Dzongkha numerals explained

Dzongkha, the national language of Bhutan, has two numeral systems, one vigesimal (base 20), and a modern decimal system. The vigesimal system remains in robust use. Ten is an auxiliary base: the -teens are formed with ten and the numerals 1–9. Ex. cu_ci

Vigesimal

Hindu-Arabic numerals	Spelling	Romanisation
1	ཆཱི	chiː
2	ཉྱཱི	ˈɲyiː
3	སུམ	sum
4	ཞི	ʑhi
5	ང	ˈŋga
6	ཌཱུ	ɖʱuː
7	དྱཱུན	dyûn
8	གཻ	ɡeː
9	གཱུ	ɡuː
10	ཅུཐཱམ	cu-tʰãm*
11	ཅུཅི	cu-ci
12	ཅུཉི	cu-ɲi
13	ཅུསུམ	cu-sum
14	ཅུཞི	cu-ʑi
15	ཅེངཱ	ce-ŋa
16	ཅུཌུ	cu-ɖu
17	ཅུཔྡྱ	cup-dỹ
18	ཅོཔྒེ	cop-ɡe
19	ཅྱགུ	cy-ɡu
20	ཁེཆཱི	kʰe ciː

*When it appears on its own, 'ten' is usually said pronounced as /cu-tʰãm/ 'a full ten'. In combinations it is simply pronounced as /cu/.

Multiples of 20 are formed from pronounced as /kʰe/. Intermediate multiples of ten are formed with pronounced as /pɟʱe-da/ 'half to':

30	kʰe pɟʱe-da ˈɲiː	(a half to two score)
40	kʰe ˈɲiː	(two score)
50	kʰe pɟʱe-da sum	(a half to three score)
100	kʰe ˈŋa	(five score)
200	kʰe cutʰãm	(ten score)
300	kʰe ceŋa	(fifteen score)

400 (20²) pronounced as /ɲiɕu/ is the next unit: pronounced as /ɲiɕu ciː/ 400, pronounced as /ɲiɕu ɲi/ 800, etc. Higher powers are 8000 (20³) pronounced as /kʰecʰe/ ('a ɡreat score') and pronounced as /jãːcʰe/ 160,000 (20⁴).

Decimal

The decimal system is the same up to 19. Then decades, however, are formed as unit–ten, as in Chinese, and the hundreds similarly. 20 is reported to be pronounced as /ɲiɕu/, the same as vigesimal numeral 400; this may be lexical interference for the expected pronounced as /

ɲi-cu

/. (In any case, there is no ambiguity, because as 400 it is obligatorily pronounced as /ɲiɕu ciː/ 'one 400'.) Several of the decades have an epenthetic pronounced as /-p-/, perhaps by analogy with 18 and 19, where the pronounced as /-p-/ presumably reflects a historical pronounced as /

/ 'ten':

pronounced as /sum-cu/ 30, pronounced as /ʑi-p-cu/ 40, pronounced as /ˈŋa-p-cu/ 50, pronounced as /ɟa-tʰampa/ or pronounced as /cik-ɟa/ 100 (a 'full hundred' or 'one hundred'), pronounced as /ɲi-ɟa/ 200, pronounced as /sum-ɟa/ 300, pronounced as /ʑi-p-ɟa/ 400, etc.

References

Mazaudon & Lacito, 2002, "Les principes de construction du nombre dans les langues tibeto-birmanes", in François, ed. La Pluralité, p. 6 ff