, innumerable germination. Culture is smitten with counting and measuring; it feels out of place and uncomfortable with the innumerable; its efforts tend, on the contrary, to limit the numbers in all domains; it tries to count on its fingers.”
    —Jean Dubuffet (1901–1985)